Hi
Found this really interesting story, many goodies about the new album, the band and abow all, save the children new web-site. Enjoy!
We Can Help Kids Survive In Poorest Place On The Planet
Feb 18 2008 By Lindsay Clydesdale
Exclusive Travis Singer Fran Backs Campaign To Bring Hope To Children In Slums Of Sierra Leone
IT is Valentine's Day and Travis frontman Fran Healy is singing a Whitney Houston song to me.
Sadly I hadn't won a romantic date with the singer, instead he was using the diva's lyrics to illustrate his work with Save the Children.
Along with the rest of the band, Fran has begun working on their sixth album, but before immersing himself in their new sound, he helped the charity launch a scheme that is sure to become the future of fundraising.
From today, Save the Children's website will include a link to a clinic in Kroo Bay, a slum in Sierra Leone, an African country rated by the United Nations as the most underdeveloped place on Earth.
Not only will it enable people here to make direct contact with the inhabitants of Kroo Bay, but if they make a donation, they'll be able to see for themselves exactly what the money is spent on.
"The website is really cool, it's ground-breaking," said Fran. "You can communicate with people there, send them emails and see what's happening by watching videos that are on the site.
"The crucial part of the whole website is that normally when you donate, you do it in trust, generally you never see what happens with your money. But with this you can see the town's clinic, go inside and get a guided tour. The site will be also be updated every month."
Although the clinic serves 16,000 people, it operates with just four nurses and no electricity.
"You've got these people who are a million miles in every sense away from us," said Fran. "But the website will pull those two worlds closer together and emphasise that these people are your neighbours.
"They might not live next door but if someone needs to buy drugs to stop their baby dying of diarrhoea, then give them £5."
Fran, who lives in London with girlfriend Nora Kryst and their son Clay, became a supporter of Save the Children while working for the Make Poverty History campaign.
Having been to Sudan twice with Save the Children, he's keen to return to Africa and his commitment to the charity has only increased since becoming a dad himself.
"I got in touch with Save the Children when we were making the Band Aid record and I wanted to go to Africa," he said. "Now that I'm aparent it means a lot more. It's not right that children are dying from preventable illnesses.
"Kids are the same everywhere, they're so resilient but we need to help them survive. As Whitney Houston once said 'I believe that children are our future'.
Perhaps he's so quick to break into a Whitney ballad because like the other members of Travis, Fran's clearly itching to get back into the studio.
They're recording their new album, Ode To J. Smith with American engineer Emery Dobyns, who has just won a Grammy for Suzanne Vega's Beauty & Crime.
Although it's been less than a year since their last album The Boy With No Name was released, a handful of gigs to try out new material on fans convinced them it was time to make another record.
"Everyone in the business was talking about what the new model is in the music industry," said Fran. "We figured the new model is just to write good records. Make records, put them out more often and create your own history rather than waiting for it.
"We were eager because we'd had a long break for two years and felt we really needed to do a catch-up. It's exciting. None of us can wait to get into the studio and the reaction from the fans has been totally brilliant.
"We had five shows where we performed all the songs that are going on the record. It's brave going out and playing songs no one has ever heard before, but it went well."
THEIR enthusiasm to perform together again explains the tight deadline the band have given themselves.
"We're going to finish it in two weeks," said Fran. "We did it with our first album, Good Feeling. I think the problem when you make records nowadays, most of the reason why it takes forever is there's too many options.
"There are songs that maybe aren't finished properly when you go in. So we've put all the work into the preproduction to make thinks simpler in the studio. It'll sound like a modern record but it'll just be quicker.
"The hard bit's over. Trying to write songs is the hardest bit, recording it is easy."
Like their previous records, Fran has written the majority of the album, but a quarter are a collaboration with bass player Dougie Payne.
Fran said: "Dougie came in with three songs. He's always writing songs but I'm a very hard task master and it's not that his previous ones weren't good, they just might not fit with an album. All of these ones fit and they're damn good songs so it's fantastic.
"This album is completely different from the last one. It's got teeth. It's quite a lot rockier. We're letting Andy Dunbar, our guitarist, loose alittle bit more, but we're not sacrificing the melodies. I think it's going to surprise a lot of people."
The Travis brood now numbers four and with Dougie's wife, the actress Kelly MacDonald, due to give birth next month, they'll likely need a creche on their next tour.
"Yes I know," laughed Fran. "We could have a baby band. Or run it like a family business - Travis and Sons and Daughters.
"It's all happening. I'm not sure what the due date is but we have an embargo set and we are hopefully finishing our album on March 2 to give Dougie and Kelly the wide berth to go and have an amazing honeymoon and few months with the little one.
"Dougie is the last one of us to become a dad. He's an amazing uncle to all our kids and I think he's going to be an awesome papa."
In between the gigs, babies and recording, Travis have also been collecting celebrity friends. Hollywood actor Ben Stiller even appeared in the video for last year's single, Closer.
"Ben's been a fan for a while," said Fran. "I emailed him and asked him to be in the video. He said yes, I didn't need to twist any arms.
"He had that day off so came down to the video shoot in Los Angeles. He's a really nice guy who just happens to be an amazing actor. You kind of forget that he's famous because he's such a cool guy."
With the album wrapped up before summer, the band are in a perfect position to make a return to their favourite festival, T in the Park.
