We sat down with Conor Adams, one half of the Dublin duo, and talked everything from Scrabble bags to flu jabs, making dreams come true, getting 'weird' before a gig and how the act very nearly became a Terminator cover band.
First thing's first, we wanted to know the reason behind the double Vs instead of a W in All Tvvins. Conor told us that the story they like to tell people is that they randomly took nine letters out of a Scrabble bag and that's the only thing that made sense to them. Really though, 'Twins' was already taken, so they added the word 'All' to 'Tvvins', so that both words would have a set of twin letters. Aha, mystery solved!
They took the letters IIVV to form the title of their debut album, so when we told Conor that the acronym IIVV stood for 'Inactive Influenza Virus Vaccine' and therefore the album essentially meant 'flu jabs', he was a bit taken aback. However, we assured him that it meant they were injecting wellness into the world, which seemed to take the sting out of things (I still think Flu Jabs is a pretty sick name for a band though. Okay, I'll stop now).
They originally toyed with the idea of being a film score cover band featuring really heavy electric guitar (awesome idea, by the way), but Conor's other half Lar only had Terminator tunes on the brain.
Since they quickly realised that there wasn't much of an audience for a 'Terminator band', they decided maybe a real band was the way to go instead. I feel like we could have missed out here, let's hope there's a Terminator tribute album on the cards (Now there's an idea! WE'LL BE BACK for this one. Okay, okay that's the last one I swear).
Moving onto the music scene in Dublin, Conor said, "Dublin's just as good as London, just as good as New York". It's good he says, because you can make friends with other bands. "Networking, without networking," as he puts it, "not like, 'Hi, I'm a robot I'm gonna network and become famous' because it doesn't work like that and if you do that you're a creep".
Selling out the Olympia was "a dream come true" for the guys, but Whelan's is where Conor said they feel most at home. "It's the right of passage for Irish bands, big bands would always come back to Whelan's for the intimate gigs".
Speaking of which, Conor said, "we get really weird before a gig. It's like we can't communicate with anyone but the band, so we usually kick people out about 10 minutes before. Getting in the zone happens naturally, but it's weird... it sounds like Top Gun, get in the zone baby! The danger zone!" Cue the aviators, please.
Their single 'Darkest Ocean' appears on the soundtrack for FIFA 16. Conor commented on their inclusion, "It's crazy. I've been playing computer games since I was four. It's a dream come true to have our music on a game."
Coming to the end of our time with Conor, we did a fun quickfire round of questions. Prepare for some hardhitting stuff...
Q: Besides music, my secret talent is?
A: Computer Games
Q: I cannot perform unless I have?
A: A drink.
Q: A song you won't admit you listen to, but play on repeat?
A: I'm not ashamed of any of the music I listen too and now I can't even think of the name of a song.
Q: First thing I do in the morning is?
A: Get out of bed
Q: Tayto or King?
A: Tayto, no King ahh that was weird coz I do prefer King but Tayto.
Q: Night out on the tiles or night on the couch with The Late Late?
A: Night on the tiles — no brainer!
Q: Best piece of unorthodox advice you were given before you became famous?
A: Don't get famous.
Q: What would be your dream collaboration?
A: Queen, but Freddie's kicked the bucket so no can do.
Q: I want [blank] to play me in my biopic.
A: Ehhhhhhh, Brad Pitt.
Q: Barry's or Lyons?
A: Barry's.
All Tvvins play at The Sea Sessions Festival on June 23 and Trinity College Dublin on July 7. Stick the dates in your diary — these guys are a double dose of deadly!
