Bandmates Alex Trimble, Kevin Baird and Sam Halliday were sitting in Tokyo’s Narita International Airport when they found out they had made the BBC Sound of 2010 longlist, previous winners including the likes of pop virtuosos Little Boots, Adele and Mika. Kevin, Two Door Cinema Club’s bassist, using his spare Yen, nonchalantly decided to pass the waiting time in the airport internet lounge. He browsed for some time before, as he puts it, “accidently stumbling upon the news”.

 

Kevin, and duly vocalist Alex and guitarist Sam, were already in a state of celebration, having just experienced what felt like the pinnacle of an already teeming year: 5 days in Tokyo playing an introduction show in Japan, interviewing and showcasing their new sound. In two short years the high school friends had gone from at-home hobbyists using only guitars and looped pre-recorded drum sounds to travelling musicians with a live band, a label, and, part and parcel of the touring band, a fanbase. The BBC’s Sound of 2010 longlisting, which heralded the computerised music of Two Door Cinema Club, was, the team assure Ponystep on their return to London [an adopted home through circumstance after the three bandmates spent so much time here recording, away from their native Bangor, Ireland] the proverbial cherry on the top.

 

Produced by Björk and Little Boots right hand man Lexx, the sound of 2010 Two Door Cinema Club, and duly the sound unleashed on Japan, is more mature than the original software-driven demos made years ago. “Melodies are very important,” Alex says, the constant presence of melodic refrain in the new record marking out Two Door Cinema Club as something far more advanced than the rest of the indie-laptop bands saturating the club circuit at the minute. “We really focused on the melodies of the new songs. Melodies are the most accessible part of a song,” guitarist Sam agrees, “well, as long as you write good ones.” Holed up in London and Paris studios for intermittent shifts, the band, through toil and hard work, certainly have achieved said good melodies. “It was strange to be in a 'real' studio for the first time as a band,” Alex later says of this time, remembering the album’s humble beginnings, the team working, for the first time in their careers, with a producer. Previously they had done everything themselves, and, despite having some of the most impressive and exciting dance collaborators at their fingertips, it is, they assure, a mentality they still plan to continue adhering to. All three insisted on being a part of the new album’s every progress, attending the studio most days to work on the songs - at every stage. This ethos had got them to where they are today, they reasoned.

 

When Two Door Cinema Club started out, they had two songs. Figuring a lot of people put demos on MySpace and didn’t let people download them, the bandmates, with a collected “screw it, what have we got to lose?” mentality, allowed members to download the songs. Organically, the interest led to gigs in nearby Belfast. [“MySpace made it easier for our music to spread by word of mouth. If someone was told about us, they could just type in our name and be listening to our music a few seconds later,” Sam says, seemingly still in awe of the power of the social networking site.] Modestly, the band would have been happy with this alone; localised fame and a pretty decent MySpace following. One or two gigs a month kept the public interest alive and in their free time they could just “write and write and write”. Then Two Door Cinema released an eponymous EP independently, not bothering to pursue any Indie labels, or even putting a copyright symbol on it. “We just thought we’d put it out there on a CD and sell it.” It led to industry interest, most notably from Parisian powerhouse Kitsuné.

 

In February 2009, after two years of frequent live work and little else, Kitsuné honcho Gildas Loaëc heard about Irish trio Two Door Cinema Club through a friend, caught the EP and emailed the bandmates, simply asking to meet up. At the meeting Gildas was forthright and direct. As champion of some of the biggest electro and indie groups of today including Cut Copy, Digitalism, Klaxons, Hotchip, even woman of the moment La Roux, Gildas knew what worked, what sold. “He just told us he wanted to do something with us and our music,” the three beam in unison, remembering the pivotal moment. “He seemed so passionate about our songs, so we knew it would be a good decision.” The first single 'Something Good Can Work' and a selection of Kitsuné parties showcased the bands padded out sound, a leaning described often as Phoenix-like, a band the three have since covered [“The funny thing is we hadn't even listened to Phoenix until we started getting all these comparisons! Once we heard them, though, we were instantly hooked. They're a band with similar ideas to us it seems. To make enjoyable pop music and have fun doing it”]. The relationship with Kitsuné grew and eventually the band were asked to release an album. Of course, they said yes. This resulted in mixes with Eliot James and Philipe Zdar of French duo Cassius [“Blast from the past I know,” Alex asides at my mention of the dance powerhouse’s first mainstream hit Cassius 1999, “They are one of my favourite dance acts of all time, especially after we heard Philippe Zdar's production on Phoenix's 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix'], and it wasn’t long before the public caught on to the music of Two Door Cinema Club and the hype started rolling in, culminating in a blog steeped in superlative praise by Kanye West, who has been known to break artists, gigs at some of the most prestigious festivals, including Glastonbury, and, the aforementioned longlisting on the BBC’s much lusted Sound Of…

 

“Kitsuné is a small label, so we know and work with everyone on a personal basis. Everyone is so motivated and is driven by their artists' music,” the band say in explanation of Kitsuné’s success rate, in explanation of the booming interest in Two Door Cinema Club, in explanation of the meteoric boon of the Irish trio’s output. In explanation of the gifted title as one of the coolest bands of 2010. “Oh yes, the street cred,” they chime. “Some of the success is down to the street-cred that comes with Kitsuné, of course.”