Two Door Cinema Club’s Alex Trimble has admitted to MTV News he regards Simon Cowell liking his band as a “huge compliment”.
While most guitar bands would take Cowell being into their music as an insult, Alex didn’t feel that way when they met on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
After performing their recent single Sun, the X Factor supremo approached him to reveal he is a fan.
“I took it as a great compliment,” confessed the frontman.
“He liked our song and he’s good at getting a good song and turning it into a hit, so if it’s something he likes I take that as a huge compliment.
Alex added: “He’s all about making money and getting the big hit singles, but somewhere in his head he knows what a good tune is.”
From Danny Boyle to Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, Two Door Cinema Club aren’t short of famous fans, but someone they’re not expecting to see in the crowd at Coachella when they play the legendary festival in April is President Barack Obama.
Last summer it was widely reported the Northern Irish trio had to add another date to their US tour after Obama and his team booked nearly every seat of their first show in Washington DC.
Although the Obama story stemmed from a joke tweet by bassist Kevin Baird, Two Door are still benefiting from the “complete lies” across the pond.
“For something that doesn’t have an ounce of truth in it, it’s been one of the greatest publicity tools, so we can’t complain!” said Alex, who sang Caliban’s Dream during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.
“It’s still getting talked about now so it’s definitely not done us any harm, especially in the States when that was the big question about us when we were over there.”
The 23-year-old, who revealed they are “likely” to play Glastonbury when the Worthy Farm festival returns at the end of June, also downplayed the rivalry between his band and The Vaccines who beat them to the number 1 album spot in September.
“None of us cared – nobody mentioned the album thing once when we were touring Australia together at the end of last year.
“The charts are very saturated with pop acts, so we were just pleased two guitar bands who are doing it for themselves were up there at the top.”
TDCC are currently halfway through their Beacon UK tour and they’ve been searching for local heroes in each of the towns and cities they are playing.
Alex explained: “We’ve heard amazing stories over the years of how our music has helped our fans, so we thought it would be nice to reward the people who give up parts of their lives to help others and do great things.”
To enter Two Door’s unique ticket competition, share your story on Twitter and Facebook using #TDCCLocalHero as the hashtag.

By Ben Lowe @mtvuknews'
'