Tee Templeton: Nighthawk at the ‘Diner’

This past weekend, New York-based musician and songwriter Tee Templeton has released an incredible new LP that, despite past recordings, is being considered his debut.

Entitled Diner of Doubt, the album is the distillation of a stockpile of songs (over 100 of ‘em) that Templeton has penned, chronicling the swath of life experiences he’s amassed through the slipstream of time.

“It’s been over a 30 year journey. I’ve met so many amazing people from every angle,” he said in a public statement. “I really love how this album turned out. I love everything about it. That’s all I really wanted. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but now I know the answers. And I’m still making mistakes and I’m still learning.”

Yet when you listen to Diner of Doubt, its pace and flow — abetted by the strong influences of  Sufjan Stevens, Elliott Smith and Gregg Allman among others — leaves you with the impression of how lived-in these songs feel upon repeated listens. 

At the tender age of 66, Templeton has crafted something here that is as modern as anything coming out on Matador or Merge or Sub Pop — and as good.

Rock & Roll Globe had the distinct pleasure to catch up with Mr. Templeton via email to find out more about why he waited this long to release music this good.

Diner of Doubt is out now on all DSPs.

 

Do you remember the first song you wrote? When was it and what was it about?

Oh wow. That really makes me cringe!  Thinking back, I seem to remember a song called “Temptation”. I was probably 14 maybe? I grew up a big time Christian and it had something to do with that.

 

When you write a song, what do you start with — lyrics or melody?

I start in all sorts of ways. The chords (on piano or guitar) or a groove normally come first and then I start singing over it using random words or things that I’ve written before.  I have several notebooks full of words that I’ve written over the last 15 years. When I was going into work on the train or during lunch, I would write in these notebooks ideas, phrases, creative/different ways of saying stuff. They weren’t written as lyrics. But those words start telling me some kind of a story. And the chorus starts sticking out and then next I’m into editing and filling out verses.

As far as the melody goes, the first one’s that come out are usually the best. I’m uncertain of what to sing. I end up singing things I didn’t intend to because I’m just grabbing in real time. I end up going to the “wrong” note and a lot of times that’s the best. I’m reaching and cool things can happen. I make sure I use voice memo on early ones so I can go back to those recordings and see what I did and whether it’s better or not.  Otherwise the melody can tend to be like songs I’ve heard before or songs or artists I’m influenced by.

I write songs in so many ways, it’s really hard to try to list or explain them all. But here are a few things that I do.

I bring up my DAW (I use Cubase) and usually put in an Addictive Drums groove and I start playing things over it: guitar, keyboard, instrument plugins. A lot of times I do it randomly and later see what fits together. Once I see that it’s starting to have a structure, I pull out one of my notebooks full of words, grab a mic, and just start singing whatever phrases or sentences I see. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But some really neat things can happen. I’m a strong believer in happy mistakes. Just let loose and do it and see what happens. Editing is a big part of approaching things like that.

Sometimes I pull together a song on guitar or piano, and grab words from the notebooks. I don’t’ want to be caught up in the DAW. I want things to happen freely. I record those as voice memos on my phone. Sometimes things come together effortlessly. The songs are just waiting there to be sung.

Tell me more about the High Noon exercise you and your friend had going on after the passing of your dad. How was this exercise therapeutic for you and what kinds of songs emerged from this time?

“High Noon” is a thing that a good friend and I have been doing for years. We’re up to almost 180 songs. Every two weeks you have to submit a song, in a dropbox folder that we share, by 12:00pm on that Monday. It can be a fully arranged and recorded song or something that you just do ad hoc on your phone as a voice memo. So many really great songs have come out of it.  It’s pretty cool what can happen if you’re under a deadline. A couple of them are on this album. The next albums that are planned will have more of these on them. As far as it being therapeutic, I would say the songs represent the ins and outs of life over 6-7 years. Every two weeks it’s a snapshot. I was on vacation once and I ended up doing one on Garage Band on my phone. It’s called “you can stop swimming when you drown.”

 

Having grown up in a religious family, how did you discover secular music as a youth?

That all started I guess with Elvis Presley.  We had a 45 of “Return to Sender.” Then my sister and I bought the Allman Brothers’ Eat a Peach. And she gave me Deep Purple Machine Head for Christmas and I was off and running.

 

What was the NYC music scene like when you first moved to the area? What were some lessons you took with you from the experience?

I moved to NYC from the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area and the music scene was great there. There were clubs like Cat’s Cradle, The Brewery, King’s where I saw lots of great bands. When I moved to New York, I was excited about having access to so many more places to see bands. Everybody played in New York. But to be honest, I got overwhelmed by it all. There was too much stuff out there. When I was in North Carolina, each week I could check the Cat’s Cradle, etc. to see who was playing. In NYC there were too many to deal with. So I isolated. I just went underground. I worked on my music. I smoked a lot of pot and experimented musically. I was in one band for a little while but we never played out. I was partners in a studio on Rivington Street, where I made an album in 2004.  I was directionless and smarting from a divorce. A lot of the aftermath from the break up seeped into the songs I was writing. That 2004 album is full of them.  I came to a point where I was completely falling apart and was closer to having to leave New York. Which meant I would be leaving a dream. So I quit drinking and I quit smoking pot. From there I healed up from the divorce and have been writing and recording songs from every different angle and every different direction.

