Twin Atlantic Exclusive

Since their start in 2007 Glaswegian rock quartet Twin Atlantic has always been the opening band, the support or that other band on the bill. For years they have toured across the UK playing with bands such as Funeral for a Friend and You Me at Six, playing music which they love both listening to and playing. Time and time again Twin Atlantic has proved they can win over any crowd with their relentless performances. This is one band however that seems unable to shake the comparisons to Biffy Clyro with their rough shaggy hair, energetic garage sound and blatant Scottish accents. As a band that have always shown they have potential Twin Atlantic silenced their critics in 2009 and proved their ready to take centre stage with their own tours , sell out gigs and a debut album on its way earning them prestige as a band that’s time has finally come. I recently caught up with Atlantic drummer Craig Kneale.

- Firstly how did Twin Atlantic start?
Sam and Ross were best friends from school and had been in other bands previously, after this they started Twin Atlantic in autumn of 2006. In January of 2007 they went on a UK tour with another Glasgow band called Piano Bar Fight who Barry was helping out on Cello. I knew Sam and Ross from their previous bands and had been to a couple of shows and really liked them. I told Sam's flat mate that I loved their band and it must have got back to him because not long after he asked if I wanted to try out on drums for them. Barry joined at the same time and the rest is (very minor) history.

- What contemporary artists would you compare yourself to or describe as an influence?
Mmmm, there's too many to mention! I wouldn't like to compare ourselves to a band musically, but I do agree with a lot of things that bands like Death Cab For Cutie and RX Bandits stand for. They purely make music for themselves and the joy of it, and have a really refreshing outlook on being in a band. If we could be considered in the same pool as bands like that we'd be very happy.

- You were recently involved in high profile gigs with The Lost Prophets and a tour with The Subways how important is support roles like these in the bands up rise or progression?
They are so important. I know that the first time I saw/heard of many of my favourite bands was supporting a bigger artist. That’s why when you have these supports you have to put as much into it as you would your own gig, perhaps even more. Usually, 90% or more of the crowd is not there to see your band so you have to fight for their attention. When it comes together you can actually see the crowd warming to you and some of these people can become real fans in that instant.

- How hard is it to create originality with your music in a city like Glasgow with such a fantastic music scene?
You try not to think about it! We have always tried to make the music that we wanted to make so we try not to think about what's going on in the scene around us. We don't intentionally try to be different either, I think a lot of the diversity in our music comes from the fact we're all from quite different musical backgrounds.

- How does it feel to be standing out from literally hundreds of bands as being a group with real potential and the chance of the big time?
Again, the minute you start thinking you’re bigger than everyone else is the second you lose track of what you started making music together for. We've all played in bands before where we never really got anywhere, and we do realize that our band has been very lucky and people seem to like what we're doing. We're just going to continue to keep doing what we're doing and see what happens!

- Finally what can fans expect from Twin Atlantic in the near future?
Hopefully a lot! We want to build on everything we managed to achieve in 2008, and just grow as a band. Expect an album, more tours, bigger songs, and more impressive shows - pretty much everything bigger!