Travis - KCRW interview

Morning Becomes Eclectic

Fair warning: This is a radio interview that can be found in RealAudio on the Web. Anyway, I started on this project at midnight and ended sometime much later. So if the grammar starts to fall apart, well, I'm not very good at transcribing (which may or may not have been evident with the b-side lyrics) and Fran has definitely got a Scottish burr. Also, there's another member of Travis who throws in his own comments sometimes, but I'm not sure if it's Andy or Neil, so they're just represented as Travis.

Chris: Hi, I'm Chris Douridas on KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic. Joining us in the studio this morning, a band from Glasgow. Now they're based in London these days, their debut album, Good Feeling is coming out October 7 on Independiente Records, and we're just gonna be chatting with the band in a moment. Here's a song from Travis first. It's KCRW on Morning Becomes Eclectic. (plays "All I Wanna...")
Chris: We've invited Travis to our studios, good to have you guys here.
Fran: Thanks for having us.
Chris: Yeah, you had a show last night at Irving Plaza...
Fran: Yes...
Chris: Were you happy with that?
Fran: Yeah, man, it was really good. It's always good coming over here for the band. We've been over here and we played in New York. That was our fourth time there, originally in the Wetlands (???). And then we did something when we were doing the album in Woodstock [They recorded Good Feeling in a studio there] and came back down to do (don't know what this word is but it sounds a lot like brownies!). I think we've done it five times now.
Chris: Five times? Well, that's from the lead vocalist of the band, Fran Healy, who's wiping a little sleep from his eyes. We also have Neil Primrose, the drummer for the band, and Andy Dunlop, the guitarist with us.
Fran: We'll see your voices very soon. We're just...mumble mumble (something very funny, cos DJ laughs)
Chris: Yeah, it's the morning thing. But Dougie Payne is missing. He's the bassist for the band.
Fran: He's been playing wild (??) with the band.
Chris: Snoozing away. Well, I'm really glad to finally meet you guys, cos I guess we'd gotten some tapes of your stuff. Maybe it was the first single, "All I Want To Do Is Rock," which you put out originally on your own record label.
Travis: Red Telephone.
Fran: Yeah, Red Telephone Box Records.
Chris: When I think of that, I think of, like, the hotline in Batman.
Fran: The red telephone?
Chris: Yeah, the red telephone... is that?
Fran: Well, the thing was, we came from Glasgow to London, and we changed the name of the band for a while, just cos we don't wanna be annoyed by anyone. It's a red telephone box cos when we were in a taxi...when I was in a taxi, going from one of the bus stations, I think, to someone's house when I was first in London, the first thing I saw was a red telephone box. And they'd done away with red telephone boxes . They're these London kinda things.
Chris: Yeah, the stereotypical telephone booth.
Travis: (mutterings) Yeah, that's the one.
Fran: They'd done away with 'em everywhere else in Britain apart from London.
Chris: Oh, I see.
Fran:: And people are using them as greenhouses and showers now in the Northern parts, but we decided to call the name of the band that and then we were (?). When we decided to go back to Travis, we thought that's still quite a good name to to call the record label.
Chris: So that was the band name for a while?
Fran: Yeah, it was. And if we abbreviated it too, it would be radio (????) going RTB! Like "Awright, then, come on in."
Chris: Well, I guess the equivalent in the States would be like a little red caboose. Because you know, the little red car at the end of a train, they don't have those anymore. They've sorta done away with those there.
Travis: That little lamp at the back.
Chris: Yeah, that little lamp at the back at the tail end of a train.
Fran: Oh cool.
Chris: But anyhow, let's go back to before you guys formed the band and how you came to meet each other. I know that at one point you were attending art school, Fran.
Fran: Well, before art school I'm kinda (aargh? what?) into the art school the day I joined. and Neil's band, they were in a band with two other guys who aren't in the band anymore. These two other guys started the band. They were two brothers and I just went along. I met Neil in a bar in Glasgow and he wanted me to sing for him and I went along for the audition and got the job. The day I went into art school. I always thought I wanted to be a painter. Yeah, that was my thing. That was what I did.
Chris: You'd been painting for a few years, by then.
Fran: Yeah, well, you do it through your skill, but the thing was I was too young to go into art school, I was just far too young. I just didn't have the right head on my shoulders. I still don't think I have the right head on my shoulders just to be a painter.
Chris: Well, I understand that you have a lot of half-done paintings sitting around, like it never really drove you to finish the paintings you...
Fran: I think one of the best things for me, about going to art school, was realising that you've got to actually want to do something. Being good at doing something is only like not even half the battle. It's like 10 percent of the battle. Having to want to do it, and having to enjoy it and all is a major major part of it. And when I got there, I realised that, and I swore I would never make that mistake again.
Chris: Well, the way I understand the story, there was actually something on the front lawn of the school that made you realise you didn't wanna be a painter.
