It’s been some ride for The Temper Trap. The Australian alternative rock group busted out the gates in the late 2000s with “Sweet Disposition,” powered by its featured spot in (500) Days of Summer and those stunning falsetto notes of frontman Dougy Mandagi.
At home, the band enjoyed ARIA Awards, consecutive chart crowns (with 2012’s The Temper Trap and 2016’s Thick as Thieves), endured lineup changes (longstanding guitarist Lorenzo Sillitto left in 2013), played stadiums (they led the halftime show at the 2012 AFL Grand Final).
On Tuesday night, Jan. 20, the Melbourne lads stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live, a proof-of-life performance for a band that many of us hadn’t heard from in far too long.
Hitting their latest song “Giving Up Air,” here was proof, also, that Mandagi hasn’t lost any of that vocal magic.
The four-piece was backed by vision of a vehicle burning rubber on a winding road, an allegory perhaps of their own career.
“Giving Up Air” is heavier than its title suggests. On it, Mandagi drills into the weight of grief, singing: “Givin’ up air, layin’ it bare / Hoping my dreams will reappear / When everything I know is hanging on a prayer.”
Produced by Grammy Award-nominated Styalz Fuego (Troye Sivan, Charli XCX, The Knocks, Khalid), “Giving Up Air” dropped in 2025, the followup to comeback track “Lucky Dimes” – TTT’s first release after a nine-year hiatus.
It’s “a very important song for me about a life-changing moment and the unimaginable pain of losing a loved one in tragic circumstances,” Mandagi explains in a statement, “from the initial shock to sorrow and then anger, and finding glimmers of hope somewhere in between. Some of you may recognize it. It was written for my solo project Bloodmoon but the boys and I started working on it as The Temper Trap and it felt magical, like it had found its true home.”
TTT embarked on a run of headline shows in Australia late last year, followed by North America shows in New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto.
Watch their late-night performance below.
