Page 7 - Black Velvet Issue 90

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You can feel that in the songs too, “There
are snapshots in each song. I think each song
has a little snapshot of life in Glasgow. It’s not
necessarily literally, it more just captures the
likeness of things. There’s a song on there that
sounds like a crazy night out in Glasgow, and
then there are the songs that are the more per-
sonal ones which represent what it was like
when we lived there, you know what I mean?
So each song kind of makes up a facet of Glas-
gow from our point of view. It’s not literally like
“Oh, there are songs about Celtic”…”
When it comes to the album lyrics, Ross
tells us about the song that reveals the most
about himself. “I can’t speak for Sam but for
me, there’s a song on the album called ‘Whis-
pers’ which is the most I’ve ever been involved
in the lyrical side of the band, and it's a really
personal song about how a lot of bad things
happened over a really short space of time. A
lot of people passed away that were close to
me. There’s not really a running theme either,
but it’s the most home-based we’ve ever been
before. It’s less personal as well across the
board. There are personal moments but for the
most part it can’t really be summed up by one
theme, more just our general attitudes, the way
that our home city makes us feel.”
ith the album now out, the band are
Wready to get back on the road again.
They will shortly embark on their UK tour and
we urge you to get to a show. Although as fun
as touring can be, every so often something
makes a bid to lower the mood. Twin Atlantic
always do their best to stay positive though. In
June, the band played Download Festival, and
it was pouring down with rain the second they
stepped on stage. “It was horrible!” Ross
laughs, “I don’t know if it changes the way we
approach the performance, but it just kind of
puts a bit of a damper on things. We were lucky
as people actually came to see us, it’s all about
your attitude really, whether you’re a punter or
a band it’s always the same. If you just have a
good attitude and just realise that it’s just sup-
posed to be fun, I think you can get over any-
thing really. So we just try and remember that
there’s people there that have paid an awful lot
of their money to buy a ticket to come and
camp for the weekend or go for a day or what-
ever. I mean, you’re only one of ten bands that
they’re going to go and see but they still put a
lot of effort and money and travel to come to
see you so you’ve always got to just, even if
you don’t feel the best, you’ve got to put it in
the back of your mind that there’s always an im-
portant reason for playing the gig.”
It’s important to not let the bad days get
the best of you, whether someone is ill on tour
or it thunderstorms during your summer festival
performance. “We just like to make each other
laugh, I suppose,” Ross tells us. “As much as
we’re serious about our band and our music,
we do try and remember that it’s supposed to
be fun, you know? We don’t want to get to that
point where we start taking ourselves or our
band too seriously, I think we just try and have
a good time and we’re good at keeping a level
to write perfect songs, like pop songs that would set well we played them together was when we were learning head so yeah.” Barry laughs, “I got stuck in the
on any kind of big main stage at a festival. In terms of how to play them live, like for gigs and stuff, so there was- rain today for a couple of minutes, and I came
songs like ‘Heart And Soul’, we felt like we’d gone as far n’t really any room for overthinking. It was more just back to the venue just in time for soundcheck
in that direction as we could and there was no point doing about creating the right moods and sounds and allowing in a really bad mood and the guys were like
that again and going over old ground. So it was kind of a each moment of each song to represent what the song ‘Oh, come on!’ so my bad mood was very short
case of doing something fresh. I mean, we obviously is supposed to be representing.” lived!”
don’t put out music unless we all love it but I feel like we Speaking of not taking yourself too seri-
finally went, “You know what? Let’s just make an album ff the back of their success, Twin Atlantic have ously, there’s a track called ‘Gold Elephant:
that we’d want to listen to!” rather than trying to write Obeen able to get out of Glasgow and see the Cherry Alligator’ on ‘GLA’. We ask Ross and
these perfect songs. We asked ourselves, “What do we world, and travelling is often what it takes to make you Barry which member would be the elephant
actually all like? When we listen to albums, what do we realise how great your hometown really is. Ross says, and which would be the alligator. Barry sug-
like about them?” And just trying to capture that.” “One of the reasons that this album came out the way it gests, “Craig? Because he genuinely never for-
There’s a song on ‘GLA’ called ‘Overthinking', but in- came out and the reason why it’s called ‘GLA’ is because gets! He has the memory of an encyclopaedia,
terestingly, this is the first time the band haven’t over- we spent seven or eight years trying to get away from crossed with an elephant!” Ross laughs, “Yeah,
thought anything going in. “Ross talked about instincts Glasgow. We wanted to see the world and have all of definitely Craig for the elephant, and the alliga-
earlier and there wasn’t really any room for overthinking these different experiences, but I think when you do that, tor would be Sam, because he’s snappy!”
with this album,” Barry tells us. “At no point did we play you realise how important somewhere is and how good
these songs in a band setting, like in a room together be- it is. When you see the rest of the world you realise, Visit www.twinatlantic.com for more info.
fore we recorded them. Everything was recorded sepa- yeah... we realised how good of a place Glasgow actually Snap to it!
rately and individually and the songs were sculpted in the was.”
studio as they were getting put down. Really, the first time Words By Carissa Thorne

TWIN ATLANTIC