Twin Temple: Satanism has never sounded better

By Amy Young

Twin Temple is equal parts Alexandra James (vocals) and Zachary James (guitar), and for the last ten years, the two have been creating sultry music they call satanic doo-wop. It is certainly that, but let’s not tie that blood-red bow without mentioning how much more there is to this duo’s package.

The first track I heard by them, “The Devil (Didn’t Make Me Do It), was in 2018, from their record Twin Temple (Bring You Their Signature Sound….Satanic Doo-Wop), and it was so captivating and catchy that I couldn’t help but fall into their sonic rabbit hole. Alexandra’s vocals, a whole mid-20th-century girl group in one woman, weave seamlessly on and around Zachary’s string mastery.

Their sound brings together rootsy elements: blues, soul, twang, and good ol’ rock and roll. And the subject matter? Don’t panic, it sure is satanic. Devilishly delightful. If you don’t know how to dig what that means, learn something. It’s not hard to find out where they’re coming from.

The band just headed out on tour and has a third album, Doomed Lovers, produced by Shooter Jennings, dropping on October 9. We got to chat with them before their upcoming September 28 show in Phoenix. Get there, because the stylish sights and smooth sounds make it a heady, fun, soulful experience.

So far, the tour sounds like it’s a hoot. At one stop, the venue operators and front-of-house team mentioned the crowd “screaming like 13-year-old girls at a Beatles concert.” Alexandra says excited, ever-growing crowds make them feel pretty great.

“It’s the best, because that’s why we do what we do. If we can give people a moment of magic or joy, pleasure or release or escape, then we’ve done our job, you know? When we get that reaction, we know we’ve given it our all,” she tells Signal and Noise.

In an achievement-driven world, people don’t often believe some folks aren’t driven by lust-of-result, so when things go well, the rewards can feel even sweeter. Twin Temple started without expectations, and as things have continued to roll in positive directions, they’re quite content.

“When we started this project, it was a passion project for us to create something that just made us happy and was fun and enjoyable, to be honest. There wasn’t much pressure that we put on it for it to yield results. Obviously, we are very happy with the results, but it really just started to make a project together that was representative of what we love together.” That, Alexandra says, was the “original purpose.”

“We had just gotten married. We call it (the band) our magical child, because it’s sort of combining our two selves into a third thing that’s somehow both of us individually, but not us individually. It was born out of love,” she continues.

Share

While they were feeling good about their creative undertaking, the music industry wasn’t immediately on board. “We’d just been dropped by management and had zero industry support because they all told us that this would never go anywhere at all,” she adds.

They heard things like, “There’s no way to make this commercial,” and “You’re going to alienate everyone – it’s literally just for you two.” They talked it through and knew they had to do it for themselves.

Zachary also appreciates the growth, especially with those unsupportive sentiments ringing around their ears.

“It’s been little by little. Every little step of the way it’s been exciting to see growth and new people into it. Our first show was at a bar to 50 people. We couldn’t fit on the stage (laughs). I remember our first time at the merch booth where we only had one T-shirt, and someone was mad that we didn’t have records. We weren’t expecting anyone to want one,” he shares.

“It all made us take things the industry people say with a grain of salt and just lead with our hearts. At the time, we did internalize it, but ultimately it’s been a blessing, because it was freeing to be like, ‘Well, this may never have success, and this is for nobody but us two… That means we get to do whatever we want, which was our purpose to begin with,’” he says.

Doing what they want, how they want to do it, has been a magnet for finding folks that align with their vision.

“To just connect with other like-minded people is the biggest joy out of all of it,” Zachary says. “To know there are a lot of people who are open-minded, inclusive, and believe in a lot of the ideas that we hold in terms of personal freedoms and free will and individualism and tearing down the dogmatic ideals of the status quo that aren’t in line with what we feel like we should be doing as a society is great. It’s always beautiful to play a concert and see such a diverse crowd. It’s been a journey, and that’s what’s really cool about it. It’s always been more about the process and about the love for us than lusting after results.”

