The world belongs to those who try, who take risks, who know our time on earth is limited and must make it count. Brave artists like Tempers follow this philosophy and are also directly inspired by this approach. We can see that especially in her latest song, Fail Better, out today. This new single off of her upcoming album, Delusion, out April 24th, is the third release by the New York-based artist, who’s letting her audience into her collage-like world.
Inspired by literature, cinema, art, and fashion, Jasmine Golestaneh has been developing the Tempers universe for quite a while. It’s a unique project that allows her to express herself through many outlets. In Fail Better, this is testament: an art pop song whose melody and production are catchy yet dreamlike and somewhat evasive. With a cinematic aura created by synths and Golestaneh’s ethereal voice, the new single is another sneak peek into the upcoming LP.
“The title comes from a quote by Samuel Beckett, “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” I was thinking about failure as a place where you can confront fragmented parts of yourself,” Tempers explains. “The song describes deceptive loops, the seduction of repetition, and the non-linear nature of healing. It was also the first track I worked on for the album, and sonically it began a shift into a more lush terrain for Tempers, with violin and cello playing alongside synth-heavy dreamscapes,” she concludes.
But because Golestaneh is a multi-hyphenate artist who needs more than music to express herself, she’s also teamed up with Venice Biennale Silver Lion artist Camille Henrot to develop a limited wearable art capsule inspired by Delusion — a small bespoke T-shirt edition that translates both artists’ themes of symbolism, self-mythology, and rupture (and that you can get here). And also, with Berlin-based art critic and writer Estelle Hoy for Delusion: Lyrics Remixed, a limited-edition lyric art book conceived as a collective that applies the logic of a musical remix to language, placing Tempers’ lyrics in dialogue with Hoy’s texts.
In her upcoming record, comprising ten songs, Tempers embarks on a “non-linear exploration of healing and becoming.” She will bring that intimate, vulnerable exploration to life in a series of concerts: in Los Angeles on May 6th; in Berlin on May 11th; in London on May 12th; in Istanbul on May 15th; and in New York City on May 28th.