Scotland’s Twin Atlantic have released their bold & brutally honest eighth studio album, Separation From The Animals, via Dance To The Radio.
Featuring superb tracks including ‘Don’t Quit It’, ‘In Your Eyes’, and ‘Supersweetness’ (featuring the help of frontman Sam McTrusty’s young daughters on backing vocals), Separation From The Animals is an album born of two tales of triumph and perseverance – one of McTrusty grappling with his own ghosts, and the other of their finest album to date coming after a time when band morale was at an all time low.
The day the band finished work on their last album, 2024’s Meltdown, was also the day McTrusty packed up his entire life and studio to start a new life in Toronto with wife and two kids, unaware of the rich seam of songwriting that it would inspire. In Canada, with just his studio and his past to reconcile with as he navigated his new life, McTrusty found himself in that ‘tunnel’ once again.
Listen to ‘Confidant’ on Scotland Football Songs.
“I’m from a family that’s fairly divided, so I’ve always been passed about from when I was six-months-old. It’s all I’ve ever known,” Sam says of his life’s trauma that seems to inform all of his songs in one way or another, and that he is opening up about for the first time. “As you grow up, you start to view life through a different lens – especially the whole struggle of going from boy to man. My experience of that is particularly painful, emotional and confusing. But because it seemed normal at the time, it didn’t really hit me until I found my tribe, my people, my band. My entire adult life is meant to have been looking ahead but my personal life is always looking back. That baggage is basically what the whole band is about.”
Now with the emotional maturity to face that pain and take ownership of his identity, McTrusty has shaped those feelings into an album that leans on classic ‘60s and ‘70s influences while still maintaining Twin Atlantic’s quintessential heartfelt, anthemic, arena-shaking DNA, with bassist Ross McNae helping steer the record’s transatlantic creation as co-producer. Founding member Barry McKenna also remained integral to the album’s sound, adding key finishing touches in Toronto, marking the first time in years that all four founding members have recorded together on a Twin Atlantic record for years.
The legendary and highly sought-after session drummer Ash Soan (Snow Patrol, Adele, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa) was brought in to record the other tracks when Craig wasn’t available, but Kneale’s involvement on the record speaks how the band has survived the choppy seas of life.
Releasing eight albums in 19 years while remaining an active, forward-looking creative force and not collapsing into a legacy act is no mean feat. Twin Atlantic have often seen members take a step back or return as they healthily cope with the storm and stress. Now, on their most accomplished record to date, the band are at their most raw and exposed, with nothing to hide from anymore.
