{"id":39593,"date":"2020-11-15T11:44:19","date_gmt":"2020-11-15T00:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=39593"},"modified":"2020-11-15T11:44:30","modified_gmt":"2020-11-15T00:44:30","slug":"fran-healy-of-travis-interview-2020-10-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2020\/11\/fran-healy-of-travis-interview-2020-10-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Fran Healy of Travis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201c\u2026the conversation went along the lines of \u201cwhy are we putting a fucking record out? The world is exploding, do people really want to hear another Travis record? Really, does anyone give a shit?\u201d\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: It\u2019s been twenty-five years since the four members of Travis first set foot in a Glaswegian rehearsal room. At various points along the trajectory between then and now, the band have sold millions of albums, they\u2019ve been the subject of the award-winning feature length documentary \u2018Almost Fashionable\u2019 and Fran has elicited acclaim from Paul McCartney, Elton John and Graham Nash \u2013 all songwriters whose ability to divine a timeless melody out of thin air has sustained them through the decades. And 2020 marks another new chapter in the band\u2019s extraordinarily prolific and unflappable career. \u201810 Songs\u2019 is yet another body of work that showcases Travis as one of the UK\u2019s finest songwriting exports.<\/p>\n

At home in Downtown, Los Angeles we Skyped in with Fran Healy of Travis to talk about the bands\u2019 new album \u2018Ten Songs\u2019, creating music, releasing music, and 2020 as a whole\u2026<\/p>\n

How’s 2020 been treating you?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s been\u2026 I\u2019ve never worked harder, and I\u2019ve never made so much stuff, like we finished obviously the album we finished in March, March 13, we finished it right on the doorstep of the Covid thing, the doorstep of the pandemic. I came back to Los Angeles on the 14th<\/sup> and then it all kicked off and we had to quarantine, mix the record in quarantine, master the record at the end of quarantine, then started to try to make videos and do all this sort of stuff and it was like \u201cfuck how do you do that?\u201d So the first video we made was for the single \u2018A Ghost\u2019, there was no crews, nobody could work and the label was going \u201cwell we could get someone to do an animation for you\u201d and I was like \u201cwell what\u2019s your budget?\u201d and their budget was shit *laughs* and you\u2019re not gonna get an animation that matches the song, it\u2019s a really strong song, so I\u2019m gonna do it, I\u2019ll do something for it, I\u2019ll go away and in two weeks I\u2019ll send you something. They were getting really nervous, but I went away and got my iPad out and I drew the whole video for \u2018A Ghost\u2019 and I\u2019d done a calculation, they gave me thirty days to do a video and I figured that every ten seconds of footage took twelve hours to render, twelve hours to draw. So I thought this song is three minutes and forty seven seconds long so it\u2019s going to take about thirty days, so I did it. I just sat down and went through it, it ended up being sixteen or seventeen hours a day for thirty days but it was perfect because it took me out of this Covid fucking echo chamber and it just soothed me. I don\u2019t know about you but I was getting quite anxious and stressed out about everything.<\/p>\n

At a time when many were delaying albums or not even making them you guys chose to release \u201910 Songs\u2019. Was there any thought in holding it back?<\/strong>
\nNo, I just I felt very much like\u2026 here\u2019s the deal, I\u2019ll give you the honest answer actually I was about to give you the \u201coh I\u2019m just making this shit up answer\u201d *laughs* I felt something tap me on the shoulder. I had a conversation, a very serious conversation with the manager of the record company in the beginning of this before I started doing the animation and before I started to commit to it and the conversation went along the lines of \u201cwhy are we putting a fucking record out? The world is exploding, do people really want to hear another Travis record? Really, does anyone give a shit?\u201d and they said, \u201cLook on the internet, new music gives people hope\u201d and they actually convinced me and my friends convinced me as I was having this debate with not only my manager but my mates as well and I think more with my mates because they\u2019re a little bit less of a reason to give me a loaded answer and everyone that I spoke to was like people love music, they want to hear it and this is a fucking great record so get it out there, just put it out. So I thought fuck it, let\u2019s just put it out. The thing is I was talking to Andy in our band and one of the things that most artists are having problems right now with is that we can\u2019t tour and he sort of spun it in a nice way, he said well we\u2019re putting the album out and usually when you go on the road you have an audience who basically just bought the record and don\u2019t know any of the songs, they\u2019ve not listened to it, it\u2019s not sunk in yet and you find that when you do your next tour the songs that they didn\u2019t know on the last tour are the ones that they know all the words. So in a funny way we\u2019re getting this moment where we\u2019ve released the record, we put it out and hopefully we tour next March \/ April, there\u2019s a tour on sale but who knows what\u2019s gonna happen. We\u2019re hopeful in some point that maybe before we get into our sixties that we\u2019re going to tour this record *laughs*.<\/p>\n

