What You Know

Album: Tourist History (2011)
Charted: 64
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is the fifth single from Northern Ireland Alternative Rock group Two Door Cinema Club's debut album. Singer/guitarist Alex Trimble explained the song's meaning to Spinner: "The song was written about touring... the lifestyle that we lead and the people that we left behind, through the fragility of our business that we're in. It's so fickle and you don't know where you're going to be in a few years time, but yet you're giving up so much to be in this position."
  • The video was by Lope Serrano of the Spanish Production Company CANADA and features the band, some lovely ladies, dancers dancing in time to the song's rhythm and a bathtub. Trimble explained to Spinner that as the "song is pretty heavy, a light-hearted video seemed more appropriate." He continued: "We had seen these directors, CANADA, that directed a few videos for El Guincho and Scissor Sisters and we loved their style and what they were doing. So we got in touch and they came up with this concept. They always have this vintage style that they shot with so we told them that we wanted girls and dancers in the video. That's pretty much all we said to them. Very, very pleased with the outcome."
  • Trimble wanted this song to be the first single, but the band's record label refused, saying it wasn't good enough. He told NME: "Every time we came around to releasing a single, I wanted it to be that song and eventually I got my way - and it ended up being our biggest single, so I feel kind of smug." (It was actually their second biggest single at that point: their debut song, "Something Good Can Work," peaked at #56 on the UK Charts, while this climbed to #64.)
  • Bassist Kevin Baird recalled: "I think I remember playing it to our publishing company for the first time, and
    I think they cried when they heard it or something, I seem to remember. And it had the most terrible name; I think it was originally called 'Lip Nip' or something - something terrible that was nothing to do with the song, and we finally renamed it and reworked it, and it turned out pretty good, I think."
  • The song has featured in several commercials, including the 2012 Microsoft Outlook online advertising campaign and the Indonesian Telkomsel Loop TV ads.
  • Alex Trimble came up with his initial two guitar riffs around a couple of months before the band went in to record Tourist History.

    "From that I wrote the chorus and then played through the guys and we came up with an idea for the verse and put everything together," Trimble said. "Then the lyrics took a few weeks wanting to kind of sum up our lives at that point of my life at that point where we were touring all the time and but we just we just kind of started being a professional band."

    "It kind of encompasses the people you leave behind also just the total uncertainty of what we were doing," he added, "and although we had had a certain amount of success, and we were you know we were touring and we had we had signed a record deal we didn't know what was gonna happen maybe next year."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Mark Arm of Mudhoney

Mark Arm of MudhoneySongwriter Interviews

When he was asked to write a song for the Singles soundtrack, Mark thought the Seattle grunge scene was already overblown, so that's what he wrote about.

Spooner Oldham

Spooner OldhamSongwriter Interviews

His keyboard work helped define the Muscle Shoals sound and make him an integral part of many Neil Young recordings. Spooner is also an accomplished songwriter, whose hits include "I'm Your Puppet" and "Cry Like A Baby."

16 Songs With a Heartbeat

16 Songs With a HeartbeatSong Writing

We've heard of artists putting their hearts into their music, but some take it literally.

Charles Fox

Charles FoxSongwriter Interviews

After studying in Paris with a famous composition teacher, Charles became the most successful writer of TV theme songs.

Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum

Dave Pirner of Soul AsylumSongwriter Interviews

Dave explains how the video appropriated the meaning of "Runaway Train," and what he thought of getting parodied by Weird Al.

Ian Gillan of Deep Purple

Ian Gillan of Deep PurpleSongwriter Interviews

Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan explains the "few red lights" in "Smoke On The Water" and talks about songs from their 2020 album Whoosh!