Renowned for their live performances, pop rock band, Twister, connects with their audiences in a very natural way. Having played with the likes of Status Quo, Simple Minds, Jools Holland and many more, the band will be bringing launching their new album ‘Combined State of Mind’ with their first show on the main stage of Newcastle’s o2 Academy. It’s set to be a huge event. Damian Robinson sat down with frontman Stevie Stoker to find out more about turning a new album around in 5 months and being future tv stars.
Damian: Hi Stevie, how are you?
Stevie: Good mate, recovering a little from last night. I was out at a music quiz and haven’t had a drink in ages so it kicked in quickly.
Damian: (laughing) Nice. Did you win?
Stevie: We did as it happens, which is strange as I’ve never won an argument before.
Damian: Great. It’s the launch party of the new album on the 21st as well as it being the date you headline the o2 Academy main stage for the first time. Which one are you most excited about?
Stevie: Definitely the show. We’ve got some really special plans for the show. It’s rare that a local band is asked to headline the venue so the fact that we’ve been asked is pretty amazing.
Damian: You must be excited to have been asked?
Stevie: Over the moon. We’re working on visuals and fireworks at the minute which are live show elements we’ve never used before. It’s a lot of fun. We’ll have two more members in the band to help with the show as well so it should be more of a stadium sized sound.
Damian: That sounds really powerful, especially as you already have a reputation as a red-hot live band
Stevie: Thank you. We play, in some fashion, 6 times a week so we’re confident as a band and we trust each other and play really well together. We’ve got a real unity and we’re the best of pals which helps.
Damian: There seems to be a real sense of momentum with the band at the moment.
Stevie: Yeah, our last album ‘Designed State of Mind’ was out in October and got some really good reviews. One track was listed by Kerrang and we were really happy with how it was received. Then we did the launch party at the o2 Academy 2 in Newcastle and we sold it out. Anyway, the o2 rang me the day after the gig and asked if we would play the big venue in the future so we said yes.
Damian: Wow, not many bands sell out the Academy 2.
Stevie: That’s what they said too. The show’s going to be recorded and played back on Made on Tyne and Wear, the team are doing a small documentary on the band at the minute and part of the filming will include footage from the show so we’ll make sure we’re on fire on the night.
Damian: And the idea for a new album came before or after the show was agreed?
Stevie: After. Ee thought, let’s not just do the show let’s push on with the sound of Designed State of Mind and see if we can write a new album and have it out in time for the show. So from that moment on we’ve not had a day off and we’ve written the whole album. We’re really happy with the new album and we’ll have ‘Refined’ out soon which is an EP of 6 tracks followed by our album ‘Combined State of Mind’ which combines ‘Defined’ and ‘Refined’ and removes our re-recordings of two earlier Twister songs.
Damian: Brilliant. You must work fast. Now that you’ve proved you can turn an album around so quickly do you intend to keep this momentum up in the future?
Stevie: Probably not. We wanted to prove to ourselves that we could achieve this challenge, and we have. But I’m not sure we want to do something as quickly again. Next time we’d like a few days off in between recording.
Damian: I can imagine. Good luck with the show, we’ll see you there.