Travis - Sony Gig Guide, August 12, 1997

Sony Gig Guide

This interview was recorded backstage at the Astoria in London on August 12, 1997.

Why do you write songs from the "heart" rather than from the "mind"?
Fran: The thing about writing songs from the heart as opposed to the mind--it sounds very spiritual, but it's actually quite simple. If you write from the mind, then the songs lack soul. If you write from the heart, the songs retain some kind of a soul to them. They have a bit of a soul, and therefore, when people hear the song, they get it far more easily, it seems, than if you write from your head. 'Cos if you write from your head, you're just thinking about loads of stuff. It's better to just let the song happen, and that's how I do it.
Your first single "U16 Girls," what was it about?
Fran: Now "U16 Girls," I've been asked a million and one times, "Is it based upon experience?" The answer to that is no. It's not based upon experience. Some of the greatest writers, like novel writers and short stories, poets, and all that, wrote from the heart, but they wrote fiction, and they wrote fact and all the rest of it. It's a fictitious song. The woman who I met in Paris in the second verse wasn't under 16; she was actually 36. She was Japanese, and I met her in Paris when I was 17, and we walked around Paris all day going to all the exhibitions together. So I certainly think you drop little parts of your life into songs.
Has moving from Glasgow to London affected the way you work?
Fran: Not at all, actually. Songwriting is something that you can do anywhere. Songwriting's just something that you gotta sit down and do no matter where you are. The difference about writing a song at the edge of your bed and writing a song within a record contract is two completely different things. It takes a wee while for your head to get round that. It's only beginning for me now to come round into the writing mode again. It doesn't change anything. The only thing it changes is the fact that you're closer to the business, and you're closer to doing things like this for instance, promotion, and that's the only reason we moved.
Has technology influenced the way you work?
Fran: For instance, now, instead of using a wee dictaphone and an audio tape, I now use one of the Sony MT(?) miniature digital cassettes. They're the size of postage stamps, and they're amazing; the quality of the sound. You can hear all your mistakes a lot easier, and that's why I walk around with mistakes. Some mistakes sound great, and if you record digitally, you can hear them better and concentrate on them more. Technology definitely works in my favour that way. And it means you can just carry this little tape with you anywhere, and you can write anywhere you like and it'll still sound good.
Do you use the Internet at all?
Dougie: Apparently Travis have a Web site, but nobody's seen it. Apparently we've got a Web site, but we're all complete Luddites when it comes to using the computer. We don't have a clue so we need to educate ourselves a bit there.
Fran: We're the generation that missed out.
Would you like to create your own Web site?
Fran: Yeah, totally man. I'd like to get into it first. It was a toss-up between buying a fax machine and a computer, and the fax machine won because it was quicker to set up. But I think in the next year, I'll be getting a computer and just trying to teach myself how to work it. Apparently, it's very simple. I'm quite into the idea because you end up like your grandparents and you're like, "I don't know how to work it 'cos it's got too many buttons on it," or something. I don't want that. I want to keep up-to-date because it's important.
What do you think about the Internet?
Fran: I think the concept of email is the best that the Internet has got to offer. As far as the music and video side of it goes, there's a lot to come, I think, in the next 10 or 15 years when everything goes from electric to digital. They'll be changing it to--what do you call these wires?--fiber optics and stuff. They're doing it a lot in Japan and you'll be able to download albums through your telephones, and it'll sound exactly the same as it would if you bought a CD. So that's good. That's all to come, and I think people have got to invest just now and educate themselves in these things 'cos it's going to explode in another 10 years.
Finally, why is the band called Travis?
Neil: The band's called Travis because we all like cinema, and the band sounds quite--what's the word you'd use?--cinematic. There's another word for it: widescreen. So the film that we all kinda like, especially Fran, was Paris, Texas with Harry Dean Stanton and the main character being Travis. Not Taxi Driver, as everyone used to think, but that's a good film, as well. That's why we're called Travis.

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