"At the moment we're concentrating on making the new album amazing and don't want to think about anything else," said Fran. "But once it's finished I'm sure things will start popping up.
"Last time we performed at T in the Park was 2005. But I do think Travis are at a point where we need to come back with something that's different, not just the same old, same old. Not that the same old's not good but you need to develop and that's what we have to do with this record."
Thanks! That was a really great article, despite one glaring error (check below). I'll probably check out that site in a couple of weeks time.
Elein wrote:
We're letting Andy Dunbar, our guitarist, loose alittle bit more, but we're not sacrificing the melodies. I think it's going to surprise a lot of people."
Oh geez... it's TREIVIS, or did we say it's TREVIS? Whatever. I don't get it, is it that difficult to do a fact check?
Thanks Elein. Great reading , just the update we are looking for.:-) Fran is such an amazing person, an incredible idea which will really give those people a lifeline . Very exciting times . Congratulations to Dougie, he must be feeling well chuffed- hatrick!
EDIT : Just checked the website . Its very easy to navigate and help in some way. A tip when registering - I found it wont take the number of your road and the road name on the same line . So try the number on its own.
thanks for posting ! interesting stuff but why can't they get their facts right! Apart from giving Andy a new surname, when do they get it that Fran is married to Nora !? newspapers eh !?
thanks for posting ! interesting stuff but why can't they get their facts right! Apart from giving Andy a new surname, when do they get it that Fran is married to Nora !? newspapers eh !?
Brilliant. Lots of new information there. Dougie stuff on the album. Maybe they'll do T. In my opinion, doing T and the other festivals will make a big difference in the success in sales of the album.
I'm glad he says Travis need to change. He's right. The Boy With No Name is an awesome album. Probably my favourite album of 2007 but it is time for a change. Love the new stuff. Maybe this means we'll be getting quicker albums from now on! And let's not forget that b side album too, which could be released between album 6 and 7.
Thanks! That was a really great article, despite one glaring error (check below). I'll probably check out that site in a couple of weeks time.
Elein wrote:
We're letting Andy Dunbar, our guitarist, loose alittle bit more, but we're not sacrificing the melodies. I think it's going to surprise a lot of people."
Oh geez... it's TREIVIS, or did we say it's TREVIS? Whatever. I don't get it, is it that difficult to do a fact check?
That jumped out at me, too. So now Treivis has two Andys. Anley Dounlop and Andy Dunbar. It's going to be crowded on the bus.
Thanks! That was a really great article, despite one glaring error (check below). I'll probably check out that site in a couple of weeks time.
Elein wrote:
We're letting Andy Dunbar, our guitarist, loose alittle bit more, but we're not sacrificing the melodies. I think it's going to surprise a lot of people."
Oh geez... it's TREIVIS, or did we say it's TREVIS? Whatever. I don't get it, is it that difficult to do a fact check?
That jumped out at me, too. So now Treivis has two Andys. Anley Dounlop and Andy Dunbar. It's going to be crowded on the bus.
Not to mention on the stage, especially if both of them keep climbing or diving into the audience...
Errors aside, I checked out the web site for that place. It is very sad. The trash is unimaginable. From what I gathered, people upstream throw their trash in the river and it all washes there. They also have flood problems, which I'm sure brings more trash. Kids are walking around barefoot in that mess, looking for scrap metal to sell. Their houses are basically shacks. There are 2 toilets for 6,000 people. The kids bathe and play in that river which is basically a toilet. Their clinic is filthy from all the flooding. The birthing room is terrible. They lack basic necessities and medicine. Ugh. I can't imagine being a parent in a place like that. Can you imagine that your baby died because you lacked 11 pounds (about $21.50 US) to pay the doctor? Yet the people smile and dance and play games and make the best of things. I guess they have no choice.
There are a lot of things I don't understand about places like that. I think the best thing to do is for the kids to get an education and get the heck out of there. It looks like the hard part is staying alive long enough to get an education. (Actually, I didn't see a school mentioned in the web site--maybe I overlooked it.) If it floods all the time, it will never be inhabitable. A place like that should not exist.
Errors aside, I checked out the web site for that place. It is very sad. The trash is unimaginable. From what I gathered, people upstream throw their trash in the river and it all washes there. They also have flood problems, which I'm sure brings more trash. Kids are walking around barefoot in that mess, looking for scrap metal to sell. Their houses are basically shacks. There are 2 toilets for 6,000 people. The kids bathe and play in that river which is basically a toilet. Their clinic is filthy from all the flooding. The birthing room is terrible. They lack basic necessities and medicine. Ugh. I can't imagine being a parent in a place like that. Can you imagine that your baby died because you lacked 11 pounds (about $21.50 US) to pay the doctor? Yet the people smile and dance and play games and make the best of things. I guess they have no choice.
There are a lot of things I don't understand about places like that. I think the best thing to do is for the kids to get an education and get the heck out of there. It looks like the hard part is staying alive long enough to get an education. (Actually, I didn't see a school mentioned in the web site--maybe I overlooked it.) If it floods all the time, it will never be inhabitable. A place like that should not exist.
Well said- Its the message that matters not the small facts that are slightly wrong. Its a good article and we should be looking at the main point which is to try and help.
