Interview with Twin Atlantic star Sam McTrusty ahead of TRNSMT Glasgow

The Glaswegian rocker captures her voice on the band's post-lockdown comeback Bang on The Gong with phrases like, 'you are one cheeky wee s***e, I am f***ing sick of you,' - even if she wasn't even aware of it.

"She didn't know what she was doing when I was asking her to do it," Sam confessed.

He added: "My mum is used to me being annoying and asking her to do things like that.

"I asked my sister to record the voice note and asked my mum to say the stuff she would say when I was living with her and I was doing her head in.

"She just started saying it and didn't even ask why."

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With its 'Glasgow mum' influence, the song is bound to go down well with the thousands of fans who will be watching the band perform on the main stage at TRNSMT music festival this Saturday.

"It's like a hometown show on steroids because there is 50,000 people. It's crazy I struggle to process it and put it into words.

"I am just a wee guy who used to go to things like this in Glasgow. I used to queue for tickets to T in the Park under the bridge at Central Station," Sam said with a smile.

He added: "To be this kind of long in the game and still get these type of opportunities to play in front of a home crowd who have supported us for many years, more than any other place we have been in the world or in the UK...it just turns into a pure - I don't know, emotionally it sounds a bit over the top - it turns more into a big day of gratitude for us because our family and friends come along.

"I've actually grown up less than two miles from the Glasgow Green so that is a surreal extra."

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Twin Atlantic - which also features bassist Ross McNae - first burst onto the scene in 2006 with their pop-rock sound and now more than 15 years later they are about to release their sixth studio album Transparency in January which is something Sam is extremely proud of.

He said: "It's kind of surreal we are announcing an album because it was made in such a surreal way.

"Sometimes it takes a long time from an album getting written to recorded, it can be two years before a record comes out.

"This is one of the quickest turnarounds. I am even trying to process. I don’t know what the songs are about yet.

"The way that I write... whatever is on my mind or on the tip of my tongue, I write about it without thinking and it takes me a wee while to catch up and be like what am I actually talking about there.

"I'm still trying to figure it out myself but that’s the thing I am excited about the most that after all these years we are still doing something different.

"We are still pushing ourselves and pushing what a Scottish rock band can sound like rather than repeating the same thing over and over again.

"I'm dead proud of it already."

The rockers are bound to be in fine tune after claiming the honour of being one of the first bands to tour the UK once restrictions lifted on the music industry.

So was it strange being back on stage?

"For the first five or six songs, you could tell people were nervous or uncomfortable or feeling it out again.

"We were kind of the same for the first five or six songs every night, feeling our way back into it.

"But see by the end it was almost as if a pandemic hadn’t happened and it was a really good example of how powerful music can be to lift people’s spirits.

"It's a total privilege to be part of bringing people back out. We were one of the first bands to tour in the UK," he said.

He added: "My wife is a nurse and she was working in the hospital all the way through lockdown and I was like at home, kind of like f**k man I am a spare part in society. I am not helping. 

"I felt guilty about being a fully grown adult not being able to add anything during all that.

"It gave me a different perspective when out touring. It is all about making sure everyone has a good time."

The band will have plenty of opportunities to give their fans a good time with a hometown date also pencilled in for the city's Barrowland Ballroom on May 12 next year.

"I can't wait. It is almost like every time we play the Barras it is like a landmark moment for us," said Sam.

He added: "We have played it so many times now which I keep forgetting because it still feels to me, 'OMG we are playing the Barras'.

"That is where I would go to watch shows as a kid. I just feel so lucky, giddy and excited for when we get there. I think we have headlined it nine times or something so it kind of feels like a second home."

The TRNSMT and Barrowland shows will, however, have one band member missing after drummer Craig Kneale announced his decision to leave Twin Atlantic earlier this month.

Sam said: "In any band, a drummer is the spine of the whole thing keeping us all in time together.

"The thought of someone else playing the drums for us is quite a physical emotional hurdle to come over. 

"We all know it is for the right reasons, someone’s decision to do that.

"I actually have massive respect for Craig's decision. It's quite a brave thing to do.

"We are still putting albums out and playing really big gigs but he just had that drive to try something else. You have got to just respect that, don’t you?"

He added: "Ultimately I am probably in the 1% of people born in Glasgow who got to travel the world with their mate for 15 years and get paid to do it - that is my main takeaway.

 "It is an unbreakable bond although on the surface it is quite sad and obviously it is going to change something about the dynamic of the band.

"Ultimately we all just feel content about it and happy because some bands all fall out and hate each other, never talk to each other again whereas because of our experience, of how we have toured, there has always been us versus the world attitude.

"There is something quite nice about the way that this chapter of the band has come about.

"I am very much you’ve got to look for the positives in the worst of situations."

Twin Atlantic play TRNSMT on Saturday, September 11.  Don’t miss out on cinch presents TRNSMT 2021 tickets are on sale now and available from www.TRNSMTFEST.com.