Two Door Cinema Club

All Music Guide:

Mixing electronic polish with guitar-driven hooks à la Phoenix and the Postal Service, Bangor and Donaghadee, Northern Ireland's Two Door Cinema Club feature singer/guitarist/programmer Alex Trimble, guitarist/singer Sam Halliday, and bassist/singer Kevin Baird. Trimble and Halliday met in school, and met Baird through mutual friends. The trio began playing as Two Door Cinema Club in 2007 and skipped going to university to focus on the band. Fortunately, the gamble paid off -- the band's debut EP, Four Words to Stand On, was released in January 2009 by the hip French label Kitsuné to positive reviews and music blog buzz, which grew with the release of April's single "Something Good Can Work." That summer, Two Door Cinema Club recorded their debut album in London's Eastcote Studios with Eliot James, which they mixed with producer Philippe Zdar in Paris that fall. The group's remixes of Phoenix's "Lasso" and Chew Lips' "Salt Air" also appeared that year, and by 2009's end, the group was among the acts featured in the BBC Sound of 2010 Poll. Another single, "Undercover Martyn," arrived in January 2010, shortly before the band's first full-length Tourist History was released. In 2012, Two Door Cinema Club returned with its sophomore album, the Jacknife Lee-produced Beacon.

Wikipedia:

Two Door Cinema Club are a Northern Irish indie rock band from Bangor and Donaghadee, County Down, formed in 2007. The band consists of Alex Trimble (vocals, rhythm guitar, beats, synths) Sam Halliday (lead guitar, backing vocals), and Kevin Baird (bass, backing vocals).

The band's debut album, Tourist History, was released on 1 March 2010 by French independent record label Kitsuné Music. In the United States, where the band are signed to Glassnote Records, the album was released on 27 April 2010. Tourist History was selected for the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year (2010) the following year.

The band's second album Beacon was released on 3 September 2012 and debuted at number one on the Irish Albums Chart.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Contents

History[edit]

Formation[edit]

Trimble and Halliday first met while attending Bangor Grammar School; the pair later met Baird while he was flirting with girls who were known to his future bandmates. The three first performed as a band at the age of 16 on ATL Rock School under the name Life Without Rory; the band finished in last place. Life Without Rory recorded three demos before disbanding, two of which are still on the band's inactive MySpace page, while the third ("You Missed the Point") can be viewed on YouTube.

Trimble, Halliday and a Bardo formed another band shortly after the demise of their first musical project; on this occasion, a permanent drummer was not included. The new band's name was taken from Halliday's mispronunciation of the name of the local cinema, the Tudor Cinema; in 2007, Two Door Cinema Club were formed. Following an increased interest in the band's social network page, the three members forewent their university places and commenced work on studio material.

2007–2009: Early releases and Four Words to Stand On[edit]

An EP entitled Four Words to Stand On was released in January 2009 and received attention on a number of websites. The EP was self recorded and produced and was mixed and mastered by Ryan Mitchell.

2009–2011: Tourist History[edit]

In July 2009, Two Door Cinema Club began recording its debut album at Eastcote Studios in London, with Eliot James. In September 2009, the band began mixing the record with Phillipe Zdar at Motorbass, Zdar's studio in Paris.

In January 2010, Two Door Cinema Club announced the track listing and details of the band's debut album in an interview with NME. The album, entitled Tourist History, was released on 26 February 2010 in the Republic of Ireland, 1 March 2010 in the United Kingdom and 27 April 2010 in the U.S. The album was also preceded by the singles "Something Good Can Work", "I Can Talk" and "Undercover Martyn".

On 18 January 2011, Two Door Cinema Club appeared on the American late-night talk show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, performing the song, "What You Know".

2011–2013: Beacon[edit]

In April 2012, the band's official account revealed that a second album was near completion. On 20 June 2012, the band announced Beacon as the title of their second studio album, along with a release date of 3 September 2012 in the UK and 4 September elsewhere. Jacknife Lee, responsible for producing artists such as U2, R.E.M., Snow Patrol and Bloc Party, produced the album.

On 19 July 2012, "Sleep Alone" was selected as the lead single from Beacon and a "Sleep Alone" SoundCloud player was embedded on the NME site, allowing readers to listen to the single on 19 July 2012; however, the single was not officially released until 21 July. The accompanying music video for the single was uploaded to the band's YouTube channel on 8 August.

In early October 2012, it was announced that the second single to be released from Beacon was to be "Sun"; which was released on 18 November. The video for "Sun" had made its debut on the band's YouTube channel on 11 October 2012.

Following the release of Beacon, the band released a four-part tour documentary entitled What We See. Filmed by Gregg Houston from Babysweet Sessions, a company that is friends with the band, the documentary accompanies the band members as they undertake a 2012 European summer tour prior to the release of the sophomore album. Bassist Baird explained, in relation to the film: "Our good friends at Babysweet followed us around for a few weeks so our fans could get an idea of what life is really like for us on the road. Take a peek inside our average day."

Two Door Cinema Club announced in December 2012 that they will be playing at the Scottish music festival, T in the Park 2013 in July 2013.

2013–present: Changing of the Seasons EP and Third Studio Album[edit]

In an interview with the BBC on 15 July, Trimble stated that the band had started work on their third studio album. He also mentioned that the band was aiming to release the album by early 2015. Trimble also announced that the band had left Kitsuné and signed with former EMI subsidiary Parlophone Records. On 8 August 2013, the band announced that a new EP entitled Changing of the Seasons was to be released. Along with the news came a 30 second clip of the title track, which was set for release on 20 August and is the first single taken from the EP. On 15 August, BBC Radio 1 premiered the single.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Contents

Use in popular culture[edit]

Film[edit]

Both "Something Good Can Work" and "Do You Want It All" were used in the 2011 film Chalet Girl.

