Travis: No More Flowers in the Window

Music Features

Fans familiar with sunny, uplifting melodies like “Driftwood,” “All I Want To Do Is Rock” and “Flowers In The Window” will most likely be stunned by the melancholy tones, descending chords and mournful invocations of 12 Memories, the new head-scratcher from Scottish quartet Travis. Kickoff single “Re-Offender” is a surreal sonic slice that deals with physical abuse, the kind frontman Fran Healy’s mother once suffered at the hands of his father; its violent Anton Corbijn-directed video, which depicts the band members punching each other senseless, has already been edited for British TV. Even darker tracks like “Quicksand,” “The Beautiful Occupation” and “Peace The F— Out” (which climaxes with an entire London football stadium chanting the title) deal heavily with post-9/11, Iraq-invasion trauma. Why? “Guess what? There are no flowers in the window around the world at the moment,” snaps Healy, lunching in his swank New York hotel suite with band bassist/confidante Dougie Payne. And he ain’t just whistlin’ “Dixie.”

Healy is still mystified by his composing process. “You’d laugh if you saw me writing songs,” he says, in his pudding-thick Glaswegian slur. “I don’t think when I write —I just sit, drop the bucket down the well, leave it there for awhile, pull it back up and then pour it into whatever I’m doing. Then I’m left with a song like ‘Beautiful Occupation,’ and I’m thinking ‘Wow! Where did that come from?’” Call it zeitgeist. Healy — with his lissome, feathery vocals and purple, evocative poetry — has always been one of rock’s most sensitive guys, tapping into the spiritual needs of a young, soul-searching generation with chiming Zen-like missives such as the recent “Side” (“We all live under the same sky / We all will live, we all will die … the circle only has one side”). But now that cold, hard politics have encroached on that spirituality, the artist has no choice but to react accordingly. So the Epic-issued 12 Memories, Healy cedes, “is a very aggressive album. But it’s intrinsically hopeful. The very fact that you’ve written songs about these subjects means that inside, you have hope. There’s hope in you, and hopefully everyone else.”

Over a year ago, Travis drummer Neil Primrose was injured in a hotel mishap; his spine was damaged to the point where doctors swore he’d never walk again. As the band waited for him to recover (which he did), Healy had a sudden revelation: “One day I woke up and went ‘F—! I’m an artist! That’s what I am — I’m not a pop star or a famous person.’ Hallelujah — I woke up to the fact that I’ve actually got something to do, and your job as an artist is to stand in the crow’s nest and call out ‘Iceberg!’ or ‘Land ahoy!’ You shout down to the deck, and they avoid disaster or celebrate new-found land.”

Consequently, Travis proudly became a political animal, baring its fangs on new anti-war, anti-Bush/Blair material. “Politics has retarded us as a species,” Payne says. “It’s holding us back from realizing what’s really going on and keeping us away from the truth.”

Healy agrees. “I was so amazed that on our island of Britain, five million people got off their fat asses and marched to say ‘No — give the weapons inspectors more time in Iraq.’ When you’re a child, the most powerful word is the first one you learn—‘Why?’ ‘Why, Mom?’ And she says ‘Well, because the sun comes up in the morning.’ ‘But why?’ And you keep on saying it. But you should keep right on asking ‘Why?’ Why did they fly planes into the Word Trade Center buildings? Why do we have to go to war? Don’t just follow these politicians off the edge of the precipice like lemmings.”

During an experiment /photo-shoot (another Corbijn assignment), Healy even strolled through the streets of New York a couple of months ago holding a sandwich-board sign that read ‘Peace the f— out.’ Although one elderly woman chided him for his vulgar language, and absolutely no one recognized him, most responses were positive, he reports. What should Travis fans glean from all this? Healy has a theory. “You know the saying, ‘the glass is half full’ or ‘the glass is half empty?’ Well, any proper piece of art has to be both for the viewer or listener, and they decide which of those two things it is.” “And the viewer’s response is more telling than the actual work concerned,” adds Payne. “It’s almost like art is a barometer of where you’re at, emotionally, when you see or hear a piece of work. Because good art is a blank canvas, really.” “So if people say “Peace The F— Out” or 12 Memories itself is angry and aggressive, then they’re feeling angry and aggressive,” concludes Healy. “Because for me, they’re both angry and funny. But hey—that’s just me. I’m an artist, up in the crow’s nest.”

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