TLOBF Interview :: Two Door Cinema Club

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Bangor may not be renown for producing any kind of bands whose fan base extends outside menopausal housewives (*cough* SNOW PATROL *cough*) but Two Door Cinema Club – a Bangor trio of virile twenty-somethings who create sparky, sparkling indie-pop recalling Passion Pit’s rockiest moments and Star’s synthiest moments – are here to change all that. Already shortlisted for the BBC’s Sounds of 2010 award, TDCC are proving to be the brightest stars to light up the Northern Irish music scene for a long time – and with a lengthy tour currently on the agenda, they’re planning to light up the wholeworld.
We caught up with them below…

Hello Two Door Cinema Club! So your debut album is coming out next month – how are you all feeling about the release?
Very good! It’s been waiting to go for a few months now. We are so happy with it and wouldn’t change a thing.

How did you decide on the album’s name, Tourist History?
The past couple of years we have become tourists – playing shows in different cities and countries every night – most of which we have never been to before. The town we are from, Bangor, was a big tourist town in the 60s/70s and so we grew up with that history too.

Has your sound differed any from your earlier demos – are there going to be any surprises for the fans?
A lot of the songs are the same but they just sound a lot better! There is just more depth in the tracks and sonic variations throughout. I think it’s also great to have another person you respect having their input on your sound.

Could you talk me through the recording process for the album – how did you go about writing your songs?
Usually it will come from a small initial idea – melody or drum track. And then we loop it and play together to get a general structure. We would then go away and work individually in getting our own parts better.

Have you a particular favourite track on it?
I think ‘I Can Talk’ came out sounding great. Zdar brought a lot to the track too. He made it sound massive! It’s also the last song we wrote for the album.

How did you all meet, and what’s the story behind your band name?
We all met at high school and realised we all played guitar and liked similar music. The name came from a small cinema called the Tudor cinema which Sam pronounced wrong when thinking of a band name – Tudor Cinema Club – so the spelling got changed to Two Door.

What music do you think has influenced Two Door Cinema Club’s sound – is there any particular artist or album that had the most influence? I can hear a lot of Canadian indie influences in your music, like Broken Social Scene and Stars.
Yeah. we love those bands but we love so much music. We have quite different tastes. Everything from Stevie Wonder and John Denver to Kylie Minogue, At The Drive-in, Idlewild, Death Cab For Cutie and Mew.

You’ve received some brilliant press – you’ve been nominated as one of BBC’s Sounds of 2010, and Kanye West even included the video for ‘I Can Talk’ in one of his blog posts! How has all this press affected you as a band? Did you expect to be so well-received?
No – it all came as quite a shock. We have been working away for nearly 3 years and it just seems people are starting to catch on, which is great! It hasn’t affected us a lot. We have the album all ready and the tour is all planned. So we just plan to continue to work hard!

You’ve been touring around the UK and Europe at the minute – how receptive have audiences been to your new material? Is there any place where audiences have been particularly enthusiastic?
Yeah we have had a great time touring. It is always great playing in Ireland and the UK but I think people tend to be a bit more enthusiastic at our shows in Europe. France is pretty great. Our label is based there and we have played a lot there so things are picking up for us there and we have played our biggest shows there over anywhere…

What have been your best and worst touring moments?
Festivals are always a lot of fun. We got to go to lots of different ones last year, Like Glastonbury, Reading, Positivus in Latvia.

Much has been made over the fact that you use a laptop instead of a drummer when playing live – have you recruited a live drummer, or are you going to continue on using the laptop in live performances?
Yes indeed we have…but yes we still use a laptop also for some other percussion and samples.