Fran: Yeah, it was a (?) made of (?), kind of very, I dunno. At the time I was thinking, "That's a lot of rubbish." It's about 100 yards long and the letters on this board were 100 yards long, maybe 8 or 9 ft high. The letters say, "Do you enjoy what you do?" and I drive to this lot, and park my car every morning for about six months. And as these six months continued on... We started off being this silly piece of conceptual sort of art ... oh bloody (something) I don't even know what I'm talking about. Yeah, actually, I do enjoy what I do. I just had to go in there every day and I realised that I didn't. and I think that's a very important thing for anyone, no matter what you do. Be it what you do or what we do, anything... you gotta enjoy it.
Chris: So it took six months to sink in.
Fran: Took six months to sink in.
Chris: Yeah, that's a good question to ask yourself.
Fran: Totally. Do you enjoy what you do?
Chris: Members of Travis with us, it's Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW. (plays "U16 Girls")
Chris: "U16 Girls" that is from Travis, the album Good Feeling forthcoming on Independiente. The album will be released in the States on October 7. I'm Chris Douridas. We are visiting with members of Travis. We have lead singer Fran, Neil, Andy, and Dougie back in the hotel room, all sacked out.
Fran: He'll probably be resuscitated by then. STAND CLEAR! We'll have him back again.
Chris: So when you took up the name Travis, this was really when you decided to leave art school, and it was a decisive moment in your life. It's like, look, I'm gonna try my hand at being a musician. Let's just do it.
Fran: I think you've romanticised the feeling. It was just a point in my life where I thought I suddenly saw a lot of focus but the truth was, I got chucked right out of school, which really was right about the time when they told me I didn't really wanna be here y'know. Sometimes, I dunno, I... other people have a (???)... Like, you kinda got a hard way where you kinda do things by the (ch-- ??), what you do, and I'm like, "I don't really wanna be a painter!" and I just had this thing. And I thought about that "Do you enjoy what you do" thing. And I was like, no, no. I couldn't go back and just try to get back into the art school. I caught myself adrift.
Chris: What was pushing you to be a painter? I mean, have you figured that out?
Fran: I think it was just being young and everyone around you saying, "Oh, you can draw something. You should do that, art, or whatever," and I never really was very good at anything that was in any way academic...Did you hear my belly there? That was like a ...
Chris: Yeah, anyone who was listening through a pair of headphones could hear Fran's gurgling stomach. So there was sorta like coming up, you had an expectation that you would be a painter or just thinking that way.
Fran: Yeah, I think being a painter is just this thing that you do by yourself and that's kinda lonely and I'm not that kind. In a way (???) carried away(??) yet. I'll probably, I will be later, I don't know. But the moment that you've taken it up, it's kinda like a lifestyle. When you're young, it's like being in a band is far more conducive to that, y'know. Being 20 and being, y'know young. And having a good time with your friends. [I think Fran's trying to say he might go back to painting when he's older in slightly more, less cohesive words]
Chris: Well, there's a communal aspect to being in a band--not only the familiar nature of the four of you and living together-- being married essentially but also the immediate response you get from an audience, a fanbase
Fran: That's been growing . We've been on tour constantly since about January and we haven't really stopped . And we've been on tour with Beth Orton, then the Longpigs and we went on tour with Mansun and we've been on tour with Cast and Reef, warming up their audiences for their show and each of the audiences were different and it's a sort of... you reach them gradually. And it's strange 'cos the last gig we played in Britain was the Reading Festival and the way it's kinda beginning to snowball... so now it's nice to see more people knowing the songs and the fans at the end of "All I Wanna Do Is Rock" 'cos when we finish the song quietly, and you can hear people singing it, and you're hearing them and you're like, "My God'. It's weird. It's strange cos when you're sitting down and you're writing stuff , you never think that, you really don't. You write it just because it sounds good.
Chris: In just a week or so, you're gonna be going out with Oasis.
Travis: Ten dates with Oasis, out in front of 150,000 people.
Fran: Pretty much for the whole thing we'll be doing, there'll probably be that many people but it's some opportunity. It's just nice that it's come along. I like 'em. And Noel's been very, sort of, kind to the band. He likes our music. Well, that's just good. And that's kinda been really cool for us. When you're on tour with a band, they don't provide you with their (?) and their PA stuff. They've been so cool, like it's been unbelievable.
Chris: They've been generous with you?
Fran: Very, very generous, it's like 4(?) loans and you're wondering, "Bloody hell, what they up to?"
Chris: Makes you a little suspicious...You do feel it's out of genuine support for what you're doing?
Fran: It seems to be 'cos Noel's come down at the gigs about four or five times now and he actually hasn't come and said, "Hello" to the band. It's like he came to see the band, dug it, then left, gone home.
Travis: His character's an enigma (???) which is good for us, cos when you meet people, you're just sat there 'cos it makes you shy (???) about your image, of what he likes. I always just meet them and then 'bye'. I've always been in our environment so it should be quite interesting.
Chris: What d'you mean, Fran, when you say you write songs for weird people?
