When the news was announced that Two Door Cinema Club had returned to drop a third album in 2016, the indie world was thrown into meltdown. The love for the trio is intense, to say the least, and not all of the attention is focused on frontman Alex Trimble. Bassist Kevin Baird is the subject of many tumblr accounts, and has been called “swoon-worthy” more than once by his adoring fans, while guitarist Sam Halliday gets similar treatment. Despite what seemed like an instantaneous rise to success with singles like ‘Undercover Martyn’ and ‘Something Good Can Work’, Baird disclosed that it wasn’t so easy for the band to score their first record deal.
“When we first started out, we were on a small independent label, and we’d been through that experience of all the big record labels coming and watching our gig and deciding that they didn’t like us, so it’s not like we had fifteen offers on the table and chose one. Everyone passed, and we ended up working with people who actually liked us… which was a small bunch of people,” Baird laughed.
“It worked out for the best, I think. We never really felt part of this super-hyped club, there were always these bands ahead of us on the pecking order for everything. We decided that whatever happens, happens, and tried not to plan it. We just put our heads down and did what we’re good at, which is playing live.”
From the band’s humble beginnings in Ireland, they slowly but surely conquered the world. Two albums later, and the band were slated to headline Splendour in the Grass 2014 along with a key set at Latitude festival, but both performances had to be cancelled at the last minute. Trimble was admitted to hospital with chronic stomach ulcers as a result of the rising tensions within the band, showing crucial signs that the much-loved indie band was crumbling apart from the inside.
“You spend a lot of time together [on the road], but you’re not really together, because you don’t talk or communicate,” Baird revealed. “The little things in those environments turn into big things when they shouldn’t, if you address them at the time.”
After spending years apart, seeing Trimble return to his family home and the other two left to pick up the pieces, the band slowly got in touch again to feel out where Two Door Cinema Club’s future laid, if it had a future at all.
“I’m pretty sure we were all a bit nervous,” Baird laughed. “The three of us hadn’t spent any time together for longer than a dinner or a couple of drinks for years, so that was the first extended bit of time we were going to spend together, so we were all really nervous. We got in there, and Jacknife Lee was amazing, and just chilled everyone out, and got everyone excited and pumped about the record. It turned out to be loads of fun, and a really amazing experience.”
That doesn’t mean that the album is all sunshine and proverbial rainbows, however. Baird believes that at least half of Gameshow is focused on mulling over the past three years of the trio’s life, and their lack of space to find individuality. This reflection is epitomised in ‘Good Morning’, a darker cut from the album with a subtle nod of the head to ‘One’ by Harry Nilsson.
“I think [‘Good Morning’] is one of the songs where Alex is trying to get to grips with who he is as a person, and also to be okay with who that is. It reflects on little thoughts and doubts that everyone has in their heads when they’re feeling low, or down, or in a bad place. It reflects on a time when Alex wasn’t doing so well.”
Baird is painfully aware of how quickly relationships can deteriorate. The band have considered the drain from touring and have planned a multi-faceted change to their touring schedules, which includes having extra days off, and more comfort all around to help avoid repeating mistakes from the not-so-distant past. Fortunately, Two Door Cinema Club have moved over to join Gorillaz, Blur and Coldplay on their label Parlophone, who are more than happy to meet their touring requests. Despite the old saying of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, Baird claims the band was happy with their old label Kitsune.
“There were a couple of reasons why we moved. Our contract had ended with Kitsune, and we just felt it was time. There were some boring, political things going on between CEOs of record labels that we were involved in, and everything was really crazy and up in the air.”
“No one really knew where the land was going to lie in six months time, and we were at the point where we were out of contract and on the other side of it we really liked Parlophone and we liked the idea of pushing things a bit further,” Baird enthused.
“The thing that we relied on from Kitsune and independent labels was passion, and these guys would work themselves to the bone because they loved the record so much, so we’d do the same for them. It’s a different way of approaching it with Parlophone, and we were interested in seeing where that could take the band in a more commercial sense.”
On that point, Parlophone has certainly delivered. Gameshow is a slick album loaded with pop flourishes and synth struts, whilst maintaining the core Two Door Cinema Club sound, and there’s no doubt it’ll make its way over to commercial radio with ease.
As it turns out, Australia was heartbreakingly close to being the first country to hear the new Two Door Cinema Club material live, and it’s thanks to being on the other side of the world that logistics stood in the way at the last second.
“It’s been part of the conversation since we were planning on how this campaign would go,” Baird divulged. “To be honest, we had planned to come a lot sooner than we’ll be able to. We wanted to tour at the start of the year, and the way things worked out, festivals or whatever, it didn’t really make sense. We were a bit upset about that, and we’re still scrambling to try and find the soonest opportunity we can get to tour Australia and give it the time it deserves.”
With over a day of flying time to get from their hometown to Australia, you can understand an element of trepidation when dedicating time to extend their tour. Australian fans can hope and pray for a quick diversion to their Northern Hemisphere touring plans, but Splendour in the Grass 2017 may be the safest bet.
