Twin Atlantic Interview with EF Part 1

You just came off stage. How was that?

Fine it was a really really good vibe! To be honest for a Fall Of Troy crowd who are very dedicated I thought we did pretty well. People really liked it…seems that way. You never expect fans from the main act to go wild and jump around like they would at one of our shows.

You definitely had some fans too…I had a couple next to me.

That’s cool!

Your new single is coming out Where is Light? What is Laughter? It’s a re-release isn’t it?

Yeah it’s new…but it’s not! (laughs) It’s a re-recording of something that we released last year. The point of the re-release was and I guess why we released the song on a different label was because it reached that many people. And the reason why we chose to include it on Vivarium is cuz we felt so proud of that song cuz it helped us reach out to the audience.

Who writes the songs? Do you all contribute?

I suppose the majority is Sam’s songs, our singer. What he will do is if he is writing he will show us and then once he’s shown us we will work on it together. Then 90% of the time things like the structure of the music will change. Sam kinda comes up with the basis of most songs cuz he writes the lyrics I suppose and then we get together and jam out and actually write/arrange the song properly.
The way we write songs is quite strange. We never make songs the same way. They always come from different places. It’s weird because the music will always come first. Like we said Sam will come out with some guitar parts that he really likes and we will sit and work on them and then Sam will go away with the finished music and write the lyrics. Its really weirdly placed together and we are really really bad at getting bored halfway through a song and we are like: ‘Let’s just go in such a different direction!’

It’s nice to hear some variation. Nowadays music seems to be a never ending copy of something else already out there.

Oh thanks, thank you very much!

You recorded Vivarium in LA. Is that where the idea for Your Turning Into John Wayne came to you?

Something like that. We were signed to an American label and it was around that time that Sam was writing the song and we gave him the music and we had no idea what he was going to come back with. It’s weird because people think that it’s a ‘I dig America’ song but its kinda not it’s more a commentary on the whole situation. American culture has entered everybody’s life through TV, music and whatever.

Did you tour the States at all?

We played some shows. A few big festivals like South by South West and Access and we also played that festival in LA, Bamboozle, which was so shit!

Why?

All the bands were so shit. You could count all the good bands on one hand. It sounds like we are hard to please but we are not hard to please cuz we like all kinds of music. But as long as its honest that’s the main thing. I think all the bands that played that weekend and I am talking about big bands, seemed to be in a band to drink and be cool. It was a weird scene that festival.
The song John Wayne kinda cheekly points at those people who aren’t honest as musicians and where they come from and all sing in American accents. The thing is even if you are terrible but are proud of what you do that’s the most important part.

Are you not afraid this could happen to you? If you get really big and people push you into a direction you don’t necessarily want to go?

Never! We are too strong! (laughs) It’s not like anyone has ever tried to fool us and there is nothing I can think of from the top of my head but I do know that there has been a couple of things we said no to cuz it wasn’t the right direction for us. Its things that management want you to do because other bands do them, which I guess is perfectly acceptable for some people but for our band we just thought it’s not us.