CURIOUS TEMPLE
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Saturday, December 29
Ryan’s Hotel, Thirroul
Free
Some musicians pick their favourite composition by how much money it made them, or what inspired the lyrics and music.
But for Curious Temple guitarist Shayne Bryce, his favourite song by the band is the one that marks the point where they began taking their music to the next level.
"One that we were particularly proud of is called Paper Demon, which was the first one we got together and structured out properly, so it was a good turning point where we were getting our skills more in order," he says.
Like many of their songs, lyrically it was inspired by the house where two of the band members were living at the time, a creaky old structure in North Wollongong notorious for being haunted.
As well as being home to two of the musicians, the building was also Curious Temple's base for a few years and continues to be a regular jam space, so it has an important part in their short folklore.
The band has been around for about two years, starting as a three-piece instrumental group featuring Bryce on guitar and school friends Adam Furyk and Taylor George on bass and drums.
"We'd known each other for a while and through being at houses where we were jamming, we sort of just started a band," Bryce says.
When Furyk moved into the house, known affectionately as "The Mansion", he met his housemate Hamish Walton, whose vocals fit the band perfectly, so they nabbed him and started pursuing music more seriously.
Bryce struggles to pinpoint where the band falls in terms of genre because they are influenced by a wide range of artists.
"We play down quite low, we're quite influenced by American desert rock like Queens of the Stone Age, but there's a lot of other influences like hip-hop and old school Black Sabbath. Some people say it sounds like grungy desert rock," he suggests.
"But we're making music that we actually like and would also want to listen to," he adds.
Bryce says their writing is mostly based on the surprises of a jam session, rather than going in with a specific idea of their next song.
"It's very collaborative. What will usually happen is myself or Adam will bring in a riff, or we'll bring in a drum beat, and we'll play off each other, jamming and working our songs out that way."
While the band has so far only recorded music for an online audience, Bryce says they are hoping to spend the first part of this year recording an EP and doing more touring, something that was hampered for much of 2012 when their bassist took off to South America for six months.
Curious Temple are playing with Bruce! and Born Lion as part of a triple headlining gig to support local bands.