Every so often, a band comes around that is just different. A slightly different sound, a new feel, that “thing” that just sets them apart from other bands. Tempt, a band from NYC getting ready to release their debut album is that kind of band. They have released a few singles, including a cover of Billy Squire’s classic “Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You”, which makes sense as Billy is godfather to guitarist Harrison Marcello. Harrison recently took some time to talk about the band’s rise, Billy Squire, and much more.
Please press the PLAY icon for the MisplacedStraws New Music Showcase with Harrison Marcello of Tempt-
On the origins of Tempt – Zach (Allen, vocals) and I first met when I was a freshman in college, and he was actually working with a producer named Jack Ponti, who is a New Jersey-based songwriter and producer who was friends with John Bon Jovi, still is friends with him and helped write and co-write a lot of his early stuff. He worked with a lot of bands in the 80s and 90s. And Jack Ponti’s advice to Zach was basically, “You need your Joe Perry, your Richie Sambora, your Van Halen type, writing partner that to cultivate that singer-guitar player duo”. So Zach actually then found me on YouTube, because at the time I had made a bunch of guitar covers on YouTube, all through high school and into college. So he found me there and we connected. We got together and just hit it off right away, started writing songs together. We did a few shows and things while I was in college, when I was on winter break, we play a couple of shows or summer. But we didn’t really start seriously pursuing the band as a full-time job until after I graduated from college. So we had a few different people playing drums and bass, but things weren’t kind of locked in yet. Once I graduated we found Nick (Burrows, drums) who actually it’s funny, Zach and I knew him both independently during high school, and he had come back to the city. So I just messaged him on Facebook and he was perfect, we’re great friends with him. He suggested Chris (Gooden) our bass player. That all came together in only a few years. We’ve been together now as this kind of solid unit for I don’t know, it’s hard with the pandemic, but like four or five years. I’m kind of like, I don’t really count the pandemic time anymore. So with pandemic time, it’s been about four or five years without it. It’s only been like two. :50
On covering a Christmas song and his relationship with Billy Squire – So Billy is my godfather. I spent a lot of time with him growing up, especially on the holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s. This was a song when I was younger that I always heard. So I kind of forgotten about it. Then the guys and I were all talking, we wanted to do a Christmas song and we had done a few YouTube Christmas covers in the past. But we really wanted to do one record it, have a solid Christmas single. I remembered the song again, like a distant memory from my past. We decided to do it. The song itself is just, I think it’s a perfect Christmas song, especially a rock Christmas song because it’s upbeat. It’s a rock song, but it’s still got all the good messages of Christmas. It’s joyous. It’s merry. It’s a happy, fun Christmas party song. So we decided to do it. I think it came out great. And we shot a really cool video, which I’m sure you’ve seen, which is us visiting all the kind of fun New York City landmarks because New York really shines during the holidays as anyone who’s been there during that time knows. So we’re outside Radio City and Rockefeller Center. So it just came out great. I’m really happy with it. It’s just a fantastic song. 3:15
On whether Billy Squire was involved in their debut record at all – This has all been just very much on our own. For the Christmas single, we recorded it and I didn’t even tell him, I think, that we were recording it until I was asking him for his permission so we could have clearances for it. But he loves it. He said, he really thinks we did it justice. So we put our own spin on it. Like I said, it’s just a great, there aren’t that many good rock Christmas songs. There’s versions of the classics, but for this to be such a strong song and it’s completely original, it’s not a version of “Jingle Bells” or something. It’s spectacular… it’s kind of an unknown song, even for a lot of Billy fans. To me, it really is up there and could be a rival to Mariah Carey’s song, because it just has that really good uptempo shuffle feel and it hits all the boxes.5:00
On recording a single with Dorothy – So this was something that was suggested to us by our label. This goes way back because this was kind of during the height of the pandemic, this came together. So it was suggested by our label. It’s funny because we were really not excited about it because we had never done a feature before and we had just finished this record that hasn’t come out yet. It’s coming out this summer, finally. We just finished this record with Chris Lord-Alge. We think it’s an amazing record. We’re so excited about it. We’re like, “Okay, we’re gonna start thinking about the singles, blah, blah, blah, blah”. So “Living Dangerous” was decided and the Dorothy feature was brought up. So, we went along with it, but we were, “We’ve never done a feature before”. So these songs are our babies, and we’re thinking, “Oh God, someone’s gonna come along now and mess up our song”. But we went for it, Dorothy sang on it and we got it back. Our minds were totally changed. We love what she did on it. She did an amazing job. I think she really adds to the song and she was really fun to have in the music video as well. So everything just came together for that. It has us looking for features in the future now because we had a great experience with her. So we’re really excited to see what other songs we do in the future that could potentially have other artists singing or playing guitar or whatever. 6:47
