Primal Screen

Just a few short weeks ago, some rather interesting rumours started to circulate regarding Bangor three-piece Two Door Cinema Club. Already a hit with the tastemakers across Europe, the boys’ career has skyrocketed of late. But after hearing stories of semi-nude cavorting in sunny Latvia, we’re starting to wonder if it’s all going to their heads.

“I’m not going to confirm or deny that story,” laughs Two Door head honcho Kev Baird. “Ok, they had this lovely beach in Latvia and we decided that since we had a day off we’d take a train to it and chill out for a bit. We fancied a swim, but sadly didn’t have any swimming shorts or towels. So we thought 'fuck it, we’re only in Latvia once.' We rented a peddle boat and went out to sea in our boxers. Seriously, I think we were the only English speaking people on the whole beach. We were so out of place and looked so white and pasty jumping off the peddle boat. We probably looked pretty gay, but ah well.”
It may be a bit of a cliché, but Two Door Cinema Club appear to be quite a success in Latvia already. Even though they’re only in the recording stage of their first album, the young upstarts are certainly making all the right moves.
“Latvia was crazy. It’s such a mad place. None of us knew very much about it other than that we were asked to play a festival there and we were the second headliners on the second stage. We were thinking, ‘Oh shit, no-one’s going to know who we are and it’s going to be awful’, but we turned up anyway.
“The night before we walked around the city centre to have a look about and people kept coming up to us and saying: (adopts comedy East European accent): ‘Are you Two Door Cinema Club?’ and they would then sing some of our songs at us. We found it really fuckin’ weird and to our surprise it went on all night. We had an amazing show the next day and everyone was lovely to us and we really enjoyed ourselves. I definitely recommend going there.”
Naming themselves after the cinema in their hometown, the trio’s heady brew of electro-fuelled indie pop anthems has gained them quite a following since their formation a few years ago. Recent single ‘Something Good Can Work’ helped batter down the doors of Ireland and the UK and, coupled with an extensive amount of touring, the band have found themselves in the enviable position of being backed by French label Kitsune (who have released slabs of wax by La Roux and Digitalism in the past). When we ask Kev about signing on the dotted line for this dream record deal, he seems quite down to earth about the whole thing.
“I guess it happened the same way it does for everyone else,” recalls the musician. “Our name got heard by the right people and they came over and met us in London. We had some dinner, which was lovely, and we then played a show. We also played in Paris and everything seemed to go right and it was a simple and easy choice for us to sign with them. They’re one of the best labels in Europe and we’re really happy being with them.”
At the moment, the band (now based in London) are knee-deep in recording sessions for their upcoming debut. It’s being co-produced by Eliot James (who has worked with Bloc Party and Noah and the Whale) and Philippe Zdar of Cassius, and the band can’t wait for its release in early 2010.
“We’ve got quite a few songs that have featured for a long time in our set on the record, but there are also a good few new ones which we’re excited about too. We had in our head what singles we’d end up releasing but now after listening to these new ones we’ve had a big rethink. We’re probably going to have about ten songs on there and we’ve recorded 13, so we’ve some hard decisions to make over the coming weeks. We’re aiming for a release at the start of next year and we’ll have a couple of singles out too in the meantime.”
But before the as-yet untitled album sees the light of day, they’ve quite a few more festivals to do including Electric Picnic. While other bands may feel overwhelmed by the prospect, Kev sees the pressure as part of the job.
“It’s been such a natural progression to get to this stage,” he reflects. “We’ve had some hard times and it’s not all been easy, but we’re getting there. We’ve had plenty of tours where we were cramped up in a tiny van and stayed on people’s floors, but it has to be done. It’s all part of the experience and it’s good fun at the same time. There are times when we think we’re pretty lucky, but we realise we have to make the most of it too. We’ve got a great opportunity and can make a cracker of an album if we want. Not a lot of bands get to be in our situation working with one of the best producers in the UK. We’re making sure to just fuckin’ go for it.”