You also co -produced this album, so when producing a record, is it hard for you to switch between artist and producer hats?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve done a lot of that, Dougie calls is a benevolent dictatorship, Travis is like a benevolent dictatorship *laughs*, I\u2019m very bossy and I know exactly what I\u2019m doing and exactly I want from everyone, I also give everyone the space to sort of do a bit, if there are things that need help I\u2019ll stand there and say \u201cplease could you do this.\u201d So I thought I\u2019d produce it anyway, and what did it help me do? The one thing this album is definitely pushed for me is a bit more film making because I was doing that a lot on the last record, I made a film to go with the album and that was my first foray into that, then I made a documentary about the band and that was my second thing, then the videos for this was my third thing. It\u2019s quite exciting making videos, I quite like it, and doing these ones with social distancing that was quite tricky, I got really, really cool people like on the second video I got the Queens of The Stone Age lighting designer, a girl named Gigi Pedron to do like a lighting design. I got the DP who shot \u2018Drive\u2019, just by asking people and saying \u201chere\u2019s the idea\u201d and if they say no, then fuck it, if they say yes, you beauty! So I\u2019ve made a lot of really great friends from that side of thing.<\/p>\n

Weirdly when we were on tour and we toured \u2018The Man Who\u2019 which was the second Travis record it was like a twentieth anniversary type tour and at the end of that tour it was getting quite depressing and you have to worry about your throat every night and getting a cold and whatnot and I made that wish, like I wish I didn\u2019t have to tour and it\u2019s almost like my wish has come true with this record. So it\u2019s a weird time to be in a band, there\u2019s people I know who have had to get other jobs, all of our crew are working in Amazon factories and shit like that, everyone in the music business is totally fucked and everyone is a bit like wanting help from the government and the government is like get fucked it\u2019s only music. Music and culture these things are like really basic shit that people need sand are always the first thing to get defunded, like all the schools get art departments and don\u2019t get enough money in music departments, but anything you want to lay your eye on in your apartment or when you walk down the street it\u2019s been drawn by an artist, any music anywhere, any TV show that you\u2019ve seen this is visual art, it\u2019s aural art, it\u2019s a massive business but people don\u2019t take it seriously, anyway I\u2019m digressing, I think it\u2019s a very odd time to be in a band is what I wanted to say.<\/p>\n

We were introduced to you with ‘Why Does It Always Rain On Me?’. Looking back when that took off, what is your best memory of when Travis became that household name?<\/strong>
\nBest memory, I guess it\u2019s probably getting to number one, getting that number one album and I know exactly when it was it was the 22nd<\/sup> of August, it was in a place called Weston Park and it was in Staffordshire in England and I know that because at the time I lived in a street called Weston Park, at number 228, 22nd<\/sup> August, and I was born in Stafford and I walked around looking at the poster, months before the festival happened, months before we were almost buying our tickets to go home because we thought we were finished and I see this date and get kind of freaked out and I thought well that\u2019s kind of ominous because 228 Weston Park, born in Stafford, I hope something doesn\u2019t happen because we\u2019re playing at this festival on that date and that was the day that we got to number one.<\/p>\n

