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23 September 2010
HEY EVERYONE
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NORWAY
27 July 2012
I was on the plane today, heading for Oslo and a weekend of festivals, the first one called Trollrock and the second Sommerfesten which I attended last year. I can’t fathom how quickly time has moved. It’s been a whole year since we hung out on Giske and had fun with all of our great friends. This time though the trip is not a solo affair. This year the rest of the band are here too. We just spent a week in New York in a room bashing song ideas into shape. I think we have a record. Some lyrics need completing and a few middle 8′s but it’s pretty much there so it’s good to be coming here so soon after.
We all met at Oslo airport and got in a little transit van driving for 3 or so hours through some beautiful scenery, sun setting slowly over mountains, reflecting on fjord. I listened to Scott Walker – Scott 2 and reviewed the new Travis songs recorded on a single mic in the room we were in. They sound great. Dougie has written a couple of gems and Andy too. We are planning to return to Giske in October to record the as yet untitled 7th album. More about that later.
The Kids Are Alright
2 June 2012
I’m playing a show for Clay’s school on the 10th of June. Click the poster to buy tickets and support an uber Schüüülahhh
TRAVIS 2012
12 February 2012
Just spent the past week at the bottom of England at the studio of one Tim Rice Oxley of a band called Keane. It was a heady week. Much music played. Much wine drunk. We even sojourned to the infamous Beachy Head where many people take there own lives each year. While there we noticed some mobile clergy in a cool marked for business priest auto. They patrol the area looking for potential suiciders. Lots of little memorials there right at the edge of the country. Here is a pic of us in a classic band pose. That’s the thing with bands. If you are in one long enough, you naturally compose yourself so even casual shots look like Anton Corbijn himself has shot them…
TRAVIS LIVE SHOW MOVIE
18 December 2011
Hey all, If you come to www.travisonline.com on the 26th of December, (Boxing Day) and follow the magic link, you’ll be able to watch the show Andy and I did at Joes Pub at the end of our tour across america in 2009. It’s FREE so tell your mamas and papas and friends and family and tweet the hell out of it and all the things we modern apes like to do. It was directed by Josh Miller and shot on the last night of the tour. x fran x
BEACH BOYS OUT TAKE
17 December 2011
Just found this in a giant folder of old rough take CD’s
Please forgive the F bomb
Song Of Past 2 Weeks
13 December 2011
This band is called Here We Go Magic. Nigel is making their next record. It promises to be awesome!!!
ANSWER TO DON FROM VANCOUVER
11 December 2011
Don from Vancouver asked me if I would be his songwriting teacher type person. I wrote him back and I thought maybe I should post it on top because, well nobody would see it otherwise.
So here is my reply
Hey Don, writing is still a mystery to me. You can’t teach it or learn it. All I think I know is you either have it and hone it or don’t have it. You should know pretty soon if you have it. It’s pretty obvious. A hallmark of “Having it” is being able to stop thinking and allowing that primitive voice to shout out of the darkness. It has nothing to do with IQ or thought. Just ones ability to switch off. So someone like Paul Simon who seems super intelligent and technical as a human is still able to do that vital switch off…
Kind of like holding your breath and diving to the sea floor. 3 and 4 year old kids who have just started speaking and haven’t yet developed their internal voice do it naturally. They say whatever comes. They don’t edit. As for lyrics, the longer i do this, the more I feel it is more about rhythm plus tone (melody) than about language. If the melody is otherworldly and awesome then your lyric will emerge from it and the song will seem to write itself. There are writers who start with a lyric. This is cool if the lyric came from the sea floor but when they are thought out and laboured over it can sometimes feel like jamming a square peg into a round hole when they try and add the melody they have their heart set on. You know? Anyways… I am gonna sleep now. Hope this answered your question.
LIDO SHOW
6 November 2011
Thanks to all who came to the show. We crammed like crazy people to get all the songs up to scratch. The strings sounded so cool. Tim was fantastic. Morten was a star. Annnnd the charity made their target to fund the next year for the kids in Nairobi.
Here is a clip of the show… and co incidentally my highlight. Singing Everybody’s Changing