HEADS UP

IT'S BEEN A WEIRD COUPLE OF YEARS, HUH? SAM MCTRUSTY EXPLAINS HOW IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL, HE AND HIS BAND TOOK THINGS BACK TO THE VERY BASICS, AND CAME OUT THE OTHER SIDE WITH A BRAND NEW RECORD.

- MADDY HOWELL

As the saying goes, with great risk comes great reward. Contending with setbacks, failures, and start-overs is all part of the journey to greatness, but as Twin Atlantic frontman Sam Mc Trusty discovered at the start of 2020, it's often a delicate balance to strike.

Signing a major label contract for the first time in their career ahead of the release of 'POWER', their triumphant electronic led fifth studio album, the Glasgow outfit seemed to be riding an unstoppable wave as they headed into their latest era, but behind the scenes, things proved to be a little more complicated.

There was so much risk involved in 'POWER' because we came off the record label that we'd been with for ten years and had to self-fund everything. It was the most intense experience I've had in my life, Sam starts.

I'm not sure if it was stress or some form of mental breakdown, but my brain reached its capacity. When the album came out, I'd lost three stone, and I was falling asleep mid-conversation, but I kept saying to myself, 'It's stressful to put a record out, this is normal'.

Turning a blind eye to the cracks that were beginning to show, shortly after the album's release Sam and his bandmates, Ross McNae [bassist] and Craig Kneale [nowformer drummer], headed to their studio in the east end of Glasgow to begin work on a follow-up.

When we were making 'POWER' we had three or four extra songs that any band would kill to have. When we signed to Virgin EMI there was a big discussion about holding them back for the next record, and I defaulted to their judgment, but there was a niggle in the back of my head, the frontman recalls.