Two Door Cinema Club: "We went too hard, too fast, for too long"

Six years ago, Two Door Cinema club were in exactly the same place as they are today. Sat backstage at Reading Festival, the outfit are readying for a performance on the NME stage. The difference now is that instead of the middle of the day, the group are making their mark as headliners.

“We played when LCD Soundsystem were headlining,” Sam Halliday recalls. “We were big fans then. To see yourself in that position now is a bit mad.” “I was looking at the line up and we were so far down the bill,” Kevin Baird laughs. They might’ve been early on, but the trio make no bones about how much that moment impacted them. “It was a real game changer,” Alex Trimble enthuses. “Our lives were never the same after we played that show.”

Setting them on a path that’s seen the band release two albums and tour all across the world, it’s been a gradual but almost inevitable climb for the three-piece. “I guess we’re kind of ready to do it,” Kevin mulls. “It’s just kind of slowly percolated. We never really did anything we weren’t ready to do. Every time we come back with a new album it takes it to a new step.”

[sc name="pull" text="We needed time apart from each other."]

With a third album imminent, there seems no doubt that Two Door Cinema Club are ready to take this next step in their evolution. The follow up to 2012’s ‘Beacon’, ‘Gameshow’ looks set to mark a return to the irresistible form that the group have always proved themselves capable of. Four years on from their last release, the record is the sound of a band renewed.

“We went too hard, too fast, for too long,” Alex explains of the group’s radio silence through the majority of last year. “Mentally and physically we were just ruined.” When the frontman ended up in hospital for two weeks at the start of 2014, the group were forced to face the harsh reality that their constant time together was taking its toll. “We needed not only time to ourselves, but we needed time apart from each other.” A new record was never planned, but the trio’s chemistry and creativity was too much of a pull for them to ignore for too long. “It just felt natural. It felt right,” Alex describes.

When asked what to expect from the upcoming release, all three are quick to state how “different” and “varied” the album is. “The most exciting thing for me is that it doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard before,” Alex illustrates. “It’s something that is definitely our own.” Describing the record as “the most representative thing of us that we’ve ever done,” ‘Gameshow’ is the essence of a band in truly in their element.

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