In the 2009 movie (500) Days of Summer, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom and Zooey Deschanel as Summer, “Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap plays during two key scenes. Spoiler alert: The first shows the couple bonding while exploring Los Angeles together. The second, after they stop seeing each other, captures them briefly reconnecting and reminiscing about their past.
In the opening monologue of the movie, the narrator explicitly says, “you should know up front this is not a love story.”
While the song is considered by many as a love song, even being included as one of the “50 Best Indie Love Songs for Valentine’s Day,” lead singer Dougy Mandagi stated, “I mean so many people have gotten married to that song and whatnot – it’s not even a love song! But… it takes on a whole life of its own. People decipher the lyrics in their own way, and it speaks to them in its own way. So I’m happy for that. I’m glad that the song belongs to so many other people.”
The inclusion of “Sweet Disposition” in the movie quickly catapulted the Australian indie band to international stages. After the film’s release, tours with major acts such as the Rolling Stones, Florence and the Machine, Coldplay, and Imagine Dragons had them playing in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States.
“Sweet Disposition” earned 3× Platinum certification in Australia, Platinum in the US and UK, and Gold in Italy. It reached the top 10 on the Singles Charts in the UK, Ireland, and Belgium, and peaked at No. 9 on the US Billboard Alternative Songs chart.
The band name and song name merged
The Temper Trap officially formed in 2005 in Melbourne, Australia, with lead singer Dougy Mandagi, Toby Dundas on drums, and Jonathon Aherne on bass. Lorenzo Sillitto joined on lead guitar in 2006.
“I was working at a General Pants on Chapel Street in 2003 and I just wanted to start a band,” said Mandagi. “So, I pushed a few people. One guy from this church that I used to go to, he played guitar. Then I poached Toby [Dundas – drums], who worked at the store as well.”
“It just so happened that Johnny [Aherne], who was one of my first friends that I made when I moved to Australia from Bali, was working right next door to General Pants at a surf shop. So, that day when we all finished work, I ran next door because we desperately needed a bass player. I just kind of pulled him and said, ‘Do you want to have a go playing bass?'”
“We went through a bunch of guitarists after that. But Toby, myself, and Johnny, I guess we were the founding members. And we’ve been together since.”
“It’s derived from Temper Temper, which is a name we were thinking of,” said Aherne. “But we changed it because there was already an emo band in Milwaukee or something called Temper Temper. I remember not wanting to go with the Temper Trap because I thought it didn’t mean anything. But I guess it has sort of a psychological angle to it.”
The name is also a combination of the band members’ favourite song, “The Lady is a Tramp,” and their favourite movie, The Parent Trap.
In the early days, the band wrote and rehearsed almost daily. “I just knew that I wanted to do it for a living. I wanted to be successful in it. Maybe my idea of success at the time was smaller, and obviously just progressively grew and grew the more realised our potential and the more I realized just what we could attain,” said Mandagi.
In 2006, the band signed with Liberation Music in Australia and released its debut EP, The Temper Trap, that November. Two years later, London came calling and they signed with Infectious Records and began recording their debut album.
“Before we moved to London, we got signed to a London label and it was part of the deal. Basically, the label said, ‘We’ll sign you, but you have to move to London.’ So, it wasn’t like we had a choice,” recalled Mandagi.
“Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap was initially released in Australia on September 16, 2008. It was then released internationally, first in the United States on July 14, 2009, which coincided with the release of the movie “(500) Days of Summer” on July 17, then in the United Kingdom on August 3.
The term “sweet disposition” describes a person’s temperament. A person with a sweet disposition is pleasant, agreeable, friendly, and easy to get along with. The success of the song “Sweet Disposition” brought that to each member of The Temper Trap: a sweet disposition.
Lyrically: Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap
“The song came out in Australia at the end of 2008, if I’m not mistaken. So probably, we probably wrote this song a year before that, I think. We wrote it in a kind of tiny little rehearsal room in the suburbs in Melbourne, and I remember Lorenzo came in to rehearsals that day, and we started playing this guitar scale, and it’s the riff, you know, that now everybody knows the ‘Sweet Disposition’ for,” said Mandagi.
“So that obviously perked my ears straight away and I said let’s explore this. And so we did, and the song came together relatively quick. I think two days? Yeah, we got the music done that night, and then I just went home, penned down some lyrics, and came back the next day and finished it.”
“‘Sweet Disposition’ is kind of a song about the exuberance of youth, the ups and downs, and as a band we were all, you know, the four of us at the time, we were all so green and inexperienced in making and performing music, and I guess, in short, Sweet Disposition sort of encapsulated that moment in our lives as an indie band starting out in Melbourne perfectly.”
“So, inspiration was just kind of just there for the taking, you know, it was there in the air, in the room,” said Mandagi. “I don’t know, it was just one of those special moments where everything sort of just came together really naturally and really easily.”
Sweet disposition
Never too soon
Oh, reckless abandon
Like no one’s watching you
These lyrics celebrate the unfiltered and unchartered enthusiasm of starting anything new that does not have a calculated outcome, just acted upon by desire to see where the action and decision end up.
A moment, a love
A dream, aloud
A kiss, a cry
Our rights, our wrongs
A moment, a love
A dream, aloud
A moment, a love
A dream, aloud
These are the fluctuating emotions that encompass youth that Mandagi described, noting “When we’re young, we act first and think later. But as adults, we rationalize everything. Basically, the song is about capturing the innocence of youth.”
Just stay there
‘Cause I’ll be coming over
And while our blood’s still young
It’s so young, it runs
And won’t stop ’til it’s over
Won’t stop to surrender
If part of the message of “Sweet Disposition” is about the “exuberance of youth,” then the option of staying in this emotion until “it’s over” is the goal.
The ending lyrics “Won’t stop ’til it’s over / Won’t stop to surrender” express a determined, relentless attitude toward life and its roller coaster of experiences and challenges.
There is irony in how “Sweet Disposition” became synonymous with (500) Days of Summer. The film opens with a warning that “this is not a love story,” yet the song has been embraced as a romantic anthem at weddings. Some have fully embraced the lyrics and tattooed it on their body as words to live by, sometimes incorrectly like Harry Styles.
This gap between expectation and reality mirrors the film’s central theme. Tom expects Summer to be his soulmate, projecting his romantic fantasy onto her despite clear signs they want different things. The song, which Mandagi insists isn’t about love but about the swinging highs and lows of youth, became something it was never meant to be. Both the song and the film understand that we hear what we want to hear until truth surrenders itself.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we expect it to, you know, go as far as it has, but we knew we were onto something good, you know, it was an immediate feeling.”
