Here's a great interview with Travis that took place right around their gig in Turkey. I liked it, but I hope Dougie likes America! I'm not so sure after reading it that he does?
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Travis brings refreshing breeze from the north
This past Friday night saw a shooting star cross the İstanbul skyline, filling the searing İstanbul air that was heavy with humidity with a refreshing melodic breeze coming from the north, a breeze that was blowing for the first time in the Turkish skies.
Travis, the folk-rock band that paved the way for the rise of a new breed of rockers, in other words, one of Scotland’s gifts to the world, was that shooting star which brought with it an invigorating air, performing for their Turkish fans at Friday night’s Binboamania Festival.
Although their ranking in the world rock music scene is extremely high, the band members displayed their usual modesty during interviews at the hotel just a day ahead of their first-ever appearance in Turkey.
Asked about this reputation for modesty, the band’s bass guitarist, Dougie Payne, says Travis cannot even take credit for its humility, which he instead attributes to their roots in Scotland. “I don’t know. To say that you are modest is not being modest, but if that is true [that the band is modest], then I think it is probably something to do with being Scottish. If you are an American, it’s all self-publicity, acting the part and becoming the part. Maybe certain countries have a certain elegance. Scotland is a very humble place. It is not a very wealthy country. Its priorities are more in the right place. It’s more about relationships, about people and about honesty and integrity, all of those good things,” Payne explains in an interview with Sunday’s Zaman. But he does say that the four having known each other for a “ridiculously long time” may have contributed to this as well. “We’ve known each other more than half our lives. … So if any of us get ideas, we keep each other fairly level headed.”
The band was one of the most eagerly anticipated acts to perform in İstanbul this summer, having created an enormous buzz among Turkish Travis fans of all ages when it was first made public that they would be appearing at this year’s Binboamania fest -- offering fans hope of being among the lucky few to hear one or two of the band’s would-be hits ahead of the upcoming release of their new album, “Ode to J. Smith.”
Comprising Fran Healy (lead vocals), Payne (bass guitar), Andy Dunlop (lead guitar) and Neil Primrose (drums), Travis has been awarded the band of the year award twice by the Brit Awards. They have released five albums so far. The group is named after a character in Wim Wenders’ film “Paris, Texas.” Their debut album, “Good Feeling” (1997), reached the number 9 spot on UK charts, and following its release they began touring extensively, earning them a reputation across Europe and the entire world. With their third album, “The Invisible Band,” they got the chance to work with Nigel Godrich, famous for his work with Radiohead. In 2005 they performed in the Live 8 benefit concert, a string of charity concerts held in several G8 countries and in South Africa. Their last album, “The Boy with No Name,” was released in 2007.
Despite just having released an album last year, the band already has another one waiting in the offing. But, after taking a rather daunting two-and-a-half years to write “The Boy with No Name,” Payne explains that the band has shifted gears with the new album, writing it in just one month. “It was a very nice writing process, two weeks in December and two weeks in January. We just went into a little tiny room in West London and just kind of played. We’d bring songs and we’d jam.”
Hinting at the treat that awaited Turkish fans on Friday night, Payne explained that the band wanted to capture the energy of their live performances on their new album. “It gets problematic being in the studio, things get very smooth and produced. So with this we consciously wanted to do it quickly. But also we wanted to keep the rough edges. People would always say, ‘You guys live, it’s nothing like on your records. It’s two different things.’ So it’s time to get them to be the same. So we kept it loose, a bit rough. It was just about playing. Obviously the songwriting is important, but playing became more important,” he says.
Asked about the process of writing the songs themselves, Payne said for him and “Franny,” his affectionate name for singer Healy, the melody comes before the lyrics. “I think it is different for everybody but for me, melody comes first. I think for Franny as well. There will be little snatches, little pieces, of lyrics and you’ll say ‘That’d be good for a first line’,” he said, adding that the songwriting for “Ode to J. Smith,” which is slated for release in September, was a democratic and collaborative effort. “Generally, I would bring a song or Franny would bring a song, and we’d work with it together. Historically, it’s been Franny doing 90 percent of the writing. But with this record it’s been a little different. The basic songs are written by either me or Franny then brought to the band,” he says.
And then there is the recurrent question of where Travis fits in to the British rock scene. Some critics have credited them with leading the way for bands like Coldplay and Keane; others have suggested that with their last album Travis finally took Radiohead’s crown. Asked about their role in paving the way for other groups, Payne laughs, saying, “I don’t know if we want to take the blame for that.” As for who is taking whose crown, Payne explains: “This is what bands do. It’s that whole process. Bands get their influence from bands that came before. We went in to record our first album in 1996. Just then Oasis and Radiohead were kind of huge. It’s like you can draw a line. Starting in 1990, you could say the Stone Roses maybe brought guitars back into fashion back a little bit. Then you had a band like Suede with the guitars, kind of a rock band again. People think, ‘Well that’s exciting.’ And then Oasis took that and brought it into the mainstream and just made guitar music huge. Just four or five guys playing guitars and singing and playing drums. Then Radiohead took that and made it a little more intelligent, kind of thoughtful and intellectual. And then after that The Verve came along, and then we came along, too, and made it kind of folksy,” he says, adding that bands just open doors and push a certain kind of music into the mainstream and the record companies sign up all the bands that sound a little like that. He says bands are always opening doors for other bands. “It’s just the way it works.”
The group is also getting something of a reputation for political gestures, such as their performances at Live 8 and sticking a giant post-it note to the front door of then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, telling him he needed to take up the issue of poverty at a coming G8 meeting. A couple of their songs, such as “The Beautiful Occupation,” have featured references to the Iraq war. Nevertheless, Payne stresses that the band does not consider itself a political group, but that they do have consciences. “If you listen to those songs, they’re fairly kind of innocent, naive responses to political situations. So they’re not really political songs, because I think if a song is going to be political it has to be more studied. These were very visceral, very personal responses,” the bass guitarist says, adding that it would simply be wrong to refuse to play in a concert like Live 8. “I think that is the right thing for everybody to do.”
Here's a great interview with Travis that took place right around their gig in Turkey. I liked it, but I hope Dougie likes America! I'm not so sure after reading it that he does?
Thanks for the interview. I think Dougie likes America just fine. He's just using it as an example since here unfortunately so much of the music industry is about the image versus good music.
I don't think it means Dougie doesn't like America. Perhaps he's not that keen on certain aspects there, but on the other hand I'm sure there are things in Scotland that aren't that fantastic, either.
I think I need to re-consider my reservations about this newspaper. They continue to surprise me (sorry I think this statement makes more sense for Turkish fans).
And i think there is no need to worry over who loves which country. There is much to love and not to love in every country... And at this point there is little America in every culture--whether willingly/knowingly or not. I do not like self-promotion either, but I am thinking about hiring someone:)Believe me it is necessary sometimes.