"This is the Life" was featured in the 2011 drama film Soul Surfer.

Commercial[edit]

"Something Good Can Work" and "Undercover Martyn" featured on television advertisements for Vodafone and Meteor. "Sleep Alone" and "Next Year" were featured on the playlist of the clothing retailer Hollister Co. during the autumn season of 2012.

A television commercial for Designers at Debenhams, in which designers Henry Holland, Jasper Conran and Julien Macdonald displayed their new season range for "Autumn 2012", features the song "This Is The Life"; the song had been used in previous Designers at Debenhams advertisements.

"What You Know" has been used in online advertisements by Microsoft to showcase the new Outlook.com. "Do You Want It All" was used on an advert for the clothing retailer Next.

Video games[edit]

On 25 November 2010, the track "What You Know" was released as a free download on Tap Tap Revenge 3, and has also appeared in Tap Tap Revenge and Tap Tap Revenge 4.

"Undercover Martyn" was featured on the soundtrack of Gran Turismo 5, while "I Can Talk" is featured on the soundtrack of FIFA 11 and NBA 2K11.

"You're Not Stubborn" was included in the Xbox 360 Kinect title Kinect Adventures!.

The song "Sleep Alone" appears on the FIFA 13 soundtrack.

"Something Good Can Work (The Twelves Remix)" was featured in SSX and Forza Horizon.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Awards[edit]

In December 2009, Two Door Cinema Club was featured in the BBC's Sound of... 2010 — a poll compiled by 165 British "tastemakers".

Tourist History was announced as the winner of the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year 2010 at Vicar Street on 3 March 2011; the band revealed that the award was its first. They donated the prize money to Abaana, a Northern Ireland-based charity from their hometown. Two Door Cinema Club also won the Breaking Woodie from mtvU.

In the 2010 Triple J Hottest 100, "Undercover Martyn" came in at number 21 and "I Can Talk" was at number 72. In the 2012 Triple J Hottest 100,"Sun" came in at number 37 and "Sleep Alone" was at number 90.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Tours[edit]

In the live performance arena, Two Door Cinema Club has opened for other musical acts, such as autoKratz, Delphic, Foals, Phoenix and Metronomy. They opened for Phoenix during the band's 2010 U.S. tour.

Two Door Cinema Club performed at the Canadian festival Edgefest (with Have Heart) in 2008. Following the release of Tourist History the band toured the UK and Ireland in March 2010. The band also played at several May Balls at the University of Cambridge in June 2010, including the Jesus College ball.

The band performed at numerous festivals in 2010, including the iTunes Festival, the Red Bull Bedroom Jam Futures Stage at T in the Park, the NME Stage at Reading Festival and Leeds Festival, the main stage at Oxegen, Southside Festival, Hurricane Festival, the Benicassim festival, the Splendour in the Grass Australian festival and the Electric Picnic festival in Ireland. A 2010 eastern tour involved the band performing in Australia, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

On 13 January 2011, Two Door Cinema Club commenced a 2-week co-headlining tour of the U.S. and Canada with Canadians Tokyo Police Club; support came from bands such as Work Drugs and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.

Following a 2010 announcement, Two Door Cinema Club performed at the Orange Evolution Festival in 2011. The band played at numerous other festivals including the Glastonbury Festival, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the Isle of Wight Festival, Oxegen, the Parklife Festival, Lollapalooza, the Reading and Leeds Festivals, the Paredes de Coura in Portugal, the Open'er Festival and the Virgin Mobile FreeFest in Columbia, Maryland.

Following the summer festival season of 2011, the band toured again in the U.S. for 3 weeks and then worked on a second album in a home studio in Glasgow. The band then toured again in America in November and December 2011, before continuing onto the festival season.

In March 2012 the band appeared on tour in South Africa, playing at a promotional concert for 5 chewing gum brand. They performed in two shows, one in Johannesburg and the other in Cape Town, both being supported by local acts.

Two Door Cinema Club completed two American tours in May and June 2012 and September 2012 and October 2012, while also headlining the 2012 NME Awards Tour at the start of the year and a brief UK/Irish tour in September 2012.

In addition to Portugal's SW TMN Festival, the band performed at the 2012 Reading and Leeds Festivals, Bestival on the Isle of Wight, the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee, and the A Perfect Day Festival in Verona.

Two Door Cinema Club embarked on a full UK tour in 2013 that started in Belfast on 18 January and finished at London's Brixton Academy on 8 February; the band were supported by Bastille and Swim Deep. The band then commenced a three week European tour in Zurich, Switzerland, with support from Dog Is Dead and The 1975, followed by their biggest ever London show at Alexandra Palace on 27 April. As of May 2013, four summer festivals are confirmed for 2013: Scotland's T in the Park, England's Virgin Media V Festival, Portugal's Optimus Alive and their fourth appearance at Glastonbury. Two Door Cinema Club has also been mentioned within a list of supposedly fake band names in Jimmy Kimmel's Lie Witness News interviews at Coachella. and Colombia's Estéreo Picnic.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Other projects[edit]

In July 2012, Trimble participated in the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, singing "Caliban's Dream", a song written by Underworld’s Rick Smith. Trimble revealed in an interview that filmmaker Danny Boyle, who had been commissioned as the event's "ceremony chief", had selected the singer for the role to sing at the ceremony. Speaking to The Sun newspaper, Trimble described the phone call that he received from his manager in relation to the request:

"The call woke me up and I was half asleep and hungover. He told me Danny wanted me to perform a song at the Olympics. I listened and then went back to sleep. When I woke up I actually thought the call had been a dream. But when my manager called back I obviously said, ‘Yes’."

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Members[edit]

Touring and recording member[edit]