Fran: I don't know what possessed me to say that. I saw that on print and I was like "Wha???!!" I didn't say that, who must've said that and... let me see, weird people. Someone called me weird the other day, and I was like, "Oh, thanks." Maybe that's what it is. I always split things into percentages, to make it easier for myself to try and understand things. And I always think of myself as being part of the 95 percent of people that listen to music; and I'm in a band which is in the 5 percent in the business kinda thing but my heart kinda lies in the 95 percent who just switch the radio on and they hear a song and they go about (?) it, a really cheesy song, y'know but/ or a really sorta cool song or whatever. That 95 percent of the people that buy the records. People that elevate bands and all the rest of it. Now I'm telling myself 'Stop' and both the 95 percent and the 5 percent were music as my life (AARGH! what?) and it's not that important, it's not that important at all. It's a strange place to be, it's like being slap bang in the middle of a contradiction. It's interesting, probably most of my songs, what I write from. It's confusing but I'm confused, yeah. (Plays 'I Love You Anyways)
Chris: It's beautiful. I love how you can hear the guitar at the end there.
Fran: Aye.
Chris: blah blah...
Travis: What other names you've got, it's unbelievable. You know that a man is responsible for our name.
Chris: Yeah, I was just gonna say I mentioned Jim (who?) who's...
Fran: Amazing director.
Chris: He's the reason that you are called Travis?
Fran: Yeah, because he made the film Paris, Texas, and I saw it ages and ages ago, and strangely enough, before I sawTaxi Driver. Just go see the film (?) And I love the character played by Harry Dean Stanton and I loved it so much i used the name Travis--the band.
Chris: So was it a love for the eye of inventors?
Fran: Aye, yes. I saw a documentary about the guy and i think it was for Paris, Texas. He'd go up this car, and he drove out into the middle of the desert and just played all this music and the film built up around that, which is such a brilliant way to make a film. And the soundtrack for it as well, and the guy just coming out could explain why we watched the film. I've maybe watched the film over twice and put the thing down pretty much. Life. It's just an amazing way, very creative and very inspiring which is more than the point.
Chris: Well, Travis was the name of the character playd by Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas so there was something about that character I would imagine.
Fran: Yeah, it, well, just intriguing, y'know, he's walking across the desert and he doesn't see a (?) and you're like "What is he doing? Where's he going? Where is he from?" Y'know, and as the film carries on, you find out all these things. It doesn't seem to work if you've seen half the film but eventually you just can't shut the guy out. And it seems now, this is the thing, with all these little things that kind of, y'know, happen down the line. We've been together now for six years, five of the years spent silent.
Chris: Silent in what way? Like (?)
Fran: You could get arrested in Britain y'know.
Travis: We were just working very hard all the time, doing all the gigs but it just wasn't really going anywhere.
Chris: Not reaching anybody.
Travis: Yeah, then we kicked out (???) like Fran says, who really shut us out.
Chris: For almost two years now, yu've been performing under the name Travis and since then it's been an upward...
Travis: Hyperbolic curve (??)
Fran: I think it's kinda like, I get treated very much... People, when you're in a situation, when you're in a band you have people saying, "Why don't you get a proper job, why don't you ...?" My mum for instance, never once said that. Ever. She was always totally, it wasn't so much her belief in the band or something, her belief and my belief and the same applies with all the other parents but generally, we speak to most people [and it's like] "Yeah right, so you got a dream. Go get a proper job. Come back in two weeks." But, you just gotta keep going at it. Stupid Factor, we call it.
Travis: Just playing (blame?) the ambition
Chris: Just say, What the hell, and go for it.
Travis: just don't think about it, or you kinda end up double track
Fran: It's a strange thing as well, about how you do inteviews because you end up, I guess things kinda... I think about things far too much sometimes, especially in interviews. You start realising things you never realised before. Maybe, you wonder, should not that be left under the carpet (???)
Chris: 'Cos it gives you a moment to take pause and think about things.
Fran: It's kind of a spiritual angle too. It's like, you're just there 'cos you're in it and you don't know why you're in it.
Chris: There's a reason for the title [Good Feeling]
Fran: Yeah, it's cos 'How you feeling?' Yeah, I'm feeling quite good. It's that thing, y'know, good feeling, feeling good. The thing about songs, the thing about titles, the thing about... For instance, someone asked us about the order of the album and it's irrelevant to me. You just put... All I'm interested in is writing good songs. And you can put them in any order you like. And if you think about it, like Neil says, if you think about it too much, then it starts becoming contrived. Anything, really, that seems quite cool from Travis is totally accidental. Anything that's cool is totally accidental, I guarantee you. It's strange.
Travis: In England there's a general point of view that we're quite a simplistic band, and like Fran says, they don't understand, they all expect something contrived.
Chris: Coming from the heart
Fran: Yeah, I think people on the 5 percent side of the music business because of what's kind of going down in music, maybe, in Britain. I think you have to think about it a bit too much. Cos it's just songs, y'know, just songs.
Chris: Thanks so much for joining us. See you soon et al.

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