 |
Top of the Pops | |
TRAVIS is storming up the U.K.'s music charts, and now the band is coming to America. Dee McLaughlin talks with the men who can blame it on the rain.
Travis has just arrived in Los Angeles, and two of the lads in the band are sitting on the ground outside their record label's office, happily basking in the sunshine. "The sun's broken in Britain," quips bassist Dougie Payne. "It's run out of batteries," chuckles singer Fran Healey, adjusting his large '70s-style sunglasses. "I just love the sun; it's always raining and dull in Britain. And we don't like the rain."
"Playing a gig is like having sex," announced Fran, leaning his wiry frame against the garden wall. "Being in a band, it's like being married, and we do love each other. And playing a show, it's about making that love audible. That's the thing about a ban gig," he continues mishchievously. "It's like coming too fast or not getting an erection. But at the San Francisco gig, we got a great shag!" he says, bursting into throaty laughter. "We fucked the arse off each other!" shouts Dougie gleefully.
Their live shows may be shagadelic, but it's the album that's seducing everyone these days. It's a mixture of swooning strings, uplifting vocals, intense lyrics, and the beautifl melodies of tracks such as "Driftwood" and "As You Are." The songs are as unpredicatable as the British weather, simultaneously raw and mellow, and they have the uncanny ability to change meanings depending on your mood when you're listening to them. "It works like a mirror," explains Dougie. "The songs show what you're going through." Fran, the sole songwriter, has his own theory. "A bad artist will create content," he says seriously. "But a good artist will create a container. When you have it, youll put whatever you're feeling into it, and it becomes whatever you want it to become."
Fran is characteristically philosophical about Travis's success. "As a songwriter, you write 100 shite songs," he explains. "And then one amazing thing happens, and it's not you. It happens so quickly and so fluently that you coldn't possibly have written it yourself. I don't write the songs. I channel them. I just let it all flow."
The band as a whole subscribes to this philosophy of letting and allowing momentum to take its course. "People are afraid of making mistakes," says Fran passionately. "And that's where it all goes wrong. Because mistakes are the best fucking thing in the world. People want to control their lives, and controlling something that is uncontrollable is futile. You'll never get fucking anywhere, your life will be over in a second, and you'll have a bad time."
Not that that's the case wtih Travis. The four met their idol Paul McCartney last year, and Fran actually got to play with the ex-Beatle. At the mention of this, Dougie reaches out as if to strangle his bandmate. "It's the only time I've ever been jealous of Fran," he explains, laughing. And there was that day last August when, after nine years together, they reached number one. When Fran announced their achievement from the stage, 25,000 fans went crazy, cheering like a football crowd. "The goodwill...if you could have seen it," Fran says, his eyes glazing over. "It was like little love hearts all coming toward us. I'll never forget it, ever!
"I think we're the luckiest band in the world," he continues, grinning widely. "I've always thought that, even when we weren't number one. We have our own lives, but when we're together, it's beautiful." Even if it does occasionally rain on them.
Nylon
Which is kind of ironic since it was the dodgy British weather that gave the band its biggest break. Their single "Why Does It Always Rain on Me" became almost a national anthem in Britain last summer when the band performed it just as the heavens opened, deluging everyone at the outdoor Glastonbury festival. Their album, The Man Who, which had been languishing on the charts amid mixed reviews, was propelled into the number one slot. Sodden Brits bought it by the truckload, sending it six times platinum and making it the best-selling British album of 1999 in the UK. (It's being released stateside this month.) The Scottish four-piece, which also includes guitarist Andy Dunlop and drummer Neil Primrose, has been touring nonstop since the album broke and is on a high from last night's sold-out gig in San Francisco.
May 2000
Text: Dee McLaughlin
Photos: Zoren Gold
| He-ey! |  |
Lyrics | |
Reviews | |
Articles | |
Photos | |
News | |
Links |
| Conversions | |
Discography | |
Quotables | |
Mailing List |
 |
| Comments go in here. |