 

VIDEO: Tee Templeton “Frozen Arrows”

In regards to the album’s title, did you have a particular diner in mind when coming up with the name of this LP? Do you have a favorite diner?

The name is from a line in “Whistlers in the Graveyard.”  I was just playing around with words and phrases, which I do a lot. “Whistlers in the Graveyard duckin’ in and duckin’ out, they’re going to meet some Face Savers for coffee down at the Diner of Doubt.” It’s just playing around, but I can tell it’s trying to say something. There’s a mood and an emotion hanging around in those words. I can’t exactly say I have a favorite diner but I will do a shout out to Waverly Diner in the West Village. A great diner. My first year in the city, I lived right around the corner. I consumed lots of comfort food there.

 

How do you feel diner culture has changed since you moved to New York?

That’s a fun question. They are in decline, I guess. Where I grew up in the South, Waffle House was our choice for a Diner. They are great. The second year I was in the city I lived in an artist’s loft on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side.  It was a few blocks from Katz’s Deli. The sandwiches were huge. I would get a turkey Rueben. I remember hearing a comedian once say about the Diners/Delis in New York. He ordered a sandwich and when they handed it to him they asked if he needed anything else. He said “Yes, I need a loaf of bread and a group of friends.”

 

Your sound seems informed by such acts as The Shins, Elliott Smith and, at least to my ears, Sam Prekop/The Sea and Cake. But in your words, what artists or albums from your years have informed the sound of this album?

I’ve got a bunch of decades of listening to and writing music. In some way or another these are ones that I would say: Allman Bros, America, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Psychedelic Furs, Big Star, Syd Barrett, Billy Joel, The Smiths, Violent Femmes, The Pixies, The Replacements, Elliott Smith, Spiritualized, Califone, Kevin Morby,  Andrew Bird, Sufjan Stevens, Sam Amidon, Mac DeMarco, Romare, Thompson Twins, Jim White, Castanets, Sun Kil Moon, Bill Callahan, Brightblack Morning Light, Steve Gunn…..

 

What was the recording process like for you for Diner? What went into this particular song cycle? Were these songs meant to be sequenced the way they are, as if to tell a story?

I never intended the album to be so far reaching.  It was recorded in so many places.  In Maine, North Carolina, Virginia, New York in the city and out of the city. Mixed in South Carolina, mastered in Chicago.  There’s a real beauty in the fact that you can record most everything remotely.

The album had several sequences for no specific reason but I finally settled on this one. I went with “My Dead Friend” because I wanted to come out of the gate cranking. I never thought that would be the first song. But several people thought that was a good way to kick it off. The rest of the songs roll out so the album has a flow; not necessarily a story. There are some darkish topics going through the album, so it seemed ending with “Living in a Dream World” was the best way to end it.  It was going to be the first. As someone I worked with on this said “Going through the album, I felt challenged but when I got to the last song, it made me happy.”

 

Do you have any advice or feedback for younger folks looking to break into music?

Take the next step.  Whatever it is.  Show up for all of it. Follow your gut; your intuition. When you need to make a decision ask yourself “Does this make me stronger, or does it make me weaker?” You get to decide what “stronger” and “weaker” means to you.  And this goes for all the older folks too. Get that guitar or whatever instrument out, tune it or not, strap it on, and explode into space.

 

VIDEO: Tee Templeton “I am the Man”

What is the story behind “I Am The Man”? What inspired this bugged out tune? It reminds me of Ween.

It was a High Noon submission.  Just playing around.  Sometimes I try things I haven’t tried before.  I had never tuned my voice up really high.  So for fun, that’s what I did.  I threw in rap bravado lyrics.  Again, for fun.  It’s so funny that little voice is so adamant, confident and in your face. That’s the beauty of doing a High Noon thing.  It doesn’t matter.  You can do anything you feel like.

 

VIDEO: Tee Templeton “My Dead Friend”

 

Tell me more about “My Dead Friend” and the notion of lost friendships, especially in this era of extreme political discourse fracturing relationships left and right? Is there a silver lining?

Wow, silver lining. Well, the wagon doesn’t go anywhere if the wheels don’t make a full turn. So I guess we’re in for it. Ha ha. I guess that means I get to try acceptance and even tolerance if I have to go that route. I need to accept that I can’t fathom what’s really going on with anything. I won’t know till the last time I blink my eyes, what was good and what was bad. It is tough when something means so much to me, so much a part of my being and it changes or goes completely away. Most of the time I have no idea that it’s in jeopardy. I don’t know it until it’s gone and it’s too late to do anything about it. I’m a part of a whole, but only a piece and I can’t control the other piece. All I can do is just watch it go away.

 

Now that Diner of Doubt is out, what have you taken away from the experience and how will you approach your next album?

I’ve met so many wonderful and talented people and I hope that they’ll help me with the next albums. I’d like to make the next one simpler. Each song had way too many tracks. But I do like how it turned out. It’s pretty crazy.