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Back in February this year, Glasgow's Twin Atlantic set out on their second UK headline tour since the release of their debut mini-album 'Vivarium'. The majority of shows on the tour were held in bars or tiny clubs, with most crowds consisting of little over 100 people. The remarkable thing is, at the halfway mark, the band returned home to play their biggest headline show to date, at a sold out Glasgow ABC. That night, over 1,300 people saw the band play, whilst more were outside begging to be let in. It's when you hear something like that, that you can't help but wonder if you're missing out on something major. But, with an incredible live show and the most admirable approach to making music, they're set to simply rise further.

We were lucky enough to sit down and chat to frontman Sam McTrusty before their show at London's Borderline, on the eve of their flight to America, where they will spend the next three months relentlessly touring. Here's what we came up with.

OS: How're you doing today?
Sam McTrusty [vocals, guitars]: Errr, good.. I'm in a kind of weird... No, I'm not good. I was gonna lie and give a really generic answer. Basically, we're supposed to fly to America tomorrow, but we don't have visas to go.. And we played a gig in Glasgow last night, drove over night in our van, which has no heating in the back so it's like -2 or -3 degrees or something like that. Then, we got here only to be told that the forms we had filled in weren't valid anymore, so we had to do new forms. So, we've had no sleep and no visa, and I feel fucking weird! So, I've had a pretty shit day, and hopefully the show will make up for it! And also! I cut my hand pretty horrifically there.
OS: How did you manage that?!
Sam: We got to the venue and I tried to set up a mic stand, and, well. Gordon usually sets up all my stuff for me, and I tried to help and look what I happened! The first time I try to set something up in a couple of months, and I fucked up.

OS: Are you excited for America or...?
Sam: Well, if we ever fucking get there, yeah! I think it's going to be amazing. We're gonna get our visa - we've got another interview tomorrow and it's all getting fixed, so, hopefully, we'll be there for the first show. We're just kinda treating it like playing gigs over here. The first time we supported a bigger band here was Circa Survive, and at the time, we were totally shitting ourselves and thought it was this massive, massive tour. Some shows were only 150 people, but we were still freaking out! So, we're just kinda treating it as that; as our first opportunity to let people hear about us. It's exciting.

OS: Tonight's show at London's Borderline comes two weeks after your tour. What've you had to reflect upon since those shows? Obviously, you played your biggest show to date at the sold out ABC in Glasgow.
Sam: Yeah, yeah. It feels like it didn't even happen, it was that sort of weird, out of body experience. I actually had more of a "reflecting moment" on the shows we did in England because we never really sell that many tickets there. Just because, I dunno, maybe we're not good enough, or cool enough for people to go and see yet. But, we usually sell about 40 or 50 tickets or something, but there's been a few shows where there's been 180 people or... We played in Leeds and there were people outside, trying to get in. So there were more nights like that, with places that I didn't expect to be busy that really were, and people were singing along to pretty much every song. So, those nights were almost more memorable in a way. I mean, I expected ABC to be insane, but it actually over-fulfilled my expectations just because it was so mental. I don't know if you were there?
OS: No, I couldn't make it.
Sam: It was weird. It was like being at a real band's gig! See when we walked out onstage and all that, it was kinda like the same as a Muse gig or something. People were going mental! It was really weird.

OS: Back in September last year you released your mini-album 'Vivarium'. How do you feel about those songs now that they've been out for six months?
Sam: It's weird. I feel like I've already... not moved on from it, but I'm already setting my sights and organising my mind for what happens next with us. It's weird because 'Vivarium' is like a process of two and a half years, you know what I mean? It's wasn't just the two months before we wrote the record and then we recorded it and that was it. The songs on that had been rewritten from the first thing I ever played, when I was like, "shit I should start a new band and call it this, and ask Ross to play" and all that. So, it's a bit of an unusual record in that way. But, I'm really proud of it and it's got us a lot more than we ever expected; press things, reviews and front covers, selling out the ABC and then playing King Tuts the next night. And having sold - I can't remember - I think it's like, 250 tickets for tonight's show and we're in London, which is pretty mental. All those reasons! Like, hearing Zane Lowe say your band name on the radio; it feels like someone's playing a prank on you or something. So, there's all of those things that have been really mental; but the weird thing is, now we're just starting it in America, so we're starting all over again. Yet, I feel like I'm kinda done with it almost.
OS: It's not surprising when you live with those songs every day, but some people are just discovering them now.
Sam: Yeah, yeah. The unusual thing is the record's still really new. Some people have probably just found out about it today, because their friend said they were going to see this band and they listen to us for the first time. So, that's one thing I'm definitely going to have to get used to about being in a band; playing the same songs for years and years, hopefully. So, I think it's a cool record, but I think we can do a lot better.

