Forever on Tour: an Interview with Twin Atlantic

Forever on Tour: an Interview with Twin Atlantic

17 May, 2011
by: Mewcy

Twin Atlantic take a break from their infinite touring schedule to discuss Gil Norton, Braveheart and football. It's the mark of a stong Scotsman to approach the latter.

Unbelievable as it is, during our interview with Twin Atlantic we managed to hold back from mentioning The Proclaimers even once. Anyone who has gone and seen one of their shows or has bought the latest record 'Free' knows that their chirpy euphoric rock sound is completely driven by an overwhelmingly Scottish twang that even us Londoners find hard to resist.
 
Given that they're touring every conceivable corner of the land at the minute, I thought it was high time that I went and had a chat with them as they returned to London for the gazillionth time. It's something that isn't going to stop happening until we all get bored of the new record apparently... we sure hope they've packed enough clean pants because it might be a while.

Your songs have such a strong and anthemic sound-how does it feel to see your crowds get so lost in your music? They clearly love it as much as you do. 

Ross (Bass): It's really good to see people having a good time and not worry about what other people are doing. We've also noticed at our gigs now there's such a cross section. It can be a fourteen year old girl or fifty year old man.
Barry (Guitar): And nothing in between... 

In between the releases of 'Vivarium' and 'Free' Twin Atlantic's popularity seems to have exploded somewhat with a flourish of new fans... did that put any pressure on you with the writing of the new album? Was there the fear of the dreaded 'curse of the second album' rattling about?

Barry: If you thought about it you'd crawl up into a ball and cry about it all day and not get on with it.
Ross: We're so pessimistic right, even though on this tour all the gigs have been really busy or sold out were still not in the mindset that people are coming to the gigs to see us. It's cos we're from Scotland. 

Is it like what Frankie Boyle says it's like?

Ross: Yeah, 'a holding pen for Jeremy Kyle' is what he says about it.  

I’m assuming that working with Gil Norton on 'Free' was a pretty momentous occasion for you chaps.

Barry: We were all nervous- he's used to working with people like Dave Grohl. He's been responsible for music that made each of us want to be in bands. We expected him to turn up like a total don and have a posse of engineers with him but he was just the most genuine and humble guy.
Ross: It was all really exciting but it still doesn't feel like we actually did it. It'll probably hit us in about six months time.  

Considering that America's idea of a Scottish accent is Mel Gibson in 'Braveheart', was there some element of difficulty blending in when you were recording and touring over there?

Ross: Well you don't really blend in. after a couple of shows we did have a few people shouting out 'Braveheart' at us...
Barry: 'Freedom!!'
Ross: A lot of people in America that have been to Scotland talk to you about whisky and golf and you just nod and pretend to like those things.
Barry: We also got accepted so unanimously across the country with open arms because everybody already claims to be Scottish or Irish.  

Scotland is also famous for their football. So if every little boy's dream came true and FIFA approached you to stick one of your songs on next year's soundtrack, which one would it be?
 
(Long pause to think)
Ross: It's really hard! You've got to think about that, it's got to be definite...
Barry: We're mad football fans and played every day growing up. I'd choose 'Free' or 'Time To Stand Up'. Funnily enough we did get to re-enact a childhood dream in a real football stadium- New York Red Bulls are affiliated to our record label and when we were over there we actually got to go and see a game and they played our songs in the stadium. That was amazing! 

If someone who hasn't heard you before had to listen to just one song of yours to get exactly what Twin Atlantic were all about which one would it be and why?

Ross: 'Edit Me'. It sums up our whole attitude and mindset about the world is, and musically it sort of sums us up too. There's loud parts, there's quiet parts...
Barry: And it does it all in just over two minutes so it won't even take up too much of your time. 

Are you being pessimistic again? 

Barry: We just like to be considerate of others because we don't want to be a chore. We appreciate how busy people are these days so we want to keep it short.
Ross: Maybe the next album we do will just be one and a half minutes. 


Twin Atlantic's latest record 'Free' is out now.

Mewcy