Jasmine Golestaneh answers questions from Dom Smith about new Tempers music, creating and finding inspiration in these challenging times of global unrest and uncertainty.
It’s a difficult time in the world right now, would it be accurate to say that you found some catharsis in releasing the Suicide cover, ‘Ghost Rider’?
Yes, I was really inspired by watching live footage of Suicide – they were so brave and willing to be disruptive, they didn’t care about being liked, they just wanted to tell their truth, that kind of integrity is so precious.
I’ve always loved the aesthetic of Tempers with your original videos/artwork/books and general style/vibe, how much weight do you put on the visual side of what you do with each release?
I think a strong aesthetic allows for deeper access into an album’s essence – another language of ideas to engage with. I need to create a sonic / visual world that is coherent and immersive, or the album doesn’t feel complete. Also, as music is ethereal, it’s satisfying to have something you can touch that is a physical extension of the sound – like a book, vinyl or even a band t-shirt, they should all look like the sound.
Can you talk me through how you look back at Services and Private Life, respectively, now at this point in your personal, and musical existence?
Services and Private Life are like flashbacks of my personal history, I remember the physical spaces where I wrote specific songs – who I was loving, losing or grieving, my psychic world. Writing songs is and always has been how I make sense of life, it’s this poetic force I need to resolve the stories I experience. When I was writing Services I was in a lot of pain emotionally, raw and messy – but it was the passionate kind of despair that easily translates into melodies and sonic intensity – a productive angst. It was also the first time I released music that complete strangers connected with, I was shocked that anyone cared, but it gave me this confidence that fueled Private Life. I wrote all the lyrics to Private Life lying in bed, I was strict and conceptual about the parameters of the album. I was reading a lot of poetry, and thinking about ways to share complex / ambivalent feelings as precisely as possible. Maybe it was a more “mature” approach to writing an album, but I also like the unhinged lawlessness of Services.
And the last record, ‘New Meaning’ if you can reflect on that for me?
New Meaning was written during the pandemic, so like everyone I was grappling with the uncertainty, horror and surrealism of that time. It was so orienting to process everything via songwriting, creativity was the only stable ground I had to stand on and it gave that time structure and vitality. I was in a bright little cave and it felt so special, but towards the end of writing New Meaning my father died, and I had a complete breakdown. The songs that I wrote after he died make me so sad, I can’t listen to them.
Do you have any more concept work planned?
I have just finished recording a new album, I’m really excited about it because it feels like a big leap for Tempers. I wrote it with Jorge Elbrecht, between NYC and LA. There was a real creative telepathy right from the outset, and he pushed me out of my comfort zones in ways that I love.
How would you say you yourself have changed and developed as an artist from the beginning of your career up until this point?
I trust my creative intuition a lot more, so that allows me to be fearless and dig deeper without questioning myself.
What is motivating you outside of music in 2024, again, as a person and as an artist?
The world is in a devastating place, so motivation is pretty key. My friendships are really special to me, they nourish and inspire me endlessly. Telling someone how I really feel and being heard is so healing. As an artist I’m always motivated by how mysterious life is, like how I really have no clue.