So over your time together it can be easy to say what can change but what would you say is the one thing that\u2019s stayed the same in Travis?<\/strong>
\nOne of the things that when we\u2019re making albums we parody our own songs while we\u2019re making them, and we do it in a really smutty way, you know how disgusting boys can get? And if anyone knew how really disgusting boys can get we\u2019d be in jail, for instance just to give you an example, \u2018Waving At The Window\u2019 sort of just turned into \u2018Wanking At The Window\u2019 so whenever we were singing that \u201cDon\u2019t want to see you wanking at the window\u201d *laughs* and we have done this right from the beginning until now and it never stops.<\/p>\n

Any chance of getting those recorded and released one day? *laughs*<\/strong>
\nAbsolutely not *laughs* although funnily enough there\u2019s a song on the new album called \u2018All Fall Down\u2019 and when we were recording it, most of the album is live that\u2019s one of the things I would advise any band to record as much of it live as possible because that\u2019s where the magic is, don\u2019t just fucking overdub and get your bass player to do that and your drummer, go in the room together. So most of this record is us just live and a couple of overdubs after. So we\u2019re doing \u2018All Fall Down\u2019 and Neil\u2019s sitting there, Dougie\u2019s sitting there and I\u2019ve got a bit of plastic in front so the bleed doesn\u2019t go in my mic and I do have a take of that song because it\u2019s quite an emotional deep sentimental song, but there is a version of it where I get to the line and a lot of those lyrics are just happening as I\u2019m singing and there\u2019s a line in it that goes \u201cYou can cry until your eyes fall out\u201d and Dougie looked at me through the glass and we caught eyes and I just burst out and I just get the giggles and we\u2019re still playing the song and I can\u2019t get it back, I\u2019m trying to reel it in and then I\u2019ve got the version of that song somewhere and no one will ever hear it.<\/p>\n

Being in Travis now for almost thirty years, what do you still enjoy about being in Travis?<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s a fucking good question, man. Things that I like about being in Travis, first of all being in a band is the coolest thing in the world, it is like if you\u2019re lucky enough to have made it to get on a bus and go on the road with your three mates that you met and school and who you get on with great it doesn\u2019t really get much better. Obviously there\u2019s a lot of living in each others pockets and you learn to give people as much space as possible so when you\u2019re off the road it\u2019s just like \u201csee ya later guys don\u2019t let the door hit your in the arse on the way out\u201d and then when you\u2019re on the road you give yourself a lot of space as well. I don\u2019t know, to be honest it\u2019s kind of the best job you can have and when it\u2019s shit I think when people are tired or little things upset people that\u2019s when it can get difficult, and obviously you\u2019ve got to watch for drugs and drinking too much, you\u2019ve gotta watch for all of these things, and it\u2019s like everything else, you just keep an eye on it and it should remain OK. It has, we\u2019re lucky.<\/p>\n

Let’s look ahead to the future as we like to do. So forgetting the rest of this year, finish this sentence for me. In 2021 Travis will…<\/strong>
\n*laughs* There\u2019s two answers to that, it\u2019s like one of those things where you cross out the right one, Travis won\u2019t tour, or Travis will tour, and that\u2019s what everyone in the music business now is thinking, replace the name of the band and put will or won\u2019t next to that in that sentence and that\u2019s \u00a0where we\u2019re at so it\u2019s kind of a limbo time for us all.<\/p>\n

Pleasure to talk to you, Fran. Hopefully one day we can do it in Australia one day.<\/strong>
\nThank you, and I\u2019d love it. We were talking about weirdly before this all went tits up we were talking about coming over, so yeah hopefully soon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong>\u00a0Glasgow, Scotland<\/p>\n

Band members:\u00a0<\/strong>Fran Healy \u2013 lead vocals \/ rhythm guitar \/ piano, Dougie Payne \u2013 bass, Andy Dunlop \u2013 lead guitar \/ banjo, Neil Primrose \u2013 drums \/ percussion<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> www.travisonline.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong>\u00a010 Songs<\/p>\n