Two Door Cinema Club: ‘Recording at home was a throwback to making demos in Alex’s garage’

It’s been a long, eventful journey from the classrooms of Bangor Grammar School to album number five. But even in their 16-year-old starry eyes, Two Door Cinema Club didn’t doubt they’d make it this far. “We were teenagers and we went into this thinking this is definitely what we’re going to do for the rest of our lives,” says Sam Halliday, chuckling at what he admits was their naivety. “Obviously we quickly realised there’s another side to it, that it’s difficult and we were lucky to do this for a job.

“We’ve been able to ride it out long enough that we’ve been in some TV shows here and there, a couple of movies or adverts or computer games,” he adds, referring to high-profile, enduring artefacts such as Fifa 11, Vodafone ads and the film Now You See Me. “You do become a little part of pop culture, and that helps you stay relevant. It seems to be the longer you’re around, the more that seems to happen, which then adds to your longevity, weirdly.”

Fifteen years since lead singer Alex Trimble, bassist Kevin Baird and guitarist Halliday formed the band, there’s no sign of slowing down as they continue a three-year pace for album release. Their Choice-Prize-winning debut Tourist History saw them come out from the traps fully formed, giving us the first outing of their Duracell-powered indie pop. With prolific singles such as Sleep Alone and Next Year, Beacon remains their most successful to date, albeit one where the growing pains kicked in and pushed the band to go their separate ways temporarily.

“That was a life lesson in terms of how to be a grown-up,” Halliday reflects. “We’d spent every day together from high school to then living together and working together 24/7, and little things became big things.

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“It was about learning about how other people’s minds work — stuff that everyone goes through in their first few jobs. You realise that not everybody thinks the same as you, and not everyone cares about the same things you do. They’re really basic things, but guys in particular have a hard time talking about issues with people. Or maybe it’s a personality thing.

“From working on ourselves, we know to talk and say if I’m doing something wrong, or someone’s bothering you. Funnily enough, that makes life easier for everyone.”

Once back on track, Gameshow proved to be their more experimental comeback, and 2019′s False Alarm was the sound of a band maturing. Keep On Smiling, their new release, finds them ease back into their signature sound of sprightly hooks and driving melodies.

The album was recorded in two distinct parts. The first was soon after False Alarm but for the duration of the pandemic work paused on the album. Instead, “we were all just doing what we needed to do to get through it”.

In the winter of 2020, Halliday and Baird became fathers so for them the pandemic was about hunkering down and embracing their new roles in unusual circumstances. “Luckily, I didn’t have any terribly sick friends or relatives but I can appreciate it wasn’t like that for everyone,” Halliday says. “Aside from the birth being fairly awful because of the Covid restrictions, I found it nice just to have the time at home. It was probably the longest we’ve ever spent together as a couple. It was perfect timing in that sense.” Trimble, who like Baird lives in London, had just bought a studio space and dedicated much of his unexpected free time to getting it up and running.

It was only when things began opening up again that they continued working on the album “and there was a lot to reflect on when we did restart”. But still cautious of travel, the necessity of recording at home shaped the album’s punchy sound.

Speaking from Belfast, his keyboard set up in the background of the Zoom call, Halliday explains: “We have home studios but we’re not Grammy-winning producers, so recording was a bit more simplistic, and a throwback to how we used to make demos in Alex’s garage when we were teenagers. We each played our instruments, and that’s it. There weren’t loads of other elements thrown in just because we could.”

It’s nice to be in a place where you’re excited about getting to travel again and you’re enjoying doing it

Thematically, it’s a rictus grin of an album, as the title suggests. It’s a call to keep on trucking despite the turbulent times we find ourselves in; “We all get it wrong/ So don’t stay mad for long/ Or it’s a lonely little life, lonely little lifetime,” Trimble sings in the chorus of lead track Wonderful Life.

“It has a positive feel as it came together as stuff was opening up again, and we had shows in the calendar. It reflected the sentiment that it couldn’t get any worse than it had been in the past year.

“It’s not like we have an explanation or an answer or know the right way of doing things,” adds Halliday. “It’s just Alex commenting that the world is mad but we just have to carry on and make the most of it.”

The position of acceptance is one that dominates these days, yet it’s notably different from the 1970s, when punk and protest bands were explicitly political in the face of similar circumstances. So, I postulate: should music still play a part in rallying their listeners into action? “I think it should,” says Halliday without hesitation. “I say that but I’m very aware that, personally, I’m not that politically motivated for whatever reason. I’ve developed an apathy towards a lot of things, probably because of the way it’s gone.

“But I would love it if the things that have gone on in the world motivate young people to come out and make really progressive punk music again. Anything political that comes out of pop culture would engage a younger demographic that aren’t voting or aware of what’s going on. That’s always been an issue.”

With a summer full of festivals under their collective belt and, before the year is out, a European and American tour in support of Keep On Smiling — an album “that people feel is being better received than the last couple of albums, in terms of radio and Spotify playlists” — there’s a renewed sense of excitement within the Two Door camp.

“My favourite thing about what we’ve been able to do with the past 10, 15 years is travelling and getting to experience all these places on the company dime, so to speak,” says Halliday. “But it’s easy to become jaded, and get into a routine of not taking it in so that you spend your days off sleeping or not doing very much. It’s nice to be in a place where you’re excited about getting to travel again and you’re enjoying doing it.”

Trimble is unvaccinated for medical reasons, which caused issues when travel first restarted — for their Mexican shows in May, Belfast singer/musician and friend David C Clements stood in as the frontman. But restrictions have loosened over the course of summer “which is helpful”, says Halliday.

The band’s Irish passports have helped avoid the sharp end of Brexit changes too, although Halliday is painfully aware that free movement was critical to the band’s formative success.

“When we started, we signed to Kitsuné, a French record label. We had our moment in France and Europe mainland, doing their club nights and parties, before we were touring the UK to any sort of level,” says Halliday. “So the stuff that’s happened in the last few years had me thinking if this was 2010, we just would have had to go to uni and forget about the whole band thing.” Covid alone would have stalled their careers — “we took a gap year, so there’s no way we could have just hung on in hope.

“I feel like lots of bands have had their moment taken away from them in recent years. So yes, it would be awesome if we got loads of cool bands coming through with something to say about it all.”

Keep On Smiling is released on 2nd September