Alfie Templeman gets up close and personal about sophomore album “Radiosoul”

Interview by Agnetha Van Miegham

Photos courtesy of BLACKSOCKS

Alfie Templeman is back with “Radiosoul”, 2 years after releasing his debut album “Mellow Moon”. Being described as a modern coming-of-age album meets funk and disco, it promises to captivate listeners. The 21-year-old singer talked to Ease Up Magazine on the entire album process and what fans can expect from his sophomore record. 

Your sophomore album “Radiosoul” comes out June 7. What made you pick the album name? 

Alfie Templeman: There was something that sounded good about it, right off the bat. My grandparents always used to have the radio on, even though they weren’t really paying attention to it. The ‘soul’ aspect was just being human. Recently, on social media, everyone’s personalities have kind of turned into a massive mess of nothingness. Some of the album actually speaks about that quite a lot. The title track, “Radiosoul”, goes into that. 

You were in the studio for five months to make this album. How do you feel you've evolved as an artist since your last record? 

AT: It took a lot longer for me, compared to other records that I’d worked on before. This was the first time I had a real experience making an album. I was making a lot of EPs before the pandemic. It felt natural to me because it [an EP] was between four to seven songs, a little chunk of time condensed into an EP. It was easy to take a few ideas, put it into an EP and say, “this is the last six months of my life, here you go”. 

I did most of my first album in the pandemic. It felt like a strange situation to be making an album because a lot of it was just at home. I wrote the songs while I was recording them and I went into the studio to make random stuff. Whereas this time around, I wanted to do the opposite of that, leave my bedroom. I had written most of the songs already and had all the ideas in my head. I talked to other producers to get their take and perspective on it. Then we’d piece it together. It was a different way of working for me because normally I like to have control over the production. 

The songs [on this record] have a lot more lyrical depth as a result of that. My whole life has changed quite a bit in the last couple years, I’ve grown up a lot more. I feel like I was writing from a very different perspective. 

You collaborated with a lot of people for this album. For “Just a Dance”, you collaborated with the legendary Nile Rodgers, who produced for artists such as David Bowie and Duran Duran. Could you tell me what that was like?

AT: It was very surreal. What made it easier for me to stop freaking out over Nile was how humble and down to earth he was. He was just a nice guy! I went in with no idea of what recording with him would’ve been like. I showed him one of the songs I had up my sleeves and he started playing it on the guitar. It was mind-blowing that Nile Rodgers was playing a guitar riff that I had written. The number of stories he told me while we were in the studio, broke up the session so well. We were going at it for ages, we were in the studio for like 12 hours a day. We were having such a good time, just talking and recording. There’s no wonder that he makes so much music with so many people, you know. 

That’s amazing to hear! You recently posted the credits for the “Radiosoul” record on your Twitter. “Vultures” seems to be the only song you produced yourself. How did that creation process differ from the other songs? 

AT: “Vultures” came towards the end of the recording sessions. I’d learned a lot of different tricks from producers I’d worked with in the five months. I kind of applied some of them to making “Vultures”. I just wanted to really experiment with a lot of different sounds I hadn’t worked with before. I’d bought some new gear and started experimenting with different sounds. There were, like, drum machines and a lot of interesting synths on the song. I think I just did it because I wanted to have at least one song where it was kind of like, “Okay, here's what I've learned myself from working with these other producers”. 

“Vultures” felt like the perfect one because it had everything that all the other songs had in terms of having a good meaning, having good melodies in it and having interesting production. Those were the three things that I was looking for with this album. And “Vultures” kind of ticked all the boxes. So it was almost like a little school project, giving in my song that I'd worked on the whole year. I'm really proud of it, actually. It's one of my favorite songs on the album, for sure. I don't know why, but... 

I think it’s so cool what you did with the song, lyrically. The incorporation of the theme of vultures withthe lyrics just fitted great together.

AT: Oh, thank you. Yeah, I thought it was quite cool to, like, follow the guitar line and make it kind of weird. I definitely put a lot more effort into making sure everything felt right. It wasn't nonsensical at all on this album. I wanted everything to have a bit more of a lyrical depth to it. I'm quite slow at writing lyrics as well. So that's what took me longer, to be honest, with the album.

