Idlewild
March 2001
Los Angeles

Splayed on couches within the famed tower that is the Capitol Records building at Hollywood and Vine is the Next Big Thing. Idlewild are a surprisingly young group of Scotsmen – Roddy Woomble, vocals; Rod Jones, guitar; Bob Fairfoull, bass; Colin Newton, drums – who are thrilled to bits to be in LA for the first time and excited as all hell that Mann’s Chinese Theater is only blocks away (they’re dying to see handprints of the cast of Star Wars). This is Idlewild at the moment; not as green as the power-punk outfit they started as while in university together in Edinburgh but definitely not gone soft in their musical maturity.

Third album 100 Broken Windows (which made the top of critics’ lists throughout Europe last year) is aiming to finally introduce Idlewild to the U.S., along with a summer tour supporting Placebo. Right now, they’ve stopped to talk a bit in the middle of a brief promo jaunt around North America, looking forward to their first performance before "a real Hollywood crowd".

Inside the CD cover for 100 Broken Windows, it just says, "Subject: History". What’s that all about?

Roddy: We always get asked what the songs are about – so that’s what they all really are about, history. It was also partly because we recorded with Bob Weston and on the tapes there’s a label "Subject" and you’re meant to write the name of the band or whatever, but he used to put things like "History" and "Geography". It’s not hilariously funny, but that’s what it is.

How do you feel about the way your North American visit is coming along?

Roddy: Last night’s [San Francisco] show was a big one. We had a few stinkers that started the tour – Vancouver and Seattle – because I had a real bad cold that I couldn’t get rid of. Plus it’s a bit of culture shock, being here and getting used to stuff. The first two nights it was people just kind of staring at us like, "C’mon, impress me…" and we weren’t that impressive. We were kind of bad! (Laughs) But last night was really good fun. I hate it when you’re pressured. I don’t care if all these industry types are coming out [tonight]. People are saying they’re all going to be there, but we say, so what!

Rod: That’s less pressure, anyways – they’ve all got the record already!

Roddy: You can’t attach too much to a concert – they are kind of just for the moment.

Idlewild’s been described as a mix of Nirvana and REM. How do you deal with such heavy comparisons?

Rod: Well, when we started out we had these bands that we liked – bands like Nirvana – and we did I suppose try to emulate them to start off with.

Roddy: We were fifteen years old when "Nevermind" came out, so we were hugely influenced by it, because when you’re fifteen years old and into guitar music, that was like a revolution, you know? Obviously we didn’t form the band until we were like eighteen, so we had years to get into other bands, so we were a bit more educated into all this indie rock by the time we met. Still, the first records you listen to when you’re about fifteen, they’re always going to be reference points. For me, it’s stuff like when I heard the Smiths and Nirvana; things like that, you always keep going back to them.

Bob: Nothing wrong with being influenced by huge records – better than being compared to somebody who sucks! (Laughs)

Roddy: Everybody needs to get a handle on a band if they’ve never heard of them. If I’ve never heard of a band and say, "What are they like?" my friend will say, "Oh, they’re a bit like them". So you get a handle and can judge them for yourself. The problem is when people don’t judge them for themselves – they just think, "Oh, they’re like second-hand Nirvana." Which is not the case at all! I think we have established our own sound with 100 Broken Windows, and I think our next record will go further into doing that.

Rod: It’s just getting more confident in your ability to write your own songs and your ability to be in a band really, I suppose. After a while you do feel your own way of writing songs.

Roddy: But in answer to your question, it’s flattering more than anything. There’s always the association, and you hope that people listen to you because of those comparisons but then they turn into a fan of the band, instead of wanting you to be the same…

Like, "I feel like listening to some Michael Stipe, so I’ll put on some Idlewild."

Roddy: Exactly! (Everyone laughs)

With all of the influence you seem to have received from American bands, have any of them given you advice on "conquering" America?

Rod: The only thing anyone’s said to us about coming to America was our friend Craig from dEUS, and he just said, "Good luck – look forward to a massive disappointment!" (Laughs)

Did you ask him what he meant by that?

Roddy: Well, he played in quite a cult-y sort of band in Belgium called dEUS, and they’re very popular on the continent – they’ve got quite high-profile fans like Radiohead and REM and stuff like that. So they came over for this hyped-up American tour, you know, like, "REM’s favorite band – dEUS!" And then they played to like ten people. (Laughs) So that’s what he said, because there’s been quite a bit of hype about our tour and us coming over, so he was just telling us to be prepared for a massive disappointment. (Laughs)

And how’s it been so far?

Roddy: It hasn’t been a massive disappointment. Then again we’ve only played four gigs. But personally speaking it’s been disappointing because I’ve had such a bad throat and cold, and we haven’t been playing our best – apart from last night which was really good.

