The boys just love AHA...

It's an Aussie love-in...

The Temper Trap, or TTT to those of you who love an abbreviation, are an Aussie band who thought it was a good idea to tour the UK in an Ashes summer. So we thought we’d ring them up and tell them to take their sorry convict backsides back Down Under. Actually we didn’t at all. Instead we had a lovely chat with groovily-monikered guitarist Lorenzo about cricket, English TV and Aussie Rules football.

G'day Lorenzo. All well?

Yeah, we’ve just arrived at Latitude Festival, we’re just waiting for the catering tent to open so we can get something to eat! We’ve been really busy. We’ve played over 15 festivals and we’ve gone throughout Europe, ten countries in 15 days in Europe and travelling around the UK as well.

Anywhere you’ve particularly enjoyed?

We played the Roundhouse which was amazing, and Koko’s too which was great. Not our own shows obviously but we’ve enjoyed them nonetheless!

Anywhere that was a bit shit?

We went to Sweden and that was a bit strange, but it was still nice to be in Sweden.

What was the problem, were they all too laid back?

No, it was just we had probably around ten people watching us!

Fair enough. How has it been being in England during the Ashes? Have you had much stick?

Not too much. I’m trying to stay on top of what’s happening but it’s quite difficult. I don’t have the Internet with me and it’s sometimes hard to get a paper. I haven’t managed to watch much of it. Mainly because I don’t have a television, I don’t have time!

Hang on, you don’t have the Internet?

No we don’t have Internet, we’ve only got a little splitter van and we don’t have roaming wireless, which is probably good because my girlfriend complains that I’m on the Internet too much anyway! But it would be good to catch up on what’s actually happening.

So what do you make of good ol’ Blighty then?

I really love it. I love living in London when I get time to be there. I’ve worked out all the cool places around where I live so it’s actually really good. England’s quite like Australia, obviously the same language, but there’s just a lot more to do. I’m really enjoying it here.

Is Ricky Ponting an evil man?

He’s not the most flamboyant captain, he’s stone cold most of the time, but he is still a legend. He was and still is one of the world’s best batsmen and he’s been the captain of a very successful Australian side for a very long time now. So when you’re in a position like that at least we’re not like England who’ve gone through five captains in five years. He is a legend.

Have you missed having Warney and McGrath?

We’re missing McGrath for the sledges, he really loved to have a go at the English. Then Warney just for the pure comedy basically. Not only was he a great bowler but he was a comical figure. You kind of miss that when you’ve got this young crop of kids that you don’t really know that well and none of them really have any charisma. And now we don’t even have [Andrew] Symonds. He’s a character, but he’s been a bit on and off recently and we just need our best team forward, so for a young team which we are we’re doing OK.

Do you follow any other sports?

Toby and I follow Aussie Rules football in Oz, but we like football and we’ve been to a Chelsea game since we’ve been here which was pretty cool. It was awesome, it’s just great to go to a different kind of football match and experience the atmosphere. I think we’re all fairly keen on soccer, we take a soccer ball out on tour to have a kick around in our spare time.

Does our football look really pathetic in comparison to the tough world of Aussie Rules?

Yeah, but it’s completely different and there’s more skill. It’s a little bit more gentlemanly I guess, even if the people who play it are the furthest thing from being gentlemen! But it is a good game and in Australia the popularity has doubled since Australia made the World Cup, and especially now that we could be in the World Cup again it just gets better.

We hear the Aussies are bidding to host the World Cup in 2020, reckon they’ll get it?

Yeah they are but I’m not sure that would work as it would be the completely wrong time of year, so it might not work with the seasons.

You’ve obviously not seen much of football here in the winter. Anyway, what else do you guys do to keep sane on tour?

All of us are on a kind of health kick at the moment, so we’ve got a skipping rope.

Rock’n’roll…

Haha yeah! And we do boxing routines too! But when we’re on the road we just listen to music, and most of the band now have little portable games consoles. So we play those and sleep as much as we can!

So you’re all Brain Training wizards then?

Yeah we’ve got that but I don’t think many of the band are in to it! Joseph, one of our lead guitarists, is in to role playing games, so he plays a lot of fantasy. We’ve been playing a lot of Super Mario Brothers at the moment, it’s really good!

The Temper Trap’s album ‘Conditions’ is out now.