Facing Reality

The Chicago five-piece take to the stage and launch into the chaotic energy of "Standing In The Sand", a track taken from 2013’s frenetic debut album Sunken and like magic the crowd instantly explodes into fits of energy that you would associate with some kind of heroic home-coming. A wave of motion ripples across the room with crowd-surfers floating overhead and there’s even a wall-of-death. It’s pure chaos as every soul in the room devotedly screams the triumphant chorus of “ohhhh yeahhhhh oh yeah yeah”.

This is what a Twin Peaks show is all about. It’s nothing short of thrilling and is the kind of moment that reminds you of how exciting these kind of gigs can be. The aggression, the excitement, the entertainment - it’s all there. This is when the band are absolutely in their element as they throw themselves across the stage and spit and sweat their way through the show, blasting through well-loved numbers and material that is yet to be released, but each new song is welcomed in the same beloved manner. And it’s pretty different picture to the band I’d spoken to only a few hours beforehand…

"There’s some things on this record about how you kind of do stuff that you love, but how it kind of depresses you..." - Clay Frankel

When we sit down to talk in the late afternoon, it becomes clear that Twin Peaks are tired, exhausted even. The heaviness of the night before is written clearly across their faces. “We had a few beers…” their guitarist Clay Frankel admits, looking down into his chicken burger and chips like a man defeated - and after a full day of promo and sound-checks, it’s completely understandable.

“This is me looking healthy. Just wait until the end of the tour” he sighs, “I think I’ll learn how to pace myself as I get older…” he adds this possibly in a desperate bid to convince himself rather than me that this is the truth.

His bandmate, Cadien Lake James, sits by his side and simply adds “well, I feel like a champion!”

The band are mid-way through their tour and prepping to play their second sold-out London show in a row, and despite the apparent exhaustion they all seem exceptionally pleased with how it is all coming along, and oddly surprised by it as well. Their keyboardist, and most recent addition to the line-up, Colin Croom, excitedly recites how people had been queuing around the building hours before they were set to go onstage the night before and there is this feeling that they can’t quite believe that anyone would even want to come, as Frankel further explains “I’m pretty impressed with the number of people that are coming alone to these shows. I always don’t expect people to come…”

It isn’t the first time the band have ventured across the pond, but it seems they’re still getting used to the difference between how crowds react on home turf and what it’s like when they go overseas as Frankel further ponders “I don’t know how much different it has been from last time, like we’re playing a lot of new music, I think it’s going down well. I can’t really tell, because I think crowds are a little stiffer here - I think that’s just how they roll.”

At home in the States, they are more able to build their fanbase and tour at will, so they see their time in the UK and Europe as precious and know how hard they are going to have to work if they want everything to work out in the long-run.

Like any young band, it is nothing but an absolute dream to be touring the world, but there is a reality to all of it and on days like this you can see how hectic touring and promo schedules can take their toll. “We haven’t toured in a little while… I think I got into it a little too quickly” Frankel sighs again, but it isn’t so much like a man regretting his plot in life or moaning about the situation, just regretting the headache that is obviously plaguing him, though when asked how he stays sane on tour he simply laughs “I don’t know. I usually lose my mind about half way through. Pretty consistently.” Once again, James chirps with a shrug and a smile and states that when you’re on tour “you’ve got to have yourself a laugh. And try and actually get some sleep.”

There’s a balance at play all the time where an off-hand manner and sense of chaos is counter-balanced by a happy-go-lucky attitude and breezy outlook on life. Throughout our conversation, the difference in Frankel and James’ personalities is obvious. Cadien’s unbuttoned shirt reveals a tattoo that reads ‘LET IT BLEED’ after The Rolling Stones’ classic album, a band that the pair cite again and again as a major inspiration behind their music. Cadien seems to just take life as it comes, speaking cooly and easily and only pausing to give a five pound note to a beggar that approaches our table. As something of the chief honcho of the band, as he was the one who brought them together in the first place, he has a central positioning, but comes across as one of the most laid-back guys and like nothing would never be too much of a big deal.

