“[…]it’s a very fickle and fleeting world, pop-culture especially!” – Alex Trimble
Two Door Cinema Club are back with a brand new album, called ‘Gameshow’, after taking a break for almost 4 years. Since their debut album in 2010 (‘Tourist History’), the band from Northern Ireland, consisting of Alex Trimble (vocals, guitar, synths), Kevin Baird (bass, vocals) and Sam Halliday (drums, vocals) became an inherent part of the indie music scene. With their brand new album, they created a record which is fully packed with danceable tunes and 21st century problems based lyrics in a smart and characteristic way. ‘Gameshow’ shows the problems of our generation – “Oh, we’ve made a mistake. We’ve lost our minds. We’ve lost our memory.”(‘Are We Ready (Wreck)’).
We had a lovely conversation with Alex, Kevin and Sam before their Berlin show at Columbiahalle, after they finished playing darts in the backyard of the venue. They were supported this evening by the British trio Blaenavon and the Australian five piece Parcels, which are both definitely worth to check out!
How are you doing? How does it feel to be back in Germany and especially to be back in Berlin?
Alex: Wonderful!
Kevin: Prima! (laughs) Sehr gut! Yeah it’s awesome, we played some like festivals and things in the past couple of years, but we don’t played any headline shows for four years or something. So yeah it’s really nice to come and play Columbia Halle and places which are a little bit bigger than the ones we’ve done before. And yeah, we love Germany and we’ve always had good shows here.
Alex: Yeah man this is the biggest show tonight, right? The biggest show in Germany. Berlin is always loads of fun.
Sam: We’ve been here loads, ‘cause we’ve always been coming here for promo trips, shows. Feel like we’re quite familiar with Berlin. It’s always very much fun to come over here. Very nice people worked at our record label and we always had a good time we’ve been here.
You took a really long time off from touring ‘cause you said that it was kind of tiring and you were sick of each other. How has this tour been so far?
Sam: Fine, absolutely fine.
Alex: I mean we all started to get a little bit tired, but we are going to have a break after this tour, which is nice.
Kevin: It’s the little things, everyone elses mannerisms. Eating, drinking..
Sam: I think this is the longest stress we’ve done from coming back as well, it’s been great. We just did the UK, like Europe we haven’t done headline shows there, in forever as well, so it’s been good to come back to places we haven’t been to as a band for so long.
Kevin: We are a lot better looking after ourselves and just prioritise the shows. Having fun to a reasonable degree (laughs).
You just released your 3rd studio album ‘Gameshow’ last year, what’s the album basically about? Would you say that the third album is a continuation of your musically journey?
Alex: I mean the album isn’t about anyone thing. It was inspired over the break. A lot of stuff happened and we got back to living a more ‘regular life’ and I don’t necessarily mean a normal life, but a life outside of touring and band stuff. So that brought a lot of new spirits and a lot of new ideas and just kinda reckoning with the modern world, I guess that’s the main kind of thing.
In which way are you influenced and inspired by other artist?
Alex: In many ways, every day (laughs). I don’t know I mean I love to see artists. Fearlessness I think is the biggest inspiration to me, I sense a lack of fearlessness in many popular artists today. Because I understand it, it’s a very fickle and fleeting world, pop-culture especially. I really admire a sense of like a pioneering spirit in an artist, that’s always fun to see.
We’ve just stumbled across a picture you recently posted on Instagram. It’s a quote which says ‘Music is a dirty job, but someone has to do it.’ How do you feel about quotes like that?
(everyone’s laughing)
Kevin: Oh that was me.
Alex: I don’t like them!
Kevin: It was an ironic post.
Sam: What does that even mean?!
Kevin: Yeah I know, it doesn’t mean anything. It’s funny, it’s like you get these things that really popular backstages . It’s an inside joke, because everyone else doesn’t just spent all the time backstage and the wifi passwort in every venue is like ‘rocknroll2013’ or something you know. And there is always some bullshit quote or some band has been there before and stuck their stickers somewhere. It’s just these little things that made me laugh I saw that and I thought that was an awful quote, so I thought I put that on Instagram.
Have you ever wanted to become musicians when you were younger?
A unison ‘yes’ filled the room.
Alex: That’s pretty much all I wanted to do.
Do you have any childhood heroes?
Kevin: Flash Gordon.
Alex: My first hero was Kurt Cobain, he was the reason I learned guitar and wanted to be in a band.
What was the last record you bought?
Alex: I bought a Money Mark record the other day.
Kevin: I think I bought something like Will Smith ‘Miami’ or something, ‘cause I was trying to do the music we play before we go on stage, like a playlist thing.
What means fashion to you?
Kevin: Clothes.
Sam: Being comfortable with yourself. That’s pretty fashionable.
How would you describe your style?
Alex: Tour chic.
Kevin: Whatever’s clean. I think it’s like Sam said, you kinda have to be comfortable in your own skin and in your own wardrobe I guess. We all just kind of wear what we like.
Indispensable piece of clothing for you?
Alex pointed on his leather jacket and smiled.
Sam: I got a pair of shoes, but I just wore them once ‘cause I’m too afraid to wear them. But I don’t know if I made it that far, that they are indispensable.
Kevin: My DM’s, rather than they are indispensable, they are indestructible. (laughs) They just last forever. There’s literally nothing that happened to these, since I bought them 4 years ago.
In another interview back in 2013 you said that people should buy your records, ‚cause Alex wanted to have a boat, a big house and a young attractive wife.
(everyone’s laughing)
Alex: When the fuck did we say that?
Kevin: We kind of learned the lesson that people actually write down the shit that we’re saying as a joke.
4 years later, which of your wishes has been fulfilled?
Alex: None!
What about the boat?
Alex: I dont want a boat. I’m still young you know (smiles).
Well we’ll see if that might change in the next 4 years, Alex. Thanks so much for taking the time to have a chat with us. We’re looking forward to the festival summer, to see Two Door Cinema Club on even bigger stages again.
Stay tuned..
xx smoke and echoes
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