Before they became Twin Temple, both members made music.

“We met as teenagers in the L.A. punk scene. Funnily enough, Zach started in orchestra, and I started on classical violin when I was five. Music has been oxygen to me my whole life. Same for Zach, really. I bought an Elvis tape when I was five (laughs), put it on my first Walkman, and have been enchanted with what music can be and does ever since,” Alexandra says.

They’ve been pluming that initial love of musical sounds and styles since and continue to examine rock and roll history and how it impacts them.

“We love rock and roll, and we are just diving deeper and deeper into that love. At the same time, as much as we love and are inspired by all these classic records, we aren’t trying to recreate them at all. We’re not trying to be a museum band,” Alexandra says. “A lot of the techniques we use are new, and we just use them as tools. What we really love about this period of American music is the raw humanity, rebelliousness, and emotion of it. The songs are messy, aching, pushing and yearning. All the messy parts of being a human are what really inspires us,” they share as they discuss artists from Chuck Berry to Johnny Cash and their fondness for the countrypolitan music sounds that emerged in Nashville in the ‘60s.

They want to build branches and shake things up, too.

“Along with all the music that inspires us, it makes us wanna carry on that conversation, but we also want to tear everything down. So it’s kind of like paradoxically in our minds that to carry the torch, you also have to subvert what came before. It’s kind of a push-pull. There’s always a bit of cognitive dissonance, that’s like, ‘Oh wow, how can we take this classic American tradition and put our spin on it and up it a little bit, too.’”

The band’s been in the news over this past summer for a few different reasons. They appeared on The Daily Show, which was a blast to watch, and they say it was “amazing.”

They also got tossed off of Charley Crockett’s tour because of their Satanic leanings.

“In general, other artists we’ve really connected with are in all different spaces, whether it’s Shooter Jennings, who has won Grammys for working with Willie Nelson and Tanya Tucker, all the way to touring with bands like Ghost and Volbeat. Most of the people we collaborate with are super open-minded, and it’s rare to get that kind of punching down from an artist. It’s usually more political, like Alex Jones.”

In this case, where there’s a Charley Crockett, there’s also a Jack White who steps up and invites the band to open a gig at the Palladium in Hollywood. They were stoked.

“He’s so cool for doing that. It was like the coolest thing ever. His support of the artistic community and artistic freedom is legendary and appreciated. He is definitely representing in that department,” Zachary says.

It hasn’t always been that easy. In fact, it’s been pretty rough at some points. The band got doxxed by the aforementioned far-right windbag Alex Jones and has had their lives threatened. The slander, libel, and things like the Proud Boys saying they’re going to come to your show and stab you to death, of course, have given them pause, but they’re standing strong.

“The way we talk about it is like ‘To Valhalla,’ right? Like if I’m gonna go down, then I want a warrior’s death. And if it’s doing what I love and standing behind what I believe in, that’s how I’m gonna go down, you know? Death is gonna come for us all, and if it does, yeah, I’m gonna die a warrior’s death,” Alexandra says.

The pair hopes to inspire people to move beyond groupthink. “Inspiring people to unapologetically and fearlessly be themselves… The varied individualism and humanity, a core tenet in Satanism, is recognizing one’s free will to know and express themselves.

And they hope folks will come to the shows and “experience magic.”

“Going to live concerts is where I experience transcendence and a little bit of fantasy,” Alexandra says.

“If we can do that at all for anyone, that’s what it’s all about it. And it’s so immediate when you’re in front of an audience. Seeing them connect and dance and feel joy – it’s beautiful to know we are doing that for people.”

Twin Temple tour dates:

09/28 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren

09/29 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium $

09/30 – San Francisco, CA @ The Castro Theatre

10/02 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst

10/04 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom

10/05 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre

10/06 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre

10/08 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades % Danzig $ Jack White