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Text and interview: Lennat Mak

Since releasing their debut album, Conditions, in 2009, London-based Australian band The Temper Trap has been wowing about music fans and critics alike with their soaring and atmospheric tunes such as “Sweet Disposition,” “Love Lost” and “Fader.” Cutting their mettle in London, the band – Dougy Mandagi (vocals, guitars), Jonathon Aherne (bass), Lorenzo Sillitto (guitars) and Toby Dundas (drums) – has played various major music festivals in both the U.K. and U.S. and at the 2010 ARIA Music Awards, the band also bagged home Best Group and Most Popular Australian Single (”Sweet Disposition”). Suffice to say, The Temper Trap has definitely arrived in their own terms. 

Come January 29, 2011, the band will play their last show for their Conditions tour at the Singapore leg of the St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival 2011. It’s sweet homecoming, as Laneway was the first music festival that the band had played. Recently in town for a special appearance at the Laneway Festival press conference in Singapore,the band met up with MTV Asia at TAB Singapore and shared their indie success stories and much more.

* * *

At this point of your career, do you guys feel that you’ve made it?

(All laughs)

Jonathon Aherne: Well, we’ve made it to Singapore! We’ve done a lot of things but we definitely don’t feel like we’ve arrived. We would still like to expand musically, become better at our instruments and we still feel we’ve got a lot more places to go and a lot more music to create.

FANS who like their indie rock will be delighted to know that the popular Australian music festival, St Jerome's Laneway Festival, will finally arrive on our shores next year.

The Singapore instalment is slated to happen on Jan 29, 2011, at Fort Canning Park, and will feature the bands Yeasayer, Ladyhawke and Foals, among others. Headlining the festival here will be indie darlings The Temper Trap, who will play Singapore exclusively for the festival.

"We've wanted to do something super special here, so we've got one band who'll only play Singapore," said Danny Rogers, co-founder of Laneway. "(The Temper Trap) played their first ever festival at Laneway, and this will be the last show they'll be doing on their current tour."

Bands previously featured at the festival include top indie acts such as Broken Social Scene, Feist, Yo La Tengo, Stereolab, and Florence And The Machine. 

Also known as the St Jerome's Festival, the Laneway Festival started in 2004 when Jerome Borazio decided to close off the street where his bar in Melbourne was located to hold a street gig. He later met Michael Chugg, founder of Chugg Entertainment, who persuaded him to turn it into something bigger and, in 2006, the festival expanded to Sydney. Brisbane was next in 2007, Adelaide in 2008 and Perth in 2009.

This year, Laneway expanded overseas to include dates in New Zealand. The festival was supposed to have arrived in Singapore this year, but was postponed until the organisers were "100 per cent comfortable", said Chugg at the time.

"We started Laneway seven years ago (and to launch the festival) in Singapore is absolutely mind-blowing," said Rogers. "There's a real opportunity for us to put a really interesting festival here in Asia." 

The festival has garnered much acclaim, with popular online site Pitchfork Media calling it "Australia's most insurgent and unique pop music event".

"We just want to put on a great show - that's all I care about," said Rogers. "Obviously, we don't want to lose money, but it's just about putting on the best possible show with great amenities and doing something that's never been done here before."

Ticketing details will be revealed shortly, but Chugg said prices will not be exorbitant. "You're looking at $10 a band or less. Where else can you get that kind of value?" he quipped.

- TODAYonline