More about: Alfie Templeman

17-year-old breakout artist Alfie Templeman, best known for his hits ‘Don’t Go Wasting Time’,  ‘Happiness in Liquid Form’ and ‘Stop Thinking (About Me)' has released his latest single ‘Shady’ today. Produced by Jungle’s Tom McFarland, it's another slick cut in a long line of them. 

‘Shady’ is a brilliant alternative track that incorporates Templeman’s slacker-style rock with an almost new-wave synth sound inspired, in part, by McFarland who produced the song with Alfie. “Jungle started off on Chess Club, which I'm signed to, so they’ve always been really good mates with my label manager” says Alfie on working with the collective. “Hopefully we do more stuff together: I think he’s really into the idea.” 

On the surface it seemed like an unusual collaboration to pair a young guitar-based artist with the electronic, contemporary soul sounds of Jungle, whose hit track ‘Busy Earnin’ featured on FIFA 15, Forza 2 and even a Hyundai Advert back in 2015 and 2017 respectively. Not so unusual to Alfie: “I think deep down they’re more guitar based that you’d think...but they do it in a really clever way where it sounds like they’re not.”

“Jungle’s one of the many examples that I have of trying to move away from the classic indie sound that I started off with and venture into more..." he pauses to consider, but doesn't find the right words. That's likely because he hasn't settled on a definitive route yet. His flexibility shows...and in a good way. While 'Shady' plays with synth, April's 'My Best Friend' trips into Eilish territory and 'Forever Isn't Long Enough' was all funk-pop and floppy hair. 

Jungle are not the first collaboration for this young artist. Label mates Coach Party have joined in the fun, while Alfie recently linked up with Circa Waves - a staple band in the indie  community - on the track ‘Lemonade’. “Me and Kieran connected through our love for Todd Rundgren. He liked my stuff, and I loved his, and I was lucky enough to get on a Circa Waves track which I still can’t believe!” “We’ve done more stuff since, actually, I think he’s going to help me out on a few tracks with the album, so we’ll see where that goes!” he added.

But Alfie hasn’t always been collaborating with huge indie stars. “[When I started out] It was really trying to replicate what my favourite records were... I’d listen to a lot of songs and in my initial listens I thought that they’d go a different way, so I thought: 'why don’t I take those ideas and turn them into my own songs?'” Since then, Templeman has gone on to release countless singles and multiple EPs with his own unique twist on alternative rock, mixing his slacker-vocal lines with jazzy chord progressions and pop riffs.

Reflecting on his unexpected influences, Templeman speaks of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin: “even if it’s on the bass or something, I’m playing heavy rock riffs.” Who else? “Todd Rundgren - he’s a huge hero to me as a huge pioneer for writing and recording by yourself" he muses. "Even Charlie Puth, [I’m a] huge fan of him, you can’t go wrong with Charlie and I really like how polished his recordings are.” 

It goes without saying that the latest pandemic has been a huge hit to artists globally with tours and shows being cancelled every day, but for Alfie the landscape has been even more challenging. As a self-professed "vulnerable to Covid-19" person, Alfie's been shielding since March. In a fit of optimism and productivity, he's used that time to further himself with more releases and more songwriting. “In terms of releasing music, it’s actually been better: everyone’s at home and is a bit bored so I keep trying to release stuff. I think I hit a wall a couple months back where there was such a lack of inspiration from doing absolutely nothing, but I’ve got past that now and I’ve been buying new instruments slowly..."

Despite Templeman’s success at such a young age, he remains humble as he speaks about his roots as a smaller artist and the venues that helped him elevate his career. “I don’t really see myself as a big artist. I know I’ve got a bunch of support and stuff behind me, but I prefer underground music in general. The bands that we’ve toured with that gave us a chance in the first place before I played with bigger bands...there were a bunch of local bands that would give us a chance, give us a slot”. 

“It’s so important to support your local venues," he adds, "my local is called Bedford  Esquires and they’ve let me play gigs so many times without charging me at all. It’s all about giving back, so I donate to them. It’s really important to give to the venues and give to the bands that might be struggling and need help to survive. Great music lasts a long time but it’s about ensuring that that music can survive.”

More about: Alfie Templeman