OS: Your first EP 'A Guidance From Colour' dealt with a lot of your own personal issues. But, you've said that with 'Vivarium' you wanted to distance your own life from the lyrical content. Why did you decide that?
Sam: I think.. [laughs] That's a good question! See when I was younger and I first started writing songs, I guess all I really knew about, or any perspective I had was really inward because I hadn't had many life experiences. I hadn't been in a band and met loads of new people and been in different kinds of.. Even the difference between Glasgow and Edinburgh is a big cultural difference, if you think about. So if you're travelling over Europe and all these things, you learn a lot about being a person. I think, I don't know, just looking back on the songs I'd written before, I felt a little bit.. not embarrassed, but just like, "what's the point in writing songs like that?" Those types of songs have been written a million times by a million different bands.
OS: You do deal with a much broader subject matter on 'Vivarium'.
Sam: Yeah. I guess I kinda pride myself on it now, after we made the record that we made, and it kinda worked I think. There's not many songs about girls being a total bitch or someone breaking up with you, or a bullet and a gun and all that sort of bullshit stuff you get. I used to listen to all of that music like, eight years ago, and I've not got bored of it, but there's only so much you can regurgitate over and over again. It's just the way I like art; I get bored of looking at the same kind of photograph or painting over and over again. I mean, it's not that radical an idea to write songs about other things, it just felt more comfortable to me. Maybe it's an age thing, maybe the older I get, I'll write broader and broader subjects. I don't know.. I know for certain that next record is even more.. kinda in the vein of 'John Wayne'.. We have a song called 'You're Turning Into John Wayne' and it's kinda a commentary of my observation on people in the UK and Europe who like, dress like they're from America.. I'm talking about myself as well! Every single band that I listen to is from America. And it's just a bit unusual, and I don't really understand it, which is why I started writing a song about it. To try and understand a bit more about it. Through that, I thought it was the best song I had written as a completed thing, with quite an original idea. Because of that, I learnt from that and...
I don't know, it's not like the next record's a political record or anything like that. But it's definitely talking about - I need to be careful with my words because the record's not finished, and I don't wanna come over as a total dick. But, I just don't think that... Well, I used to be 14 or 15, and looking up to people in bands, and stuff like that. I mean, none of them are actually saying anything. I think there's definitely a massive void in music, for anyone who actually stands for anything. There's some bands that say they do, but then they don't do anything about it. Or, at a gig, someone will shout something at them, and they'll be total pussies about it and won't stand up for what they're actually supposed to believe in. I think that because I've experienced being in a band for the past two years, and we've had loads of weird stuff shouted at us, I dunno.. It's kinda just focusing in on the idea of unity, and still believing in all of these things....It sounds really pretentious! But, it'll make sense when the record's done and you hear the name of the record, and what it's all about.
OS: That's the thing though. Nowadays there does seem to be a shallowness within music; it seems to be more about image than anything.
Sam: Yeah. Well, there's like.. Ross [McNae, bass/piano] hasn't even heard this lyric yet, but we've started writing a song and I just finished the first draft of lyrics for it the other day. One of the lyrics is talking about how punk rock started off about giving you freedom to be or go in whatever direction you wanted to go in. It's now become more about fashion and if someone says a band is cool, you just go along with it just because you want to fit in. I think that's.. It's kinda total bullshit now. Most people like bands because they're cool; not because they actually connect with them in any way. That's what music is supposed to be about. I could go on for hours and hours about it. I'll just ramble if you ask me more questions like that!

