BENCHMARKS are a thing that great bands hit on a regular basis, transcending the stage that they once may have thought represented something of a glass ceiling in their career and realising that even greater accomplishments lie ahead.
This is something that Glasgow’s very own Twin Atlantic have grown accustomed to during their time together, as charming the music buying public of their native land soon led to US tours, albums sang back at them the world over and ever increasing venue sizes.
Having performed in Reading the previous night, band members Barry McKenna and Ross McNae seem both very much aware of the magnitude of their positioning on the bill as second top on Leeds’ Radio 1/NME stage but are also waiting with baited breath for the rewards that the future may hold.
Speaking of their set the night before and their enthusiasm for the performance that awaits them in a mere matter of hours, McNae clarifies that they’re actually two different beasts altogether:
“Reading has this history about it perhaps more than Leeds does but the crowd at this festival is more like a northern crowd and similar to the kind of one we’re used to getting in Scotland. It balances itself out really as they’re both really good but for different reasons.”
The band are no strangers to the festival, performing on numerous occasions including their first main stage slot at the event in 2013. Barry sees the way in which they’ve clambered up the bill and the position that they’ve attained to be a good indication of how far they’ve came as a unit.
“It’s a vindication of everything that we’ve done thus far. Because we play the festival so often it’s a real sign that things are going well.”
McNae agrees, seeing it is as evidence of the band’s longevity:
“Being higher up the bill every year demonstrates our staying power, we just keep coming back and not taking no for an answer whereas other bands have kind of fallen by the wayside. We’ve discovered that when you’re in a rock band, no one takes you seriously for the first five years and when you put out the first album, everyone’s just weighing you up. Once you get into your 20’s a bit and release more music people just kind of go ‘yeah, they’ve been trying for a while we should probably just accept that they’re alright.”
Going back to the notion of benchmarks, one of the easiest ways to chart the rise of Twin Atlantic is to look at the steady incline in venue capacity that’s occurred in their career; travelling from their relatively modest beginnings at the QMU up to the 02 ABC then to the city’s legendary Barrowlands, the imposing 02 Academy and then finally on to their massive homecoming at the SSE Hydro. When asked to consider whether they’ve ever hit a milestone such as this and thought that there’s no possible way that it could get any better, Ross pointed out that it happens on a regular basis.
“Every single time. Last night for example, we were all absolutely freaking out afterwards and thinking that it’s the best gig we’ve ever played. See if you’d told us at the QMU that we’d play The Barrowlands, then told us at The Barrowlands that we’d play The Hydro then we’d be blown away.
Barry believes that this trajectory is due to the fact that they’re constantly searching for what seems out of reach, stating: “We’ve always been really driven and had that appetite where we’ve tried to get to the next level and reach for it. It’s kind of greed isn’t it? When we do get there we think ‘I wonder if we could blag it to the next stage’ and just edge that wee bit further. It’s all about becoming better at what you do.”
This is far from Twin Atlantic’s first important festival set of the summer, with July seeing them play their first ever headlining show at T in the Park on Saturday night at the BBC Radio 1 Stage. Barry spoke fondly of the experience:
“It definitely was an absolute pinch yourself moment, it was so surreal. It was just an honour to get to headline a stage that we grew up going to as fans of music, I’ve been at that stage drunk in the crowd and watching some of my favourite bands perform so it was cool to be on the flipside of that. It was such a big event and we had so many friends and family there so it was great to spend the evening before and after our set with them.”
This year has saw the band unleash Great Divide, an album that has served as one of their biggest yet and has courted a great deal of mainstream attention. Given the strength of their material ranging from early EP’s such as A Guidance From Colour and releases such as Vivarium and debut album Free, Ross was reticent to acknowledge it as their definitive statement at this stage in their career:
“Yes and no. This time we just focused on writing what we thought were really good songs and Sam (Mctrusty, lead singer) really diversified and wrote a lot of different types of things. We always had a good variety though, it’s never just been all rock songs but this time we had a more eclectic mix than ever before. I love it and it has been defining in the sense that it’s what we’re most known for but I still think our previous album (Free) was more cohesive in stating that ‘this is a rock band and we have arrived’ so they both have their role.”
As touched upon earlier, this year saw Twin Atlantic play their biggest ever gig at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro. It was a pivotal moment in the band’s career and enabled them to celebrate all that they’ve achieved with the city that had been so integral to their growth. Speaking about whether or not it lived up to the circumstance which surrounded it, Ross provided a very honest response:
‘It was amazing but it’s a weird one. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, as we’ve done all these things in the past year and there’s always so much build up and then you get to this moment; it happens, your friends and family are there and it’s amazing but once it’s done that’s it. It doesn’t necessarily feel rewarding it just makes you think ‘If we can play there why can’t we play at Hampden?’. I think we all thought this the next morning, after the build up, the big event and then nothing afterwards it makes you think ‘fuck, what am I gonna do now? we need to get bigger and there needs to be more people and we need to write better songs’ so it’s strange.”
Barry reaffirmed this ideal with equally candid remarks, stating that:
“The gig itself is always rewarding, seeing that many people there to enjoy something which has been a real labour of love on your part is really great. Once it’s done then we’re never really ones to be retrospective and immediately focus on going forward.”
Ross clearly feels incredibly strongly about this notion of striving for more, harking back to the notion of greed that Barry alluded to and using the humongous success of the evening’s headliners Metallica as a good example:
“Once you play to more people, it’s absolutely addictive to see so many people having a good time and the more that are there the better you feel. See if you were in a band like Metallica or something like that, a band that have topped out and play to 100,000 people everywhere, you physically can’t get bigger than that. It must be weird, as how do they get that drive to continue? I don’t think you’ll ever be satisfied until you get to that point.”
Speaking of their plans for the future, McNae once again exhibits flashes of that drive and ambition that has helped them climb up the ladder to this point:
“We’re going to head back into the studio this year and record another album and in three or four years, I don’t see any reason why we can’t be headlining this festival. If we keep making music that we like and that feels right to us then I can’t see why it wouldn’t happen.”
“I like your crystal ball”, Barry jests in response to his bandmate’s optimism.
The band’s guitarist/occasional cellist may be quick to poke goodhearted fun at his friend and colleague’s high minded ideas but given the way that their career has progressed and the success that they’ve so consistently attained, there’s no reason not to see festival headline slots as yet another benchmark that they’ll surge on by in the search of finally becoming content.
Twin Atlantic will play their last Scottish gig “for a while” during Perth Concert Hall’s 10th birthday on the 20th September 2015. Watch their ‘Fall Into The Party’ tour video below:
