With yet more UK dates lined up for 2012 and their ‘Free’ record reaching new ears every day, Twin Atlantic find themselves in a very exciting position right now. We caught up with Ross McNae and Craig Kneale on the band’s triumphant December ’11 tour to talk breakthroughs, the virtues of simplicity, and, er, Coldplay…

Planet Loud – Cheers for your time today. How’s the tour been going so far?
Twin Atlantic – Ross McNae (Bass, Piano): It’s been amazing so far. It’s been a bit of a step up in everything for us, so we’re having a good time. Last time we played here was at the Engine Rooms, which was quite an experience!

Planet Loud – Has it been refreshing to mix the sets up a bit with new material?
Twin Atlantic – Ross: It definitely has been. We’ve actually been playing most of the album on this tour. It’s just good to play newer songs, because the old songs get a bit boring after you play them for years. Obviously it’s still cool when you do an older one that gets the crowd going but essentially it’s important for us to keep things fresh.

Planet Loud – There was quite a gap between ‘Vivarium’ and ‘Free’…
Twin Atlantic – Ross: Well, we wanted to record quite a bit earlier, but to be quite honest with you we just weren’t ready. We also got a load of good opportunities to tour with and support bands so we ended up having to put things on hold for those, as they were too good to pass up. It’s worked out for the best though. I don’t think there’ll be quite as long a gap next time.

Planet Loud – Do you guys need quite a bit of time and space to write?
Twin Atlantic – Craig Kneale (Drums): Yeah, we’re not very good at writing on the road. We’ve tried it before, but it’s difficult, especially in a van. Usually Sam (McTrusty, vocals/guitar) will write stuff at home, and then we’ll flesh it out in the practice space, something like that. We all write and bring in ideas. It’s so much easier at home.

Twin Atlantic – Ross: It’s so much easier – you know when you’re in your practice room that you don’t have to go do a gig or worry about something else, you can concentrate on making songs the best that they can be. We’re trying to find a window to get back home to do some of that actually. It’s pretty tricky. When we went into the studio for ‘Free’ we had about fourteen solid tracks, so only one of those didn’t really make it. We wanted to make this one a bit longer as ‘Vivarium’ was pretty short.

Twin Atlantic – Craig: I think Sam would have had twenty songs on that album if he could (laughs). We had to strip it back a little bit, so maybe some of the ideas we were throwing around will see the light of day some point in the future. As much as we’d liked to have released a triple-album, it would have been a bit much!

Planet Loud – How do you feel you’ve developed as songwriters to date?
Twin Atlantic – Ross: The four of us have spent so much time together… you learn so much about each other and each others’ playing.

Twin Atlantic – Craig: We’ve also learned to appreciate less mental music too (laughs). It takes time to realise that bands like Coldplay are actually good. Maybe we’re just getting old (laughs). We still throw in lots of different elements but we’ve more of an appreciation of simplicity.
Twin Atlantic – Ross: There are plenty of bands who do the whole angular, experimental thing and we like a lot of them, but a lot of it does start to sound the same after a while. In a strange way it’s like there’s more scope with mainstream stuff.

Twin Atlantic – Craig: I think it’s easy to spend a lot of time thinking that all mainstream rock stuff sounds rubbish, and we have to an extent. After a while though you start to think that it’s far more impressive to write a song that can reach millions of people and stand the test of time, than do something that 50 people will hear and think is cool. Everything has its place. The real pinnacle of songwriting is touching a lot of people with a song.

Twin Atlantic – Craig: My favourite band growing up were Cave In, and I remember reading something where they explained how on their first record they wrote a load of really complex, long stuff, and then the next time did something that they considered to be pretty poppy, all three or four minute songs. I remember them saying how it’s so much more difficult to write a three minute song than an eight minute song, because with something shorter you have to compress your ideas so much more. It’s like The Beatles – their songs were so simple, but that kind of songwriting is so difficult to master.

Twin Atlantic – Ross: A lot of music’s very impressive technically, and the playing is impressive, but after a while you find yourself questioning whether it’s really relevant or as interesting as the musicians think it is.

Planet Loud – It’s all about balance sometimes.
Twin Atlantic – Craig: Yeah, and there are artists who can really mix both those things… Mike Patton for example. I mean, Faith No More were relatively mainstream, but he can also go and do a ‘30s Italian orchestra album or a concept album about prime numbers (laughs). You’ve got to respect his ability to change direction at will.

Planet Loud – Absolutely. So, have there been any moments recently that’ve stood out as milestones for you, as a band? It seems like an amazing time for Twin Atlantic at the moment…
Twin Atlantic – Craig: We’ve had loads really. The show we did last night in London was one of them. We’ve done quite well in Scotland for a while but past the border has always been a bit trickier for us. We played Islington Academy last night and it felt like a Scottish show, which was a really good sign.

Planet Loud – You guys are signed to Red Bull Records… how’s that worked out for you so far? Does it function pretty much like a regular label?
Twin Atlantic – Ross: In many ways it’s exactly the same. They have a skeleton staff of really experienced people who’ve worked with the majors through the years, so it is pretty much a normal record label. I think we’re all happy it’s worked out the way it has. It always feels like a bit of a risk but I think we made the right decision going with them.

Twin Atlantic – Craig: They have access to stuff that even a lot of the other majors don’t these days, so it works out really well for us as a band.

Planet Loud – Awesome. Do you know roughly what you’ve got lined up for 2012 as yet?
Twin Atlantic – Craig: We’ve got a couple of things confirmed that are looking exciting… but mostly it’s going to be touring and more touring. We’ll also start seriously looking into writing another record, as long as we get chance.
Twin Atlantic – Ross: We’re really going to keep doing what we’ve been doing. It’s odd for us because we’ve had a lot of the ‘Free’ songs for over a year and recorded them late last year, so therefore they’re quite old to us now… but the record is still relatively new for listeners. I think we’re going to kind of stick with it for a bit. We like to record but I think it’s important we see this one through for now.

Planet Loud – Sounds good. Just to round things off then, have you come across any relatively unknown and upcoming bands on your travels who you think people should be checking out?
Twin Atlantic – Craig: Well, we just finished an American tour, and the band who were on after us were called Middle Class Rut. They’ve done a few things but they deserve to be better known over here. They’re incredible, and a really intense live band. Also the bands we’re touring with now, Dinosaur Pile-Up and Arcane Roots, who are both amazing. There are so many.

Twin Atlantic – Ross: I think everybody probably knows about them already, but The Xcerts are a great band too, and well worth checking out.

Twin Atlantic – Craig: There’s this other band called Coldplay who we’ve come across, and they look like they might be in for big things (laughs).

Planet Loud – Hmm, we’ll have to look them up (laughs). Cheers for your time guys, and all the best.
Twin Atlantic: Cheers.

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Interview by Rob Sayce