Luke Temple

Whether it be his intimate, often folk-leaning solo music or the panoramic experimental rock of his band Here We Go Magic, indie singer/songwriter Luke Temple allures with his breathy high tenor, naïve but tuneful melodies, and impressionistic, personal lyrics. His first solo album, Hold a Match for a Gasoline World, saw release in 2005. Temple formed Here We Go Magic in 2008, and their second album, 2012's A Different Ship, reached the Top 15 of Billboard's vinyl and Heatseekers albums charts. He changed things up with his fourth solo LP, 2013's Good Mood Fool, which explored the sounds of chillwave and R&B. The alias Art Feynman appeared in 2017 alongside the psychedelic pop of Blast Off Through the Wicker before Temple returned with more shape-shifting music under his own name, including 2024's narcotic Certain Limitations, credited to the trio Luke Temple & the Cascading Moms. Luke Temple was born in Salem, Massachusetts, though he lived for a time in Northern California before returning to New England as a painting student at the School of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. After completing his studies, Temple pulled up stakes again, moving to New York City, but as he was trying to launch his career as a visual artist, he developed a new interest in music. He started writing songs and playing at small clubs around New York; he also began recording his material on a simple four-track machine in his apartment, and tapes of his music started to circulate. Eventually, one of his demos arrived at the offices of Mill Pond Records, an independent label based in Seattle. In 2004, Mill Pond released Temple's first record, a self-titled four-song EP, with his first full-length outing, Hold a Match for a Gasoline World, following in 2005. He developed a loyal following in the Northwest and soon found himself shuttling back and forth between his homes in Brooklyn and Seattle. Temple's burgeoning career enjoyed a boost when in the fall of 2006 his song "Make Right with You" was featured in an episode of the hit television series Grey's Anatomy, raising his profile, boosting sales of the Hold a Match album, and increasing anticipation for his next record. With indie rock kingpins Ben Gibbard and Sufjan Stevens now heralding his voice as one of the best in the business, Temple released his sophomore long-player, Snowbeast, in August 2007. In 2008, Temple formed the group Here We Go Magic with Michael Bloch and Peter Hale. Their self-titled first record from 2009 featured only Temple, however, with a full band on only one track. For the next few years, he alternated between making off-kilter indie rock with the band (with Secretly Canadian releasing Pigeons in 2010 and A Different Ship in 2012) and quieter indie folk albums on his own (2011's Don't Act Like You Don't Care on Western Vinyl). In 2013, Temple moved his solo operation to Secretly Canadian and changed his style, too. His fourth album, Good Mood Fool, was recorded in an upstate New York cabin with Eliot Krimsky (synths) and Mike Johnson (drums), and took a giant step away from indie folk to land squarely in the spot where chillwave and R&B intersect. He returned to more folk-styled storytelling, however, with 2016's A Hand Through the Cellar Door. In 2017, after relocating to Northern California, Temple adopted the persona of animist musician Art Feynman and, obscuring his face in promotional materials, released Blast Off Through the Wicker on Western Vinyl. He returned with Both-And in 2019, issued by Native Cat Recordings under his own name. Another Feynman album, the entirely solo Half Price at 3:30, followed a year later, back on Western Vinyl. Now residing downstate in Los Angeles, he recorded his third Art Feynman album live in the studio with a band. With Temple describing Feynman as part of the collective consciousness struggling with everything from FOMO to potential societal collapse, he cited influences including Talking Heads' Remain in Light for 2023's Be Good the Crazy Boys (Western Vinyl). Certain Limitations followed on the label a year later. Credited to Luke Temple & the Cascading Moms, it found Temple, Kosta Galanopoulos (aka PWNT), and Doug Stuart all playing multiple instruments and locking into a palette of intricate guitar lines, spacey synths, and off-kilter grooves. ~ Mark Deming & Tim Sendra, Rovi