Interview: Sam Halliday from Two Door Cinema Club

Two Door Cinema Club have just released their highly-anticipated album ‘Gameshow’, the first collection of new music from the band since 2013’s ‘Changing Of The Seasons’ EP. Having spent the whole of their adult lives in each other’s pockets on a gruelling tour treadmill, the trio took a self-imposed break in 2014. Re-energised by life not on the road, which involved masquerading as their own cover band, ‘Gameshow’ is the sound of a band back from the brink…and with some new creative fire in their loins! We had a chat to the band’s guitarist Sam Halliday about the recent evolution of Two Door Cinema Club and tips for all you wannabe indie-pop musicians!

Lets talk about the birth of Two Door Cinema Club 2.0 – The band had a lengthy hiatus, can you tell me a bit about that?

I guess we’ve been touring with the album ‘Beacon’ for a couple of years. We hadn’t really taken a break between the first and second records, we’d been hammering the band for just a bit too long and hadn’t taken time to live life. It sort of became everything to all of us, which was really very healthy. We didn’t really have a nice balance between work and home life, if you want to call it that!

At times we were bad at communicating to each other when we were unhappy with something. When you see someone everyday it’s easier to just brush it under the rug, you don’t want to upset people when you’re 24/7 living and working with them. I think one of the issues was when you’re in a band like this you feel like you shouldn’t really be able to complain about it, because it’s something that we’ve wanted to do for so long.

I guess some people say you are living the dream in a way and it’s not cool to complain when you’ve been given such a great opportunity. Whether it was too much touring or whatever it ended up in anxiety and stress, which led to depression and physical illness as well…just in practical ways it’s easy to drink too much while travelling and eat bad food! It got to a point where we just had to take a break and we even had to cancel a few shows.

What was happening during that break?

For a year we lived in different places and it just a time to think about the band while getting on with other activities like getting married and being at home making dinner. I was in London, Alex and Kevin were splitting their time between home and America and there was no pressure for any hangouts.

It was a good break from being ‘that guy’ from ‘that band’ which I think was really healthy for us all. We came to realise that it wasn’t the most important thing in the world. We gained a lot more perspective on the project and on life. Whenever you’re on the road and playing music all the time it becomes a bit like work, but it shouldn’t be!

We’ve just a couple of week in America and we’ve got a few weeks off now and then we’re going back out for a couple of weeks in November. Whereas, before we’ve would’ve done that all in a big five week run!

What has it been like to be back together as the band and then to work on ‘Gameshow’?

It’s been a great few months, it’s nice to come back to all these places you haven’t seen in a long time. There’s something very nice about coming back to the familiarity all the venues and gigs. We’re trying not to do too much all at once this time around. We were in America and we’re in Paris today, but we’ll be headed back to there to wrap up this part of the tour.

When we started back in March doing some shows it was fun playing for fans again, but a bit strange just doing old songs. I think there’s a new sense of excitement, we’re all just happy to be doing it. It’s been really fun introducing new songs into the set!

Cool, well lets talk a bit about the reinvention of your sound compared with past albums!

We’ve been less inclined to recreate our sound. The distance from being in the band that we were and now…I think we’re a lot more bold. I think because we were younger back then we had always felt whether we’re at a festival or something else that we’d be found out…like, that we weren’t actually supposed to be there! We had this small time mentality and we were just happy to be playing! I think the boldness comes out in the new album, it didn’t matter whether we were going in some set direction with any particular song. It was about having fun and making good music.

There are some philosophical ideas behind some of the songs, perhaps even criticising bits of society?

I don’t think that it should come across as criticism, rather than an observation. We’re not in a position to think that we know better than anyone, but we made observations through the songs about how some people live their lives online. We just find it a bit strange…our ‘Instagram’ generation is sometimes about just showing off this fake existence. Consumerism and corporations are just everywhere and it’s just a bit sad. It’s becoming rarer that we go to a city that feels really different…

Do you have a favourite track on the album?

Je Viens De La has been my favourite a while, we’ve play it live a number of times now and that’s helped me decide!

Some of the tracks have an almost 80s disco theme too?

Yeah, we’ve always wanted make music that’s danceable and fun. That’s important now more than ever. People need to be able to dance and just forget about all the things that may be happening their lives. We’ve been able to explore different rhythms, whereas before we would achieve that by increasing the tempo. It’s been nice to try and incorporate slower disco grooves rather than going 100 miles an hour!

Do you notice that there’s a difference between crowds at home in the UK as compared to festivals?

I think at festivals there’s always a freer experience among the crowd, they’re a little crazier. We love doing our own shows but I’m sure there are people [at the shows] coming home from work thinking about getting up tomorrow morning. But at the shows you’re more in charge of the set and you can play for a bit longer. So in that way it’s freer for us. With festivals you might have people coming along because their friends like your band. It gives you a chance to show people what you’ve got and what you’re all about!

Lastly, what advice would you give to bands that aspire to be like you?

Talk to each other! Communicate your ideas as well as your problems. I think you have to understand that you have to work very hard. At the beginning band we would play anywhere we could to anyone who would listen. There’s no real shortcut, if you’re in a band that’s what you have to do!

Two Door Cinema Club’s new album ‘Gameshow’ is out now.