Twin Atlantic - Vivarium Review and Interview

One of the best things about being involved in Culch.ie is that it’s forcing me to discover new things. Over the last six months I’ve been exposed to countless new bands and singers. An awful lot of them are pure mulch, but every now and then some great sounds emerge.

Twin Atlantic’s Vivarium is one such album that I was thrilled to find. It’s a short album of 10 tracks from a Scottish band with designs on global success. With an accessible punk sound, it’s hard to say if this debut will propel them to stardom, but they’re definitely going the right direction. Tracks like Lightspeed and Carribbean War Syndrome sound like they’ve been around for years, perfecting their sound, while You’re Turning into John Wayne and Human After All have great hooks giving the band universal appeal.

I was fortunate to be able to interview Craig Kneale from the band about the album and how the band came together:

Darren Byrne: I have to start by asking about the accent. Sam’s Scotish sound strengthens every track and I wonder was it a conscious decision to play up the accent in order to distinguish yourselves?

Craig Kneale: To be honest, it’s not a conscious decision at all. We’re from Scotland and when Sam speaks he sounds Scottish so when he sings it would be pretty crazy for some other accent to come out of his mouth. I think the reason some people seem to think that we put on this thick Scottish accent is the fact that everyone is used to bands hiding their true accent these days. Which has always just seemed silly to us!

DB: That said, this album is defintely aimed beyond Scotland. How do you feel the accents will play abroad?

CK: I think it’ll probably help and hinder us in equal measures! The fact we do use our own accents will set us apart from a lot of bands, but there are a lot of people who might not get it, as their used to this kind of universal vocal sound. The Scottish accent is very thick and hard to understand at the best of times, so it might be that little harder for people from other nations to interpret what we’re saying.

Twin Atlantic

DB: You’re Turning Into John Wayne actually tries to come to terms with the globalisation of American Culture. What are the roots of that song?

CK: It actually started as just a part that Barry played on his guitar (the intro to the song), that he used to just play about with in practice. One day Sam put these really aggressive pop punk chords over the top and it seemed to fit together quite well, and we all just kind of jammed it out from there. As for the lyrics, I know Sam was trying to write a song which was more like a statement than an introspective look at relationships he had been in, which had influenced a lot of the songs we had written before then.

DB: Your sound is certainly American in origin – are you trying to prove that the Scots can play the pop punk game too, or are perhaps even better at it?

CK: Ha ha, I don’t think we’re trying to prove we’re better than them at it! I think our sound has an American influence to it purely because a lot of our favourite bands originate from there. The first bands I loved when I started playing drums were Nirvana/Foo Fighters and Rage Against The Machine, so that played a massive factor on my style of drumming. And I know the same applies for the other chaps when they first started learning their instruments. I think our sound is still very British influenced in some of the chords being used, but we’re aware that American bands have shaped our sound a lot aswell.

DB: How long did it take for you to feel comfortable playing together? Do you feel you’ve developed a niche sound or is Twin Atlantic still changing form?

CK: We were kind of thrown in at the deep end as after that first jam we already had a gig booked three weeks from then. So we ended up practicing pretty much every day to get the songs ready. In that time we got to all get to know each other’s style, so after the gig had been when we went to start practicing again we had an idea of what our strengths were. I don’t think we’ll ever have a ‘Twin Atlantic sound’, Our songs are all glued together because of Sam’s voice but the actual music is quite diverse from song to song. We’d hate to get stuck in the situation where we thought we had to write a particular type of song to fit with expectations.

DB: I might be able to guess at the origins of the band name, again looking at the influences from our friends on the other side of the Atlantic, but perhaps you could tell our readers how you came up with the name?

CK: Well, as I wasn’t a part of the band when the name was thought up I can only go on what Sam and Ross have told me! Apparently they had the word Atlantic because it was quite organic sounding. They really liked it and they just went through loads of words to go before it until they were happy! So there’s every chance the band could have been called Banana Atlantic. I’m pretty happy it’s not though. I’ve heard Sam say before that he likes the name aswell because it’s not really attached to any one genre.

DB: The same for the album title – what made you go for Vivarium?

CK: Well a Vivarium is an enclosure for plants or lifeforms, so it just kind of fitted in with the organic nature of the recording. We recorded all the instruments live together in one room and really wanted to go for a very alive sounding record.

DB: The opening track is a great introduction to the catchy, furious sound – I can imagine the crowd embracing it at the gigs. How did you find the LA recording process compared with gigging? Worlds apart?

CK: Recording in LA was surreal, but enjoyable for the most part. Los Angeles is a very, very strange place – it really is like nowhere else in the world. So in that case it’s like 1 million miles away from playing gigs. Even when we played a show in LA, it was very weird. We were unveiled from behind a curtain and just had to start playing in front of these very perplexed looking people. I did love the recording experience, but there was a part of me that just couldn’t wait to play in front of people again after it.

DB: You’ve played support for Smashing Pumpkins last year among others. It must have been exciting – how did that come about?

CK: Yeah, supports are always exciting. And we’ve been very lucky to get to play with some of our favourite bands too. The Smashing Pumpkins support came through a mixture of our manager asking for it, but Jimmy Chamberlain from the band actually picked us personally to play. We were pretty overwhelmed by it, it’s the most people we’d played in front of at that point – I don’t even remember playing really if i’m being honest! We were kind of blanked by the band when we got to the venue and treated kind of like intruders, but it’s still a pretty great feather to have in our gig caps.

DB: How much influence did producer John Travis have on the sound and what was it like working with him?

CK: Working with John was incredible, he had a real interest in all of the songs and changed nearly every song for the better. But he’d do it in a great way so we still rewrote the song. He’d say that this part could be stronger or could there be a riff here, then he’d just leave us to think it through ourselves. At times that was incredibly frustrating as you try to change a part you’ve had in your head for 6 months or longer, but in the end it payed off. He’s a great guy with the greatest knowledge of where’s good to eat in Los Angeles. Honestly, this guy knows good food.

DB: I love the video for Lightspeed. How much influence did you have on how that turned out?

CK: To be honest we just rolled with what Sean (Steigeremeier) had planned for the video. We already loved the other projects he’d done that we’d seen on his reel so we already knew he had great vision. The minute he started describing his ideas for the shoot everything was totally our vibe and more. So to be honest, we just let Sean do his thing!

DB: I saw the short documentary on the development of You’re Turning into John Wayne – you all seemed overwhelmed by it. Are you getting used to the impending stardom yet?

CK: Ha ha, we’ll see about that ‘impending stardom’ part! To be fair, it blows our minds how many people know our music, and I don’t think that’ll ever feel normal. But that’s a good thing I think, the minute you start taking things for granted then you’ve lost your grip on reality. We are so grateful that enough people like us that we can make music as our day jobs, and as long as people want us to do so we’ll continue to make music.

DB: Caribbean War Syndrom is epic. It stands out from the other tracks, sounding bigger and more mature than the rest. Where did that track come from?

CK: Thank you, glad you like it! That track was actually written quite naturally with us all just jamming it out in practice for a week or so. It was easier than most of the other songs we’ve written in a way – as we didn’t put a running time constraint on it. We just let it flow naturally and let parts last for as long as they needed to. We’ve always enjoyed writing more open ended songs with many parts, there’s less pressure as you don’t have to adhere to the verse/chorus nature of a pop song.

DB: And how does the song writing process happen for Twin Atlantic? Is there a Lennon/McCartney thing going on or is it more of a combined effort?

CK: Usually Sam will bring the bones of a song to practice, and then Ross will come in and tidy up that idea a little bit and then we’ll all flesh it out together. Lyrically, nearly everything comes from Sam. Recently though, with all the newer songs that we’ve written since recording Vivarium – some of the songs have just been written all together at a practice, or someone will bring a part they’ve written at home and we’ll work on that together.

DB: If I was to have a criticism it would be the albums length – eight tracks. Was this a purposeful decision? Did you want to leave fans waiting for more?

CK: We would have loved to have done a full length album, but we understood that in the grand scheme of things hardly anybody knew who we were. So Vivarium was kind of beginner’s guide to Twin Atlantic, an introduction of what to expect. It’s a worldwide release so it’s kind of a stop gap for the people who already knew about us aswell, and an invitation to the world to get involved.

DB: What’s next for Twin Atlantic? Obviously, there is plenty of touring with Vivarium, but have you started working on the follow up yet?

CK: Yep, we started working on the follow up the week we got back from America! It was a mixture of just being desperate to write songs together again after recording for three months and the fact that we knew we were going to be touring heavily once Vivarium came out so we needed to write as much as possible whenever we were at home. We have around 6 songs now and they definitely sound like a progression, a couple of them are stupidely heavy, and a couple are very chilled out.

DB: You’ll be hitting Dublin’s Academy on Tuesday (6th October). Is this your first time playing on Irish soil? What can we expect from a Twin Atlantic gig?

CK: We are indeed, and excited about it! It’s not actually our first time here, the first time we were was supporting Taking Back Sunday at the end of July. We loved those shows so much, the crowd was so receptive we told our booking agent straight away we wanted Irish dates booked on the end of th UK Vivarium tour. Ireland is much like Scotland in that there is no pretence to the people, most people just want to have a good time. As for what they can expect from a Twin Atlantic gig? Blood, lots of sweat, and very very loud music.

I’d like to thank Craig and Twin Atlantic for the interview and if you want to hear more of their music, check out MySpace or just go buy the album.