TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB ON GROUPIES, VEGETABLES AND KANYE WEST

TWO Door Cinema Club frontman Alex Trimble sounds weary. Polite, but weary.
The Northern Ireland trio returned from Tokyo yesterday after a six-week tour and have retreated during their limited downtime.
They’ve been touring like mad and play Camden Roundhouse on March 12.
But for now, Alex has allowed us to disturb the precious time with his girlfriend, to discuss keeping healthy, his debt to Kanye West and handling groupies.



Two Door returned from Japan with a selection of very personal souvenirs he said: “It can be a lot more quiet and more mental. I guess it’s more extreme. The (fans) are kind and polite and bring us presents. We got drawings of ourselves, caricatures, which are a bit strange, some chocolates with our faces on them and a lot of socks –strange but quite cool.”
The band have collected new material from snatched soundcheck jams and notes on the road and Alex expects some of this new material to make a debut at the Roundhouse.
There are no outrageous demands on their rider, although lettuce may be deemed contrary to the rules of rock ‘n roll.
Alex said: “I’m vegetarian so I get very picky – there have to be healthy things. If we don’t say that we end up with bread and cheese so there’s a lot of veg. Being healthy is important when you have such a hectic schedule.”

The boys learned the hard way: “At the start when we were a smaller band…we didn’t carry the weight to get what we needed and ended up living on crisps and bread. We were in a terrible way, always tired and never got anything done but it’s getting easier.”

Alex has learned from touring with heroes Phoenix, the importance of keeping the band’s friendship, which can be tested when trapped in a tour bus.
He said: “You all need your own space. You can always get into your bunk, put your headphones on and zone out from the rest of the world.”

And they owe a debt to Kanye West for posting their first music video for I Can Talk on his blog.
Alex said: “He seemed to like it, we haven’t heard from him since. We were an unknown band…for such a famous person to give us that press – did so much for us, thousands of people heard of us after that – so many liked us on facebook and followed us on twitter after that. That was a really big thing for us.”

I can also reveal the band have rented a house in Glasgow, where they will record the next album: “We’ve got a lot of connections in Glasgow…it’s always a place we loved. We can go there and have a bit of a social life rather than being completely cut off when we’re on tour.”

And his tip for handling groupies?: “There’s a lot of attention, a lot of groupie-esque propositions. We’re always happy to talk to fans but as soon as it gets a bit more heavy we make our excuses and move on.”