By Scott Roberts
The idea of a phone interview with
Fran Healy scared me. For two reasons. One, having the opportunity to talk to one
of my honest-to-goodness musical heroes – the angel-voiced, principal songwriter
of Travis, a band who has created some of the most consistently melodic and
engaging pop-rock of the last 12 years, was, understandably a bit daunting.
And
two, I was worried that Healy’s Scottish brogue might be so thick (there is evidence of this on a few of their
YouTube clips) that it would be impossible for me to transcribe his answers.
Fortunately, I ended up having two things going for me — one was that within the
first 10 seconds or so, Healy was so disarmingly sweet and polite that I easily
set aside the fact that I was talking to the man responsible for “Why Does It
Always Rain On Me,” “Coming Around,” and dozens of other perfect pop songs. The
other was that talking to Healy in Berlin (a place he now calls home) under the
effects of a gruelingly quick batch of Travis festival shows and a full day’s
worth of interviews, he was justifiably tired and spoke slower than usual so I
had no trouble interpreting a few details about his and Travis guitarist Andy
Dunlop’s upcoming U.S. acoustic tour that includes a stop at The Loft in
Atlanta on Saturday, October 17.
Have
you and Andy ever done anything like this before, or has Travis ever done
all-acoustic shows?
Andy and I did our first one in
radio station a couple of years ago. We were asked to play and we showed up
thinking it would just be us playing two or three songs with a DJ, but when we
got there, we were told we had to play for an hour and 15 minutes, and there
was a stage done up like Charles Dickens or something and 300 people in the
audience! So we just sort of did it and the reaction was mental. The
switchboard was jammed the next day with people saying how much they liked it,
so ever since then I’ve been wanting to do this kind of thing. It’s taken over
a year to get it together.
Have
the other guys in the band [bassist Dougie Payne and drummer Neil Primrose]
been supportive of you and Andy going out without them?
Oh, yeah, everyone’s fine with it.
Dougie’s got a new baby and Neil fancies racing his cars, so … the band were on a
break from long tours after the last couple records, and this is usually the
time I use to write for the next Travis record, so I’m hoping Andy and I can
write between gigs for that as well.
What
should the audience expect from your set at The Loft? Travis’ greatest hits?
New songs? Wacky covers? A slow dirge version of “Tied To The Nineties”?
[Healy laughs] No, I think it will
be more like a lecture. You know with Andy and I sittin’ there, playin’ songs,
and explainin’ where each of them came from and why. And we’re gonna have a
projector screen so people can look at something besides us … like maybe a map of
Scotland marked up with all the places where the songs began.
With 29 shows in 35 days on their schedule, there’s a good chance Fran
Healy will be just tired enough that his speech will sufficiently slow down so
that the audience will be able to fully soak in all the stories he’ll be
telling that evening. And as if that weren’t appeal enough, Healy also
mentioned that he and Andy will be selling their own wares at the “merch” table
so the fans will have the opportunity after their set for hand shaking and
picture taking, adding yet another reason why this show will be an absolute "do not miss" for Travis fans and newcomers alike.
Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop play The Loft October 17 at 7.30 p.m. Tickets are on sale at Ticket Alternative.
