Alfie Templeman to play hometown album launch gig at Esquires this week

Teenage singer songwriter Alfie Templeman will be celebrating the release of his debut album this Friday with a headline hometown gig at Esquires.

The 19-year-old’s 14-track LP Mellow Moon is out the same day he plays the Bedford venue.

When Templeman started work on his long-awaited debut album in early 2020 he couldn’t have predicted the turbulent path that lay ahead for both him personally and the rest of the world.

Two years later he has emerged with Mellow Moon, an album that feels like something of a miracle, landing somewhere between an otherworldly trip and a joy-filled ode to life back on earth.

He said: “It feels like I’m on a different planet. I’ve gone somewhere new and I’m discovering fire for the first time.”

Templeman began the earliest period of the pandemic shielding due to a respiratory issue first identified in childhood.

Having found himself feeling “very low” he sought help as he attempted to deal with his anxiety.

He said: “I think people assume that I’m this easy, outgoing person but there’s actually a lot more layers to me and this record shows that.

“Writing songs like ‘Broken’, ‘Take Some Time Away’ and ‘Mellow Moon’ were like therapy.

“It was me asking ‘What’s wrong with me?’ and ‘How am I going to get better?’

“Just figuring things out in real time. I had therapy but there were still things unresolved in my mind. “So, I turned to music for the answers.”

Music has always proven to be a sanctuary for Alfie who first started releasing music when he was 15-years-old.

The self-taught multi-instrumentalist produces the majority of his music himself from his parents’ Bedfordshire home.

However, the same bedroom that had once been a creative hub became prison-like in its limitations.

“I was struggling a lot,” he says, looking back.

“My brain was a bit backwards and it was really intense. I was very low for a few weeks and couldn’t write for a long time.

“I’m being really open for the first time about where I’m at mentally. Overcoming that felt life changing.”

The change in mood is palpable throughout Mellow Moon, with songs like ‘3D Feelings’ or ‘Broken’, a “bit of an anthem for people my age really, all the little wobbles of being a teen and figuring yourself out,” he explains.

“I realised how much I took everything for granted,” Alfie says of pre-pandemic life.

“It made my song-writing go deeper too. I hit a new level that I hadn’t gone to before.

“I took more time with my songs and was thinking it through more than ever, every single detail.”

Alfie recently completed his first UK and European headline tour which included sold-out shows in Manchester, Bristol, Brighton and his biggest UK show to date at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire before taking in raucous shows in France, Germany, Holland and Belgium.

He is also set to play a series of in-store shows and festival dates - including Radio 1’s Big Weekend - before embarking on his first headline dates in Australia in June in Melbourne and Sydney alongside The Wombats.

Templeman released his debut single ‘Like An Animal’ in 2018 and his debut mini-album ‘Forever Isn’t Long Enough’ followed last year.

He’s clocked up more than 140,000,000 streams worldwide and in excess of 221,000,000 radio impacts in the UK thanks to support from across the BBC radio network, Radio X, Virgin, Absolute and Apple Music.

He featured on the 2021 BBC Sound Of poll as well as other ‘tastemaker’ lists.

Alfie Templeman headlines Esquires on Friday, May 27.

Tickets cost £15 in advance before fees via https://www.seetickets.com/event/alfie-templeman/bedford-esquires/2333327

You can pre-order Mellow Moon at https://alfietempleman.com