Twin Temple on reinventing Satanic doo-wop, supporting Ghost, and the hit song they almost threw out
Often hailed the inventors of “Satanic doo-wop”, Twin Temple has done well to carve out their unique niche in the realm of dark pop. Yet, it’s much more than just that; their output is a vintage homage that envelops the listener in their profoundly captivating universe. Featuring lush vocal harmonies and a fusion of classic rock and roll aesthetics with dark, mysterious undertones, this particular power duo delivers a more distinctive musical prowess than anything you’ve ever heard.
Of course, based on the image alone, Twin Temple also garnered different, often unsettling, reactions. Some find their glorification of the occult off-putting, while others enjoy the naughtiness of it all. Alexandra James assures me that most haters have it all wrong: “In the Satanic philosophy,” she explains, “We believe that everyone is a unique individual that hasn’t come before and will never come again.”
The group, made up of real-life couple Alexandra and Zach James, views Satanism less as a journey into the unspeakable abyss and more as a creative expression of our deepest, darkest desires. This isn’t evil, it’s human. “There are certain things about each human being that make them them,” Alex clarifies. “And at the end of the day, like art and music, it’s about carrying on this conversation of who we are as, like humanity, and who we are as individuals. And that’s the pleasure.”
Of course, it isn’t all just for show: the beauty of Twin Temple is what you see is exactly what you get. It’s not a gimmick; there exists genuine musical talent and creativity intertwined with spellbinding aesthetics. However, although it may completely seem like it, especially when delving deep into their new album God is Dead, their intention wasn’t to invent or revolutionise a new musical genre. They love the entire vibe of it all – Alex states – but becoming the ultimate pioneers of the art wasn’t exactly their mission statement.
“There was no premeditated moment where we were like, ‘let’s invent a bizarre genre’,” Alex tells me. “It was more just like we gave ourselves the freedom to pursue our true will and create something that gave us pleasure. And that means not censoring ourselves, not worrying about the reaction, and not making music for a specific audience other than ourselves.”
Censorship, I suggest, is a huge issue in the music industry, particularly when it comes to creative expression. Obviously, cancel culture is valid, but when it comes to going against the grain, namely representing the occult, certain artists and bands struggle to gain the recognition that they deserve. In the case of Twin Temple, their talents have been overshadowed by a common misconception about what they’re all about. In the end, however, it all boils down to passion and authenticity.
“[At first], we hadn’t carved our own space in [our genre] yet,” Alex explains. “Funnily enough, we thought that maybe this record would be for people like us who are obsessive collectors of a specific period, who wanted to hear something that was a bit preservationist. We thought maybe we were making the rarest music that you could find. But [labels] all wanted nothing to do with it,” Zach adds: “Because we were too dangerous.”
This level of push-back didn’t stop them. Instead, it was like this revelation — Satanic pop, it seemed, just clicked. They didn’t plan it out, but looking at it now and seeing how the metal and rock community have embraced them, it feels completely natural because that’s their essence. They’ve always been influenced by rock and roll and that rebellious, devilish vibe, from the roots of Robert Johnson to the contemporary sounds of King Diamond.
Their draw to unconventional aesthetics, horror, Satanism, witchcraft, and the occult has also been a constant. “It’s like one lineage,” Alex explains. “I mean, if you listen to Tony Iommi talking about what he wanted Black Sabbath sound like, he’s like, ‘I want it to be the Beatles’. I mean, Glenn Danzig was just like, ‘I fucking love Elvis’. At the end of the day, I think we all love not only the rock and roll, just musically, but also what it encapsulates, and that’s an outsider, who’s, you know, a little bit dangerous.”
Twin Temple gained an influx of new fans when they supported Ghost during their UK and European tour in 2022. Although they differ significantly in terms of sound, there was a fundamental bond between them, Ghost fans, and the mastermind behind it all, Tobias Forge. “Tobias invited us to play a one-off show a couple of years back,” Zach explains. “And then after that, we got to do the US tour and the European tour.” Alex adds, “[Us and Ghost] are definitely like-minded. So, it was kind of just a no-brainer. Match-made.”
At the time, Twin Temple were finally leaving their much-anticipated mark alongside the revered masked metal luminaries. Which brings us to God is Dead. Up until this point, the duo had already dropped a number of hit tracks, including ‘Lucifer, My Love’, ‘The Devil (Didn’t Make Me Do It)’, ‘Let’s Have A Satanic Orgy’, and ‘Sex Magick’. However, God is Dead finally arrived as their debut album, complete with some of their most popular songs along with some new ones, like the gorgeous titular track.
Many artists have tried to emulate traditional pop sounds to no avail. However, the new album solidified them as masters of the art. “We’ve listened to a lot of music from very specific periods,” Zach explains. “This new record was very influenced by 1960s Los Angeles recording techniques and instrumentation. And so it’s really a study of that songwriting process because you can record any kind of song with vintage gear or vintage instruments, and it won’t sound like that.”
“It’s all very organic. And with this record, we recorded it in a day just live to tape. And we did it very minimally, like more in the 1950s kind of style where you put a band in a room, and you just hit record,” he added. “We overdubbed each track individually, but we still kept it raw by doing single takes. But that way, we were able to build on the production and again emulate more of that kind of early-to-mid-1960s style where there was more arranging and more production experimentation.”
The titular track, I tell them, is my favourite song on the album. To me, it feels like everything Twin Temple have been trying to achieve since their inception: raw beauty. To my surprise, however, it almost didn’t make it onto the album at all. “We do love that track,” Alex agrees, “Something kind of magical happened with that one where I think we pushed ourselves further than we thought possible.”
“We almost threw it out,” she admits, “Because we were pulling our hair out. We hit so many different problems in the writing process because the idea for the song is so grand. We went through cycles, where we got really excited, but then we’d try recording it, and we’d see all its flaws and almost ended up hating it, thinking it’s not going to work.”
Thankfully, it all came together in the end, and the result is an intensely beautiful track that warrants multiple listens. It’s precisely what Twin Temple represent: magic. However, the concept can be difficult to commend, especially when a lot of music has become so commercialised. “We all crave authenticity,” Alex concludes perfectly. “That’s what drives us. “The worst art in the world is made for other people”.
“Humans cannot survive in the world alone. We all need to transcend mundane reality. It’s who we are as a species and what we need to survive. I think as soon as humans lose their ability to transcend and come together and create like an altered, you know, transcendent moment together, then like we really lose what it means to be human.”