OS: You all come from Glasgow. Do you think that changes your mentality in terms of music, and the industry?
Sam: It's probably more a West Coast of Scotland thing. I think, people from the West Coast have just got this really sarcastic attitude to life in general, not just music. You've got to put up with the shittest weather conditions the whole year round, and life's kinda a little bit unpredictable. There's not that many good opportunities if you're from where I'm from. It's easy to get stuck in a rut of just mundane and, I dunno, a pretty grey lifestyle. For most people from Glasgow who succeed in anything, it's a little bit different. You've got to push that little bit harder for it because you're posted away from where the main industries are. If you're an actor, or whatever, all the actors are based in London. Or for music; you're not really taken seriously in art. If I had finished my degree at art school, to be taken seriously, I would've had to go and do another degree in London. But, I think everyone knows that. It's just you've got that extra bit of determination from the get go. I think it's definitely a lot easier because of the internet now though, and I don't think people care about where bands come from as much anymore.
OS: I guess with you guys though, that will always be a factor because of your accent.
Sam: I think it makes as many people stand up and talk notice of us, as it does make people hate us [laughs] We've definitely had people say they don't like our band because my accents too strong

OS: When you recorded 'Vivarium' you said you used the mantra of two words; 'organic' and 'energy'. Both of those words are heavily linked with your live show. Why do you think the incorporation of a live energy is important in your recordings?
Sam: Just because that's kinda where you first strike a real vibe with the song, or a rhythm. Or even if you're just jamming with people you've decided to be in a band with. It's kinda weird; when you decide to be a band. It's really weird! It's kinda like when you start going out with someone, and there's this weird awkwardness but when something natural happens, there's this kind of organic spark you create.
OS: I think it's strange to think about recording in terms of a band's progression. When bands first start, they constantly work in a live environment. It makes recording as a process seem almost unnatural.
Sam: Yeah actually, no one's ever really said it as bluntly as that. It's er.. A lot of people, like real, kind of punk-rock, deep-rooted in the whole DIY ethics of music, people say that they hate recording because they just want to do it in one take and whatever happens happens. That basically trying to make it perfect is trying to make it more commercial, so it's more friendly for people to listen to. We definitely were like that in the first instance, but I think we more wanted to impress people, in the sense that we wanted to be taken seriously. If you've got shit recordings, people don't really want to listen to it: sometimes people can't hear the songs past how shit the recordings are. So, I think that's why we started off with really polished recordings. And then, the whole of 'Vivarium' is tracked live, so it was just us in a room and Craig [Kneale, drums] counted us in and we'd play the song. So, it was weird; there were a couple of songs that were just two takes - I think we did 'What Is Light' in one take and that was it. But we did it again, just to check, and I think we ended up using the second one. But basically, I don't think we've nailed it yet with 'Vivarium'; we were talking today about wanting to sound even more raw. It's definitely not the same - we don't want it to the same experience - but we're still quite far removed from how we are live, and how we are on record. It's just gonna take time I guess. We're still a pretty inexperienced band, although we've done quite a lot in such a short time.

OS: To finish up, what do you have planned for when you return from your American tour?
Sam: We're currently figuring out what festival schedules we're gonna do. A couple of years ago, we played every festival in Scotland and it's become a rare thing where a band can go and play T In The Park three years in a row. We've never played Leeds and Reading; there's a lot of bigger English festivals we haven't played. If you don't know the politics of the music industry, it's basically, if you play this festival, you can't play that one; certain weekends in Europe fall on the same weekends as the big ones here. We've been to Europe now a couple of times with bigger bands, and not really made anything of the opportunity. But it's at festivals where you can make the most new fans, so we're going to go to mainland Europe. Then, we're probably going to go away for a little while just to write. People are going to hate us, but I think it's what we need to do. We're trying to write as we're on the road, but it doesn't feel like we're going to make a good record that way and the reason we're in a band is to make good music, not to keep people happy. So, we're gonna write a record over summer and then we'll back ten times better!

Twin Atlantic will be supporting The Gaslight Anthem on tour June 22nd to June 29th.