Frankel is equally relaxed, but more direct and takes a little longer to relax into the conversation. He is more at ease when talking about the music and is most enthused when we start discussing the process of making the new album. The excitement lights up his face as he begins to talk at length about how different it was to make the album this time around. “It was just such a great experience, and we’re really pleased with how it turned out and how it sounded.”

Twin Peaks were first formed when Cadien (who is also bizarrely known as BIG TUNA) formed the band with his mates and they began playing basements across Chicago. Their debut album was produced in James’ own basement using two microphones and Garageband. If you want to talk about DIY, this band have done it all and there’s something so genuine about everything they want to put together.

Even with album number three, they are seemingly not interested in big grand studios or bringing any big producers in and focused almost entirely on what they want. There is a kind of genuine ownership that they demand over everything they do though, and remaining true to their roots is the most important thing in everything they produce. This has resulted in the new album being just as DIY as their previous efforts.

“We usually just make music to please ourselves first”, Frankel explains. This is an attitude that marks every action that they take as a band. With their new record Down In Heaven, they simply went to a friend’s farmhouse in Massachusetts and turned it into a studio. They produced the album and even created the artwork themselves. “We kinda struck on this idea of it being like really childish art - because none of us are really any good at drawing - but we like colours and once we got the idea it basically made itself.”

The cover art of the new album is immensely fun and really represents the slightly scatty but amiable nature of the band. James adds “it’s my favourite cover yet, for sure.” But don’t let it fool you. Just like their music, which is so often catchy, up-beat and deceptively simple, a lot of the time it is hiding something deeper. “It’s like so many Rolling Stones songs. You listen to them and it just sounds like really rawkus, like they're having a party, but then you read the lyrics and they can be pretty dark”, Frankel explains.“There’s some things on this record about how you kind of do stuff that you love, but how it kind of depresses you.” James nods in complete agreement and adds “some of it reflects on the more shitty parts of touring and how it can wear your body down and your mind down.”

Like anything worth doing though, times can get tough, but it doesn’t mean that Twin Peaks want to give up, they know exactly what they signed up for. “Like what else would we be doing?” James laughs, “This is obviously exactly what I felt I was meant to be doing. I don’t believe in destiny too much, but it was always the fantasy to just be in a band and do this and not do the regular life shit. But it’s still hard. It’s just both sides of that. And I think the title kinda incorporates that… It’s good to have duality in art.”

What seems to be most interesting is not just the fact that they have thought so intently over how exactly they wanted the world to see this album and how these songs would be represented, but the fact that they picture everything in a physical sense, even in the age of digital. Both Frankel and James speak in terms of the album being ‘pressed’ and how good it will be when they get to hold the album in their hands and see the inserts that they have single-handedly designed and put together.

“The whole thing is a piece of art. [The artwork] isn’t as important as the music, but it’s still important. It’s all part of the package and it’s still art” James explains further, and it’s one of the points in our discussion where both members get increasingly passionate, sharing the same enthusiasm for the vinyl product. “It’s just the best part” Frankel adds, “that’s when you can rest easy - when you get the record and nothing went wrong and you put it on and nothing’s fucked and it’s been catalogued.”

Twin Peaks are on a strong upward trajectory, but it doesn’t always seem to run so smoothly. With tracks such as the wistful ‘Walk To The One You Love’ and ‘Butterfly’, you can see that - dare we say it - they’ve grown up through their music. But experience does not make the song-writing process any easier. Reflecting on their personal progression since their last album Wild Onion, Frankel points out something that many a songwriter has faced - the challenge of finding new inspiration. “I think we are writing better music. But at the same time there is still something to be said about the way you write a song when you’re 17 and it’s something you kinda lose over time.”

It’s something that so many bands face. Where that naive creativity that built you up in the first place begins to fade as the adult mind takes hold: “I know a lot more about writing songs and how I do it, whereas before they just kinda fell out of my head. I didn’t even know what the songs were about, and you didn’t even know what the songs were about or what you were singing about.”

It doesn’t mean that they are in any danger of over-thinking it any time soon, and although Frankel may feel as though the songs don’t come as easily as they did when he was younger, they still manage to write furiously infectious tracks and excite crowds both at home and across borders.

And what does the future hold for them? “Well, I hope I can get enough money to move out of my mum’s house…” James smiles.