On working with Chris Lord-Alge – Chris, if you spend any time with Chris, he just loves music. It really is his life. It’s all he does. Every time I talk with him on the phone, there’s always some new thing he’s mixing, whether it’s a big artist or a small artist. So he’s a really, and even though he’s known as a mixer, he’s a really creative person and has a great ear and a great sense and taste in music. So it’s definitely great working with him. He’s also taken up a management role with our band as well, which has been amazing. He was just so instrumental in the creation of the record because we would send him stuff and he’s doing mixes and then he’s making certain changes to arrangement things and stuff. So we’re talking on the phone constantly, he’s giving us great ideas. So working with him was spectacular. I think you’re right, I think it says a lot about what we’re doing on this record and why we’re so excited for everyone to hear it because, as people who’ve watched him do mixing classes or interviews with him, he’s a very, how do I put it? He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like and he’s not afraid to say when he thinks something’s crap. So having the validation and the seal of approval from Chris Lord-Alge means a lot to us and him becoming a creative partner with us means even more. So we’re very excited for people to hear what we’ve created. 8:48
On how the band sees its style – We’re all great instrumentalists and passionate musicians. When you’re a guitar player, you listen to the greats of guitar and that’s how you learn or if you’re a singer, the same thing goes with Zach. We’re a band and we’re a rock band. So we bring that energy and that live entertainment factor to what we do. But also we have so many different influences, especially the four of us together. It goes from everything from, I’m a huge Rush fan, Nick’s also a huge Rush fan. It goes from everything from that listening to the Backstreet Boys to listening to modern stuff like The Weeknd or The 1975 or even something heavier like Slipknot. So we listen to so much music and we really want it, we really think we have with this record that we were taking rock in a totally new place and we have a completely new understanding of what the genre is and how we can bring that style of rock music back. It seems like everything you listen to on the radio is either with rock is either super heavy or super light, there’s kind of no middle ground. So we see ourselves kind of just bringing a totally unique new style of rock music that’s really our own back. That’s why we’re so excited for this record… I love background vocals because I’m obsessed with Mutt Lang. So obviously the Def Leppard inclination is correct. But growing up, all the Mutt Lang stuff from The Cars to Def Leppard to Shania Twain, ACDC, was just something. I was so interested in him because he’s such this kind of mysterious figure that doesn’t give interviews. So you really have to learn from him just from listening to his music. So, one of the greatest things about him is his voice and he sings on all those records. That’s why they always have that distinctive background vocal sound. You listen to that, the Brian Adams record, and you go, “Oh, those sound like Def Leppard vocals”. Shania Twain, it sounds the same way because that’s him singing and he’s so particular with the way he produces background vocals, getting that clean harmony with that shine on it. So, yes, he’s definitely a big inspiration for me as the producer of the album. So I think that’s where all that comes from.11:00
On the band’s creative process – We pretty much work together and it’s very organic. So there’s times where we do just kind of don’t have anything and say, “OK, let’s just all get together at someone’s house and play a guitar and come up with some stuff”. Or there’s times where, you know, Nick might bring in a drum beat or a guitar riff and we’ll be like, “Oh, that’s cool. Let’s work on that”, and we’ll start building on that. Or there’s there’s been times where, I basically just completed a song and we’ll have that and everyone saying, “Oh, that’s a great song. Let’s do that”. So we’re totally open with the creative side. But everyone, for the most part, really has a hand in writing the record. In terms of music and lyrics, it’s totally up in the air. There’s great melodies that Zach has come up with, Nick has come up with. There’s also great lyrics that I’ve come up with. So we’re totally it whenever we’re kind of feeling we’re it’s a great writing and creative environment where we just let it go, whether it’s a melody or a chord progression, a lyric where we’re kind of just all open to that, which has been really great. 14:06
On playing live – We don’t have any kind of confirmed dates or anything, but we are definitely going to be touring when this when these singles and the record is going to come out. So, spring and summertime we will definitely be touring. We actually are releasing a cover that we did of “We Will Rock You”, the fast version, which is a song we’ve been playing for a while now and is one of our encore songs, which is really fun. The release is on the 13th of January is when the video releases and that video is actually going to be a whole kind of montage recap of this European tour we just did over this past summer, which was really fun. It was the first real tour we’ve done and it was in Europe and it was doing a lot of the big festivals. We played a show with Iron Maiden and we played some shows with Shinedown, a couple shows with Mark Tremonti. I think that really opened our eyes to the fact that we want to be playing the biggest venues possible. I mean, that’s really where we shine as performers. Obviously, we’ve played in clubs a million times over. So so that’s so we can do that, obviously, but playing those big stages and for all those people really is where we shine as performers as I said, and where we want to be. I think that’s the kind of venue that our music demands. It’s big. It’s an exciting, exciting show. It sounds huge. So that’s really what we need. So going forward, I’m looking for this touring in spring and summer, we’re definitely going to be playing with other artists doing festivals again and trying to expose ourselves to as many people as possible. Despite all the social media and the SoundCloud and Facebook and Instagram and all that stuff, the way bands still make it today is live exposure, doing the festival circuits, opening for another big artist, and just organically getting those fans. 15:34
