music
THIS IS GROWING UP Two Door Cinema Club are now playing the same venues as Beyoncé, but Sam Halliday still likes to see a bit of rowdiness in the crowd, learns Benny Doyle.
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orthern Irish sons Two Door Cinema Club are slowly getting used to the idea of a third long-player, with an as-yet-untitled record currently in its infancy, but for the last few months the band have been more domesticated than they have been dedicated to the cause. Not that that’s a bad thing though, according to guitarist Sam Halliday, but after finally laying roots away from County Down – Halliday and bassist Kevin Baird in London, frontman Alex Trimble in Portland, Oregon – the trio are currently adjusting to the distance, and the expectation that comes following a pair of highly successful records. “We’re now getting hard into the writing, trying to treat that almost like a job,” says Halliday, “[but] with the time difference it’s tough. Kevin and I get together most days to write; we use his house because it’s more set up than mine – he has a desk, I don’t have a desk yet. So we write some music then Alex writes some music and then we use the internet; it’s amazing, I don’t know why people didn’t do it before,” he mocks. The band’s last gig was a fairly monumental event, going down in December at London’s O2 Arena, a modern behemoth in the city’s south east which can welcome 20,000 punters at full capacity. It’s typically where your Gagas, Timberlakes and Princes hold court, not so much a proper indie troupe from the Emerald Isle, and Halliday admits with a laugh that the only time he’d been to the venue previously was to see Beyoncé. “It’s not like when we started the band we dreamed of playing arenas, it’s just something that’s happened,” he tells. “And obviously it’s hilarious and really fun to play an arena, and it was cool working with our lighting designer to make a big production show as well. We thought we’d made shows like that before but we hadn’t.” Two Door Cinema Club did, however, design a pretty worthy musical blueprint for such settings with their second record Beacon. A step forward in every way without turning their back on who they are, the 2012 release justified their bigger profile. “We wanted more variation within the album; that was a conscious decision,” Halliday says. “With Tourist 14 • THE MUSIC • 30TH APRIL 2014
History we had loads of songs to choose from and we picked the ten that we thought were the most to-the-point: upbeat, fast, catchy. With Beacon, it was nice to have variation in tempo and style. But the overall largeness in sound was
time around, Halliday assures us that the band aren’t trying to design ideas to fit others. “We’re not trying to restrict it to guitar riffs and catchy melodies,” he says, “we’re trying to do some different stuff.” Announced as part of Splendour In The Grass for a second time, Two Door Cinema Club have been welcomed with open arms Down Under since their inaugural visit in 2010, when they played an afternoon slot to a packed tent in the Woodford bush.
“I THINK EVERYWHERE SHOULD HAVE A TRIPLE J. IF EVERY COUNTRY HAD A TRIPLE J WE’D HAVE HAD AN EASIER TIME.” down to the production from Jacknife Lee,” he adds. “It also came down to having more than one guitar. When we made our first album we turned up to the studio with a guitar in one hand and an amplifier in the other, and we were like, ‘Okay, how does this work?’ [On Beacon] we had loads of amps.” And although it’s still too early in the process to make note of any lyrical themes or sonic trends this
“Australian crowds can be compared to UK crowds: they love to drink and be rowdy,” Halliday smiles. “But then with the heat I think Australians are pushed that bit further. This one time a group of guys lifted their friend up who was in a wheelchair, and he crowdsurfed in the wheelchair, it was nuts. And he wasn’t like, ‘Oh no guys, don’t do that’, he was up for it – it was pretty impressive.” And knowing very well who stoked the Two Door fire here originally, Halliday sings the praise of the national broadcaster, admitting that Australia was behind the band even before the UK press cranked the hype machine into gear. “I think everywhere should have a triple j,” he finishes. “If every country had a triple j we’d have had an easier time.” WHEN & WHERE: 26 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands