Esta é uma entrevista bastante longa do ano de 2001. Comecei a traduzir meses atrás, porém não tive mais tempo de continuar, então a maioria dela está em inglês, sorry.

Not Invisible For Long

LAUNCH: Qual a diferença do novo disco, comparado a The man who?

FRAN: Eu não sei exatamente o que mudou, mas nós crescemos, exatamente como uma criança cresce.Você não força, você cresce naturalmente, e eu acho que é igual a uma banda.Nós estamos juntos há 10 anos e lançamos 3 discos, é bem assim.

LAUNCH: Uma das coisas que as pessoas sempre mencionam sobre as músicas do Travis é que são músicas alegres.Isto se aplica ao novo álbum?

FRAN: Um, I think all music is uplifting. I don't think you can specifically put that down to Travis. Whether it's Limp Bizkit, whether it's Radiohead, whether it's Jacques Brel or Scott Walker or Chopin, whatever, any kind of music, it's a celebration. When you open your mouth to sing--whether you're singing about someone who's committed suicide or whether you're singing, "The hills are alive with the sound of music"--it's all a celebration, and it's all very uplifting. I think words and subject matter came to obscure what is actually good about music. Music is based on melody and rhythm, and I think everything that comes after that--the musical part, the lyrics, the production, all that kind of stuff--is just there to frame the original magic of the melody and the rhythm. Those things happen usually by accident--having spoken to many great songwriters, I realize I'm not alone when I say that. I'm talking about people like Paul McCartney, Bowie, some of the greatest songwriters ever of our generation--they all talk about how it seems to come out of nothing, accidentally, and they just happen to be there. And then you just have to add things to it without obscuring the original magic. So I think all music's uplifting, so I would say yes! [laughs]

LAUNCH: Many artists say songwriting is almost like catching lightning. Do you think that the process itself is a pleasing or happy process, or is it something that's difficult for you?

FRAN: It's a real tough process, because it's like going into a dark room: There's no light source anywhere, your eyes can't see anything. It's like going into a dark room the size of an American football patch, or a stadium, and being asked to find a tiny, tiny pin amongst the darkness. It's almost like you have to do the Jedi mind trick and use the force--it usually finds you, rather than youfinding it. It's an interesting thing, but to get your head and your mind and your body and your soul into that state is difficult--I still don't know how I do it! Generally, it takes a while. There's no rules, really, so it's kind of scary, because you don't know how to do it! I still don't know how I write songs, but I just sit down and try to let it happen.

LAUNCH: Where does all this positivity come from? It's not the norm in rock music.

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FRAN: It is the norm in rock music! I saw Linkin Park and Fred Durst and Limp Bizkit the other week, and it was fantastic--the most joyful, brilliant show. Big explosions going off, people punching the air and have a great night! People just enjoying themselves. And that's uplifting and positive! That's positivity. That's why I think all music is positive. Whether it's a downbeat song or an upbeat song or a downbeat song, all of this type of language is on the surface, the tip of the iceberg. What lies beneath in music--the invisible part of music--you can't talk about it. It's indescribable. So you just feel it. The song will go into your ear and travel to this point in your brain that'll--poof!--zap your ego and make you feel totally humiliated and humble and yet fantastic at the same time! In our music, there's certainly a melancholic side to it, and I think the positive side of that comes out of the fact that if you're feeling down and you hear a melancholic song that is appealing to how you're feeling at that particular moment, you don't feel alone anymore. You kind of go, "Ah! Someone else felt this way as well." Some Joni Mitchell and Neil Young songs and certain lines of certain songs--"Imagine" by John Lennon is a classic--everyone has that thought, and we need to feel like we're together. We're told by the governments that we all have to be apart, you're an individual and all that, but we're not. We all share the same mass unconscious, and music and art and sports all tap into that, and make us feel like we're together. Even though we've got our walls between ourselves.

LAUNCH: It's true. Tonight's The Night by Neil Young is not the happiest album in the world, but I listen to it, and I feel great!

FRAN: Yeah, because there's something about it. For me, if a song was a house, the actual house itself, the foundation of it, would be the melody and the rhythm, and the words embellishes that original melody and rhythm. They're like the doors and the windows into that house. They allow you inside, and then you go to a place that you've never been before. I think that's what music does. But maybe musicologists would disagree with that! but that's what it does to me.

LAUNCH: You mentioned the word "invisible" before--tell me about the album title The Invisible Band. Obviously there's some deeper meaning to it...

FRAN: Well, at the time I thought, "What a great title for a record!" That was the first and foremost thing about it--just a memorable, mysterious kind of title, very memorable because it already exists in popular culture with the Invisible Man. But as an afterthought, I think it harks back to a time when we didn't have MTV, we didn't even have television, all we had was radio. And I think now, all music has is radio, because I think just how a blockbuster film can sometimes compromise the words of a classic novel and the imagery that a classic novel creates, MTV and television can compromise some of the greatest music--not ruin it, but certainly distract from what is really important, which is how that music itself makes you feel. If the video was made at exactly the same time as the song, then fantastic, but it's not--a song is there by itself from the start. I think an invisible thing like music hits you about 90 percent under the surface, where you can't talk about it, you can't explain it. It can humiliate you, go straight to the point where it somehow targets your ego and targets your unconscious mind. It vaporizes the ego and it. does all these cool sort of things. And it's invisible! Ten percent of it is visible, stuff you can talk about, like, "Whoa, Bob Dylan's words are so cool," or "The melodies of the Beatles, are they so blah blah blah." But there's something else, something that's unexplainable, and it's the magic--that's invisible. And the fact that we've sold 4 million records and people still don't know what the hell we look like, is another kind of more direct reference of the title! [laughs]

LAUNCH: I understand that the first single, "Sing," was written in part for your fiancée?

FRAN: It was written while watching MTV with the sound down. There was a thing on about swing beat. So I started singing this song--I was writing at the time, I was watching the telly and playing the guitar and humming along--and I got this cool little melody, and when it naturally got to a sort of chorus-y part, I started singing, "Swing...If you swing, swing, swing, swing." And I was imagining someone pushing someone on a swing. It was just that feeling when you're a child on a swing--it's the coolest feeling! And so, I played to the guys the next in the studio and everyone played along, and we recorded it as a little outtake, just to get the idea down. During that, it changed from "swing, swing, swing" to "sing, sing, sing" halfway through the chorus. It was half and half. When I got it back that night and was listening to it in the house, I was like, "F--k, man, I'm saying, 'Sing'!" It was a song about singing, and I thought it was really cute, kinda charming. So the words in the verse I kind of directed at Nora, my fiancée, and she's so reluctant to sing whenever we're together--she's like, "Oh no, I can't sing, I've got a sh-t voice," and I'm like, "For f--k's sake, shut up! Just sing!" Because if you love someone, then you should be able to sing in front of them! That sort of thing. But she sings now, which is great! It worked! [laughs]

LAUNCH: So, does she sing Travis songs now?

FRAN: Yeah, she sings along when the album's playing, and she raps along with all of her own hip-hop that she listens to--Guru and all that kind of stuff. She likes Dr. Dre. But yeah, she's singing pretty much to everything now. It's cool!

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LAUNCH: It must feel good to know your song had that effect on her.

FRAN: Yeah, you know, "Sing"--you could replace that word with "Dance" or "Cry" or "Laugh" or just "Let Go." 'Cause as an expression, when you're a child, you sing all the time. And then when you get older, you don't--you just go, "I don't want to, my voice is crap." But when you're a kid, you don't care! And I think that's what you should always have--a little bit of that still in you. People look at people in the street that sing like they're mad, like, "What are you singing for?" But it's about having fun and feeling good and all that stuff.

LAUNCH: It seems you spent a lot of time in America over the last couple of years. Has that been an inspiration behind this album? Has America made a tangible impact?

FRAN: Well, I think America needs Travis, I really do, having been there and spent a lot of time there. I think we're a proper band, and we're a touring band just like U2 and R.E.M., and America's kinda made for the road, you know? You can tour and tour and tour and tour and never, ever play the same place twice. But I definitely think some of America has rubbed off. About over half the record was written while we were on the road in America. "The Humpty Dumpty Love Song" was written in Seattle; "Indefinitely" was written I don't know where exactly, but somewhere near New York; "The Cage" was written in New York. So all that stuff is bound to affect the melody or something, I really don't know how. What I do know is I do like playing in the States; I just love the idea of the old open road. It's very sort of attractive to bands, the old sort of rock 'n' roll "don't make a fuss, just get on the bus." [laughs]

LAUNCH: So I guess you enjoy being in America?

FRAN: Coming over is great, because we're fresh and it's new and we're starting all over again. These moments are the best moments, 'cause when we were playing all the toilets in Britain, no one knows you, and it's a fight, you know? We're in a very happy place at the moment. Happy to be back on the road with a whole new record and new songs to sing, and a lot more people to sing them to.

LAUNCH:One thing I don't think Americans understand is your huge popularity back home. What's it like for you guys in the United Kingdom?

FRAN: Honestly, it's weird, I don't know. I never pay attention to that, because you could end up becoming very self-conscious. It's pretty calm, actually. I mean, yeah, we sold 2.5 million copies and it seemed like everyone had a copy of that record [The Man Who]. But it seemed like people were saying, "These are our songs," y'know? That was our intent. It's a very traditional, old-fashioned band. It maybe harks back to a golden age when your carpenter would do stuff during the week, the baker would bake the bread, people would do all their business, and then at the weekend the band would play these songs and allow everyone to let their hair down. It was a service. And so, we're like one of the public services in Britain! There's the ambulance, there's the Automobile Association, and then there's Travis. I think the boys in the band are very down-to-earth people, so I think people see a lot of themselves or whatever in the music. It's quite cool. I just think people like us, you know? They like the music. It's like, we all know who the Beatles are, but we know far more about the music than we do about them. A million and one people have sung "Yesterday" on a karaoke machine and know all the words. It's all about songs, and it's all about people. It's far less about bands.

LAUNCH: Is the notorious U.K. music press something difficult for you guys to deal with?

FRAN: I don't read the press. That's how I deal with it. I never read the press, ever. I don't read books, either. I'm not a reader; I'm a looker. I like looking at pictures, I like watching TV...I'm a TV kid, the TV generation. I'm every English teacher's nightmare! But actually, I had some great English teachers who noticed that, "Hey, this kid doesn't like reading, but he's got a talent for writing." And I think if you've got one or the other, that's great. I'd rather have a talent for writing than for reading. I can't really do much with someone else's words.

LAUNCH: Speaking of other people's words, you did a cover of "Killer Queen." How on earth did that come about, and will it ever be released in the U.S?

FRAN: It should maybe come out in the United States. It exists on a B-side right now; you should be able to get it on Napster or one of these download things. I was writing one night at the studio, at Ocean Way [in Los Angeles], and the boys were all leaving, and just as they were leaving, I started playing an E minor in a sort of stabbing, jing-jing-jing-jing way, and I just started singing it for a laugh. I didn't really know the words or anything, but I was going, in a Homer Simpson kind of style [sings in dopey voice], "She keeps Möet et Chandon in her pretty cabinet..." And then Andy picked a guitar up and played along with it. So like, two weeks later, Andy and Dougie were out late and they'd gone out and bought Queen's best-of, and they learned all the chords to it. So we decided to try to record that as a B-side. As an exercise, it was amazing, fantastic. We had great fun doing it. And we got a little help from a friend of ours, Jason Falkner--he came down and played the piano on it. All the music on it--apart from the vocals and the guitar solo, because the guitar solo is multi-tracked, there's maybe five different guitars doing things on it--even the little triangle that was dangling from the microphone stand, it's all live! And it did take as long as we thought. It was actually very, very easy, and it made us thing, "Jesus, if we can do 'Killer Queen,' then we can pretty much do anything!" We've been playing together for such a long time now, it's easy enough for us to pick up any sort of song and give it a good go. It's funny, it's so unfaithful to the original--because you can't get any better than the Queen version--it just sounds like a little Scottish version of it. Slightly Scottish.

LAUNCH: Is it something that might end up in your live show?

FRAN: You know, I believe Queen never played it live. So I don't think we'll be attempting it!

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