Travis, 12 Memories
12 Memories is Travis at their most powerful, poignant and affecting. It is an album that sees Travis explore lyrically darker themes – the forthcoming single Re-Offender, released September 29th, tackles the hidden crime of domestic violence. Musically, too, there is a sea change: Travis have rediscovered a spirit of adventure and set sail on courses new. This is a far edgier and brooding set of songs than anything that has gone before. Yet, Travis still possess an eloquence and an ear to a fine tune.
As Fran points out “In the past Nora, my fiancée, inspired a lot of the songs about love. But we’re solid now so I felt it I could move on. September 11 was the start of something. I can now see how fragile the world is.”
12 Memories is the Travis album that almost never was. Just over a year ago drummer Neil Primrose sustained a spinal injury. Medical opinion was that Neil would be unlikely to walk again. For Fran, Dougie and Andy, there were no ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’ about it. No Neil. No Travis. They subsequently cancelled all plans.
Three weeks on from that accident, Neil was sitting at his drum-kit. It was not a Lazarus-like resurrection but given time Neil was going to recover as long as he took it easy. While he recuperated, the band took six months off. This was their first true break since 1999, when The Man Who went supernova (and multi-platinum).
“We hadn’t anticipated the success of The Man Who and by the time of The Invisible Band little cracks were beginning to appear,” explains Fran. “Suddenly we weren’t this little band in Glasgow any more. We desperately needed to take a step back and re-evaluate. Neil’s accident was devastating and almost the end of Travis. This band would not exist without one of the four members. Neil’s recovery was amazing, we were all given another chance.’
As 2002 drew to a close Travis reassembled at Crear, West Scotland. They set up a makeshift studio and once again lived the communal life that they had led when they first came to London in 1996. They would stumble out of bed and play songs still dressed in their pyjamas. They would wander up the road to the pub owned by Neil’s parents and have a few shots of malt. After two weeks they had written and recorded nine new songs. “It was like falling in love again,” says Dougie. “Crear seemed like a healing place.”
And indeed it was.
Travis returned to the studio at the start of 2003. They relocated to Real World near Bath and worked towards completing 12 Memories. There was one further change in the Travis dynamic. This time they opted to oversee production of the record - the Crear sessions being produced by the band and Steve Orchard; additional production and mixing at Real World was undertaken by Tchad Blake. And in, 12 Memories they have made their best record yet. As Dougie so succinctly puts it: “It just feels like us.” |
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