Twin Atlantic Release ‘Free’

When Glasgow’s Twin Atlantic released their 2009 mini-album, Vivarium, it immediately found an awestruck audience. The reviews were uniformly ecstatic. Grand, sweeping and eloquent, it was a collection of songs with a heart and soul, crafted by passion and informed by staunch lyrical and musical frankness. It set Twin Atlantic on a rollercoaster – one that has led, now, to the release of their full debut, Free, an inspiring collection of songs full of ambition, pain, belief and soul. In a world of music dominated by talent show winners, mass-marketed bands and meaningless music, here, finally, is a band in which to invest your heart.

Formed in 2007 in Glasgow, and infusing their music with their Scottish heritage, Twin Atlantic found themselves caught in a whirlwind in the months that followed Vivarium’s release. Support slots with the likes of blink-182 to My Chemical Romance and The Gaslight Anthem – followed tours the length and breadth of Britain, Europe and America. Interviews, photo-shoots, magazine articles and newspaper pieces amounted to a blur of excitement and hype. “We had three years where we’ve had this barrage of dream scenarios which we grasped with two hands”, says frontman Sam McTrusty.

But, in the grasping, Twin Atlantic worried they had strayed from the ethos and ideals with which they had started their band. “We suddenly thought, ‘What are we doing?'” adds McTrusty. In that moment of realisation, Twin Atlantic did what only the best bands do. They rediscovered their love for music and for pouring themselves, their feelings, fears, hopes and dreams into it.

The quest to deliver authenticity in their music led them to the influential producer Gil Norton (“a fucking dude-and-a-half”, according to guitarist and cellist Barry McKenna) with whom they teamed up in the Red Bull Studios in Santa Monica, California at the end of 2010. “We really trusted that he could help us make an honest record because he’s already achieved that with other bands like Pixies and Foo Fighters early in their careers. You can hear the genuineness in the bands he’s worked with.”

“There are songs about how the media and big corporations manipulate and mould your opinions”, he says. “You end up becoming a lesser version of yourself as a result.” But if this is a record that takes a more worldly view than before, it is still one that remains steadfastly personal too – yet it’s one that could be personal to all their fans. “Sam discusses a lot of issues not only personal to him, or even the four of us, but to the modern generation,” says McKenna. “Many people will be able to relate to these songs, and hopefully they will.” “Lyrically these are not my stories,” adds bassist Ross McNae, “but I do feel more of an attachment to some of the messages within certain songs. I can personally associate more with the lyrical content of these songs.”

In each track, in each guitar line or beat, each lyric or phrase, Free is an album in which the band’s hearts beat and their souls shimmer. You can hear such personality in even the simplest things: the fact that McTrusty’s Scottish accent shines through is just one. “Why,” asks McTrusty, “would you tell a personal story in anyone else’s voice but your own?”

The album has an emotional honesty that speaks straight from the heart. “I don’t know if we could live with ourselves if we were to make a song that didn’t have the four of us in the music,” says McTrusty, before McKenna adds: “Personally the only thing I wanted to achieve from this whole process is an album the four of us could stand by and invest ourselves in. We have done that.”

Twin Atlantic’s ‘Free’ Album released June 8th.

“We’re going to play this all year – This will be a show residency record.” – BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe during ‘Make A Beast Of Myself.’