Would you say that writing the lyrics was the most challenging aspect of the entire album-making process?

AT: Yeah. I don't know why. I also think sometimes I'm just obsessed with it having to rhyme. And then I'm just like, “wait, do I have to rhyme everything?” I think there are a couple of times where I didn't rhyme stuff on the album because it just got to a point where I was like, “for fuck's sake, just write the lyrics! Don't worry about rhyming, as long as it makes sense and has a story”.

“Switch” is one of the last tracks on the tracklist. Could you tell me more about that song?

AT: The songs get quite personal towards the end of the album, especially the last three or four last songs. I wanted the songs to be personal and vulnerable, but also still be relatable for people. “Switch” came out of loving cold showers, for some reason. When I took them my brain would activate. It would be like flicking a switch, I wrote the song around that feeling. It’s about certain phrases and things that used to freak me out as a kid. For instance, being told to calm down, which never actually calms you down.

Another song I loved was “Drag” as it was very honest. In that track you display a sense of vulnerability and a fear of letting people in. Can you delve deeper into the emotions that led to creating this track? 

AT: It’s the idea of codependency in not only relationships but also friendships. Like, the worry of being friends with someone but then constantly telling them about all your problems because you need someone to talk to. It comes from the perspective of feeling bad and being a burden to my friends by dumping all my problems on them. It’s weird, because “Drag” is one of those songs that’s got one of those deeper meanings but sounding disco-y and funky. I love the juxtaposition of happy-go-lucky sounding songs, and then the actual song is all depressing. 

Those kinds of songs are the best kind of songs!

AT: It’s all the stuff that I listen to naturally. I always listen to, like, that kind of music for some reason. I guess, subconsciously, I'm always doing that myself when I make music. 

What’s personally your favourite track on “Radiosoul”?

AT: I’d say maybe “Beckham”. It’s a cool song to me as it’s really interesting the way it’s layered production wise. I like the whole idea of the song being about Groundhog Day and going through the same motions all the time. 

Didn’t you perform this song before?

AT: Yeah! A year ago, I went to Warsaw in Poland, and ended up playing it for no reason. It was just after I’d recorded it and I was just like “this sounds really cool, why not!”. It sounded cool, right off the bat, and it felt good to sing. 

What were some of your influences for this album, soundwise? 

AT: There were quite a few because there's so many different things going on in the record. It kind of goes everywhere, really. For “Radiosoul”, it was very much like Philadelphia Soul, like Hall of Notes, Todd Rundgren and really laid back. Whereas the poppier songs I guess, sometimes Dua Lipa was coming through, sometimes Talking Heads and Prince. We’re going back to the seventies, soft rock, with songs like “Submarine”. 

What do you think will surprise your fans the most about “Radiosoul”?

AT: I guess some of the sounds that sit around the album. Some of the weirdest songs, like “Beckham”, will surprise people. There are some weird changes that happen throughout the record. On “Vultures” there’s a weird like synthesizer, I did some synthesizer programming throughout the album. 

Some of the songs also connect through segues, which I really liked doing. I went in to master my album with my mastering engineer. We pieced it all together and made it feel like a little puzzle.

You grew up in Carleton, Bedfordshire. Has that influenced the record?

AT: Yeah, it made me feel like I just wanted to experiment. It's a tiny village and no one lives there. There was a lot of time where there weren’t too many people to hang out with around there. I just stayed at home and made songs. It just felt like at the time, like I was in school, I didn't really have any other hobbies and recording music was like my only true passion.

It was something that I'd always loved doing when I was like a kid. So I just kept at it. There's a whole different meaning to it when you move to London and like, now you're just like, yeah, you create music because it's your job. It's crazy to me.

This June you’re doing some in-store performances throughout record stores in the UK. Do you have any more future touring plans in mind?

AT: Absolutely! I’m devoting the second half of this year to touring. The first half [of this year] will be releasing the album and then the second half will be going on the road. I like that idea because it works better for me. Last time I released an album, I released it and was on tour at the same time, which was pretty hectic. This time around, I've got a better way of doing it. I'm really happy about the way it's coming out this time for sure.