EVEN in the context an era of rapid change, the shifts experienced in the music industry have been especially swift and profound. Global revenue may be recovering year on year since a historic low of under $15 billion in 2014, but the move from buying to streaming and the lack of record company cash continues to cause ructions and readjustments.
Certainly the rules and expectations of the 1990s and early noughties no longer apply. Just because, say, a band has two top 10 albums, has played arenas the world over and has prestigious producers listed in their liner notes, don’t expect them to be living in a gated community in California with a studio the size of their swimming pool.
Twin Atlantic, the Glasgow trio in question, found success swiftly after forming in 2006, back when their scratchy, heartfelt punk-pop was called “emo”.
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They quickly became the biggest non-US band on Red Bull Records and were the hand-picked support act for the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, Blink-182, My Chemical Romance and heavier, hairier countrymen Biffy Clyro.
Two of their most recent albums, 2014’s Great Divide and 2016’s Jacknife Lee-produced thwonker GLA, cracked the UK top 10, the former having spawned a genuine pop hit in the Zane Lowe-endorsed Heart And Soul.
Certainly, when Twin Atlantic head out around the UK as winter hopefully turns to spring, it’s on an “underplay tour” – they could easily sell out larger venues and are already one of the top draws to TRNSMT later this year.
Now, with fourth album Power, what they “have to show for it”, says Twin Atlantic’s Sam McTrusty, is a studio in an old factory in Glasgow’s east end. You quickly clock that to the guitar-playing frontman, bassist Ross McNae and drummer Craig Kneale at least, the modest space is better than a swanky show-off pad.
“Being a band for over 10 years in what’s been earmarked as the ‘decline of the music industry’, we didn’t have anything to show for it; not like those pop and rock bands in the 1990s with their fancy houses,” says McTrusty on the phone from Paris, where the band are currently working.
He continues: “So it’s been a blessing having an HQ, a place we can dive into and focus on the reasons why we do this in the first place, which is that we love learning about music and songwriting, and having a laugh with pals about the exciting sounds you are making.
“It’s great to focus on making music because we want to, rather than chasing the business tail of the dragon.”
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The three have used the space for more than 10 years, mainly for storage, says the singer. It was Lee who suggested they get the finger out and tool it up into a fully functioning studio.
In precarious times, they would always have something that remained theirs. Make that two things: the studio and their independence.
And these new songs had the rafters of King Tut’s creaking in January when the trio launched Power with a series of gigs in venues they’d long outgrown.
The album’s singles so far – Novocaine, an anthem to the electricity McTrusty sparks with his wife, and should-be Taylor Swift cover Barcelona – may be near the start of the album’s sleek run-time but Power isn’t front-loaded.
From the electro-pop stutter of opener Oh!Euphoria! through instrumental breathers such as the meaty Mount Bungo – a namecheck to Strathbungo and Mount Florida, the Glasgow areas McTrusty and McNae respectively call home – Power is the sound of a band turned on, charged up and firing in.
RATHER then the heavy-bottomed rock bombast of GLA, Power is sleaker, dancier too, more at ease with Twin Atlantic’s electro influences.
“GLA is a big glam rock record in terms of attitude,” says McTrusty. “We’ve got a deep love for and connection with heavier music. At the time everyone around us was panicking about streaming and the ‘death of radio’.
“That’s what led to us leaving our management and record label [Red Bull Records]. We thought if no-one knew what to do, we might as well get the rock monkey off our back by doing the most rock record we could do, and putting a full-stop after it.”
Power, he says, sees the band dial back to the club sounds of Glasgow’s nightlife as well as the darker synth rock of Depeche Mode. There’s a distinctly Violator-type groove to later tracks such as Ultraviolet Truth, Messiah and Praise Me.
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“When I worked at Nice N Sleazy and Bar Bloc, they’d often have a punk-rock band playing and then have an electro dance night afterwards,” says McTrusty.
“I’ve always wanted to see how the two things would work together but maybe I wasn’t confident enough before to do it. With Depeche Mode – they really seem to find the place between darkness, sorrow and regret.
“As a songwriter, I’ve always tried to fit in there as well. I felt it was time to give a nod to what a big influence they’ve been over the years.”
Power may be the sound of a band liberated but rather than being self-released, it’s out on Virgin EMI – a super-label owned by Universal, one of the biggest players on the planet. It’s a good fit, says McTrusty.
“This label deals with one thing only: music,” he says. “We’re on a label with people like The Killers. It feels like we belong. With that and the studio, which has reinvigorated us as musicians and people, it feels like it’s the start of the second half of the match for us.”
March 3, Concert Hall, Motherwell; Mar 4, Music Hall, Aberdeen; Mar 6, Fat Sams, Dundee; Mar 7, Grand Hall, Kilmarnock. Twin Atlantic play TRNSMT on July 11. www.trnsmtfest.com www.twinatlantic.com Power is out now via Virgin EMI.
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