It’s a lot of fun, we’ll be sweating and if you want to have a good time you’ll be sweating too.

Clay Frankel and Cadien Lake James of Chicago’s Twin Peaks dropped by Mornings with Greta Balog to talk about the life of the band, what their live shows entail and hanging out with kangaroos and koalas.

After deciding to take on a tour with their three demo singles, playing house and basement shows just after they finished high school, the band was approached by Autumn Tone Records to release a record. This all happened within their first couple of months of starting college – and ultimately led to them dropping out of college.

When asked if that was a turning point for the band to pursue music, they explained:

“Absolutely. I just couldn’t see myself at college… I remember the phone call with Clay, it was me, and bassist and drummer Jack and Connor were all at the same college, so we were talking about it and going back and forth like, ‘Alright, are we going to do this or not?’”

“I called Clay and he was like, ‘I fucking hate this’. Immediately I was like ‘Yeah let’s do it, let’s get out of here.’”

As this is the band’s first time in Australia, they’ve been playing tourists in between shows – recently heading to the Lone Pines koala sanctuary in Brisbane.

“Very tight. I liked the kangaroo petting zoo. Zoos are always kind of sad because of the captivity, but the kangaroos were getting fed a lot, the koalas were high as hell, they seem ok. I don’t think they mind it much. It was better than most zoos in America.”

When Greta asked what we can expect from their live sets, they told us:

“I wish we had some animals to put on stage, but we’re kind of like animals on stage. It’s a lot of fun, we’ll be sweating and if you want to have a good time you’ll be sweating too. We’ll play some rock n roll, we get down and dirty, and usually people have a fun time if they come.”

Twin Peaks’ third album, Down in Heaven, will be released this Friday 13th May.