Twin XL Have Alt-Pop Anthems For All Your ‘Good’ and ‘Messy’ Nights

By Carson Mlnarik


Your new preference song is just a click away, thanks to an endless offer of playlists and suggestions. Perhaps that’s how alt-pop trio Twin XL have already amassed over 3 million streams and a Option Top 20 hit and noticed themselves championed on Spotify’s New Noise and It’s ALT Good! Playlists immediately after releasing their debut EP earlier this year.


Yet the three West Coasters were not intent on being a musical group “that sits on Spotify playlists and never leaves Los Angeles,” as guitarist John Gomez tells MTV News. To truly make a splash, they knew they’d have to pile in a van, drive around, and meet people, so that’s what they did. “Nothing can really replace the human connection,” lead vocalist Cameron Walker-Wright adds.


Walker-Wright, formerly of synthpop musical group Nekokat, and brothers John and Stephen Gomez (bass) from The Summer Set, had years of experience performing, writing, and producing for artists like All Time Low, Sabrina Carpenter, and Lindsey Stirling before joining forces. The three may be new to Twin XL, nevertheless they’re already music industry veterans.


“I think once you’re younger, there’s a bit of fear in maybe trying things that are a little bit outdoors of your comfort zone,” Stephen says of their growth, and what they’ve learned from past bands. “I feel like we’re not afraid to try different things — I think that comes with age and experience.”


Right after running around in the same circles, a spontaneous encounter at a L.A. Residence party inspired the trio to try a day in the studio with each other. Their choice to name the musical group Twin XL was as L.A. As ever — a nod to the mattresses John and Stephen slept on in the master bedroom of their first city apartment. Taking inspiration from bands like MGMT and Foster the People, they write songs that double as both jubilant mood boosters and late-night anthems, with infectious beats under dark lyrics about going out, parties, and the drama of adulthood.


One of the opening tracks they wrote with each other, “Good,” inspired them to try it out as a musical group. “I had driven around and listened to [the] song for almost each year, and I was like, ‘This song isn’t getting old to me,’” John says. “That has to be a good sign, maybe we should do this.”


Clocking in just under three minutes, “Good” is addictively catchy, combining a throbbing bass riff with cautiously placed handclaps, whistles, and party-friendly lyrics begging to be screamed out loud. They wrote the track in just a couple of hours and knew they were onto something special. Nevertheless no one in the sort anticipated the lead-in to the chorus — a very coolly stated “Nobody gonna kill my vibe” — could be the opening lyric fans shouted back to them. “It was fully unexpected and right now that happens at every show,” Stephen says.


The track’s music video — a vehicle ride by way of the desert with a mustachioed burglar — was a way to present the trio’s penchant for juxtaposition and quirkiness à la Wes Anderson. Since then, each of their visuals lives inside of the “strange little world” they’ve created, mashing their sleek sound with retro imagery. “There’s just something really cool about just hearing this categorize kind of borderline emo-y song in a retro setting,” John says. “It just feels like, ‘What time period is this?’”


The trend continues in the music video for their new single “Messy,” which the musical group worked on with Little Hurt, a.K.A. Friend Colin Dieden, formerly of The Mowgli’s. “We all sort of got with each other and he threw out the idea of the word ‘messy,’ and then we sort of just got involved with that,” John says.


The track specifics what it’s like “being in a cycle of disrepair and anxiety” at the hand of your own mistakes, and the visual, directed by Jade Ehlers, follows Cameron as he tries to get to the bottom of what’s bringing him down to no avail. “You can attempt to change your environment, you could attempt to change your clothes, you could attempt to change who you’re with although ultimately... You know, you can’t escape yourself,” John says.


“Messy” serves because the initial taste of their forthcoming debut album, which follows this year’s How converse with Strangers. The three wrote and produced the EP entirely on their own, and have been hard at work on the LP in between tour dates with The Maine. They’ll buckle down on production at the end of the year, yet have begun debuting new tracks at live shows — a tradition they’ve followed since hitting the road.


“We’ve got to habitually have a new song in the set, and keep it fresh and give people a reason to come and keep coming to the shows,” John says.


The trio jokes that tour mate John O’Callaghan, lead singer for The Maine, is the inspiration for their latest touring track “Melt.” With lyrics like “You could wreck my apartment / you can ruin my life,” the track is the band’s attempt at the age old “stalker love song.”


“I think the ideal love songs border somewhere between infatuation and stalker,” John says. “Like ‘Every breath you take / Every move you make.’” John O’Callaghan’s doorman, beware.


In back of touring, the band’s music has noticed its way into commercials and trailers like Disney’s Christopher Robin, Hulu’s Light as a Feather, and even MTV’s Ex on the Beach and The Hills: New Beginnings. “I don’t think it will ever get old seeing your music beyond television,” John says. “However someone discovers us, I’m cool with, if it’s from Ex on the Beach, or seeing us at a show, or on a playlist or going shopping.”


In fact, they recently met two females at a show in Tampa who worked at Victoria’s Secret at the mall, and showed up because they had heard “Good” incessantly on the store’s playlist. “They were like, ‘We really didn’t expect it to be very good at all although you guys were amazing,’” John laughs. “I don’t know if that was a compliment or what it was, nevertheless it was funny.”


With their debut album on the horizon, the musical group kicks off 2020 on tour with Fitz and The Tantrums, and plans to drop new tracks sporadically. Judging by the variety of jumping fans standing with phones aglow at their recent Webster Hall gig in New York, their “good” success is only going to get bigger.


That doesn’t mean they don’t have their superstitions, though. In Twin XL’s case, it’s making XLs with their arms, holding them with each other, and chanting before they go onstage. “I think there was like one show we didn’t do it, plus it was bad, and we haven’t not done it since,” Cameron admits. “It’s the nerdiest thing ever.”