Hailing from Northern Ireland, this indie rock trio have been strumming their guitar chords and belting out hits for three years now.
We chatted to guitarist Sam Halliday ahead of their Aussie tour…
Where are you at the moment?
We’re in Galway in Ireland.
Freezing?
Yeah, there’s been lots of snow and ice around.
It’s your second trip Down Under. How was your first?
Yeah we did Splendour in the Grass. It was great. We didn’t really expect anything like it. It was just brilliant.
Is Oz somewhere that appeals?
Yeah definitely. I’ve wanted to go for a long time. It’s just that the flight is ridiculously long so I think to make the most of it, I’d like to go for a couple of months.
Done much other travelling?
Yeah we’ve done America, Japan, Australia, obviously Europe. We’ve done
a bit in Asia as well.
Your first album came out in 2010. How’s the ride been since?
Great. You really notice, in terms of the shows, everyone knows the songs now and it’s just getting bigger. There’s more press and people are starting to talk about us more.
Some of your tracks are on ads like the Vodafone one. Do you like that?
Sometimes we’ll say no and sometimes we’ll say yes. I guess if it’s a good advert and it’s promoting something we don’t really think is awful. It’s a good thing to do. It’s another way for people to hear your music for the first time, especially if you’re not getting mainstream media play or anything like that, it’s good for people to hear your song that way.
Was being in a band always something you wanted to do?
Yeah [me and Alex] met when we were 14 at school. Met Kevin a few months later. Pretty much straight away we realised we could join a band as we all played a guitar. So we started playing songs together. From when we started playing together, even though we were awful, we still really just wanted to do it. Anytime we had any spare time we were around writing songs together and I guess we thought that would always continue. Then by the time we left school, we were writing better songs so it wasn’t a ridiculous thing for us to do.
You have a song “Undercover Martyn”. Who is he and what’s that all about?
It’s just a fictional character. It’s kind of about what we kind of went through. You know, having this mission that we wanted to do and a lot of people telling us that we couldn’t do it and it’s a ridiculous thing to think. Just kind of having the courage to just do it. </b>
Two Door Cinema Club play Byron
Bay on (Feb 3, www.oztix.com.au), Sydney (Feb 7, www.ticketek.com.au) and Melbourne (Feb 8 & 9, www.princebandroom.com.au)
