Hi, in my "big Travis discography project" (that none of you have heard of, and those who have probably have forgotten about) I have now reached 12 Memories, and I realize that I don't know very much about that album. Does anyone know if there are any relevant articles/interviews from this period, or some other place where maybe the band members describe the songs or any of the kind?
Q?: The response to your last album 12 Memories was a little muted. You’ve been quoted as saying it was a bit dark. How so?
FH A lot of 12 Memories was dealing with the seven years before The Man Who, Invisible Band and the success they brought. That and Neil’s accident (in 2003 drummer Neil Primrose suffered a life-threatening spinal injury after diving into a swimming pool). We all kind of lost ourselves because at the root of Travis is just friends, we’re just mates and when you become successful - it’s like success is this kind of wrecking ball. Because there’s always cracks, every relationship has little cracks, it’s natural. It moves about a little here and there. Success comes in like polyfiller and pumps into your relationships and pushes you all even further apart. By the end of The Invisible Band we couldn’t stand the sight of each other, it was like we were looking at each other and thinking ‘work’.
DP And so when we finished 12 Memories we were knackered. We did a bit but we didn’t really go and promote full pelt because we really couldn’t.
"While Travis' blend of indie rock inspired bands such as Coldplay, Snow Patrol and Keane and despite accolades from Sir Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher, Chris Martin and Sir Elton John, who compared Travis' 2003's 12 Memories to The Beatles' Revolver, Fran isn't impressed with plaudits."
'I remember driving up to Scotland to record 12 Memories in the middle of nowhere. I thought, “What happens if Neil can't do it?”' Neil interjects, 'I was worried too, but it was fine – if anything I had got better.'
The resulting album, understandably the band's darkest and most political work yet, was released in October 2003. It failed to win over critics or the fans – perhaps because of the heavy-duty single, The Beautiful Occupation, critical of the the Iraq war.
Fran confesses they rushed into the album but claims the lacklustre sales were mostly down to bad press. 'People pigeonholed it as our political album so what chance did it have?' he says.
He is still passionately anti-war. 'I always say I'm not political but you don't have to be to see that the war is wrong. The song I wrote is still relevant because they are making a dog's dinner of it out there.'
His proudest moment is performing the protest song in front of a worldwide audience at the MTV Awards in 2003. 'I was proud we did that,' he says. 'Ed O'Brien from Radiohead came up to me after and said, “I just wanted to say I really rated you for that”.'
They embarked on another tour of 12 Memories, but their hearts just weren't in it. Taking time off turned out to be the best thing for them. Today they're on great form, looking refreshed having all just been on holiday, and are joshing around with each other happily.
Quote: TRAVIS frontman FRAN HEALY feared the therapy sessions that helped him battle depression would make him lose his songwriting talent.
The singer used hypnotherapy to combat the illness, but feared he would no longer be able to write music if he was no longer depressed.
He says, "I wasn’t really comfortable talking about this at the time it came out, but (album) 12 Memories was about going into therapy and the record was the therapy sessions.
"So I had three months of hypnotherapy instead, where you went back and fixed your memories.
"Because I’m the biggest blab, I will confide in everyone. But my worry about going into therapy was, what if I can’t write songs anymore because I fixed the thing that makes me do it."