What would be your ideal of tonight’s show?

Bob: I’d like it to just be like last night! Sold out with people who knew who we were and were into us, and for us to play well and for it to sound good.

Roddy: That would be every gig, really!

Bob: Yeah, basically – a sold out gig that we’re happy with and that we forever have a good time.

Rod: And that at least one or two members of the Star Wars cast are there. Preferably C-3PO. (Everyone laughs)

Are you going to be playing any of your new material?

Band: Probably not.

Roddy: We’ve got a lot of new songs and we played them on the British tour, but I don’t know if it’s that relevant to play them in America yet. We might play one because it sounds like it could be on 100 Broken Windows.

So you’re really hoping that people tonight have heard the new album.

Roddy: Not that they’ve all heard it. But the majority of the stuff we’ll be playing will be from it, so I mean if people have heard it, it will all be familiar.

But if people haven’t heard it and you play something new then it won’t make any difference!

Roddy: That’s true, that’s true. (Laughs)

Your sound has really morphed in just a couple of years. To me, there’s a huge difference between 100 Broken Windows and second album Hope Is Important.

Roddy: Oh, it’s a totally different band, really. We tried to change because we had an album out [before Hope Is Important] called Captain that’s like teenage punk. Hope Is Important is kind of a mixture of that and coming to terms with being able to write good pop songs – kind of a messy album. We’d played live and were known for being a live band, but it started to get a bit frustrating that we weren’t taking our records seriously. So we tried to do things that we weren’t capable of doing. That took a year, and we molded ourselves naturally and turned out a different kind of band. So when 100 Broken Windows came out, people were really surprised by it. And it had happened naturally because we tried to change and then we couldn’t and then we did without thinking because we’d played so many concerts and got so much better at playing. We’d listened to so many more new records, met so many people, there was much more of a sense of identity – all these different things just really reflect themselves in the album. And I think now, we’ve actually – from when 100 Broken Windows came out – grown even more into something else. It’s still fun to play 100 Broken Windows songs – I don’t deny any of the pleasure from playing them – but when it comes to recording stuff, the new stuff we’re recording is really going somewhere different as well, which is really good.

So does 100 Broken Windows seem really distant to you guys now?

Roddy: No, not really because I still think it’s the best collection of songs released, you know? Obviously all these new songs we’ve written aren’t going to be out for a while. So of all the stuff that people could check out of Idlewild it’s by far the best collection of songs. I want to be able to play those songs to people so it’s just as fresh as when we finished recording them.

Would you prefer that people don’t listen to stuff like Captain or early Idlewild bootlegs?

Roddy: I prefer now if people chose to listen to 100 Broken Windows first and then worked their way back, cause I think you might get the wrong impression of the band. You know, it’s like the same thing if you wore a certain outfit on your eleventh birthday; you’d be embarrassed by it, but you can see the fun side of it. You’re always going to be really critical of yourself. I put on Hope is Important very rarely, and if I do, I’m just wincing. But then I realize a lot of people really like the album for what it is.

Rod: It’s just what we were at the time…and we’re not that anymore. So it’s more relevant that people listen to what we are now. The closest thing to that would be 100 Broken Windows.

So what do you think contributed most to this intrinsic change within the band?

Rod: A lot of touring and a lot of just realizing what we’d done was good, but it didn’t have a life span.

Roddy: I actually think the biggest thing was that we actually spent more time with each other, to be honest. Bear in mind we wrote most of the songs on Captain and the majority on Hope is Important before we were actually a signed band and were touring constantly. 100 Broken Windows was entirely written since we’d been on tour and stuff. I think it's more the effect that we spent so much time with each other while the rest of the albums were produced when we were at university. We'd have two practices a week and write a few songs – which were always about being at university. (Laughs) And then your whole perspective changes because you’ve seen so much – you just become a different person! For the best, you know. Just lots of things: you read more books, you see more films, you get inspired by a lot of different things and that just manifests itself into music if that’s what you do.

Is it important for all of these outside influences to be a part of your music?

Roddy: I don’t think it solely influences the music; I think it makes you more interesting of a person! You meet a lot of different people, and you just…. If you just sat in your room all day and watched television, or if you went out and met people and traveled all over the place and watched films and read books and went to see bands, I’d rather hang out with that person than the person who just watches TV.

You’ve got some pretty well-known bands talking about you a lot – Placebo and Manic Street Preachers for example. How is that praise different from the praise you get from fans or the press?

Roddy: I think it’s always nice when bands say they like you, because the thing I think about bands – British bands more – is that it’s music as competition. It’s not music as music – it’s music as if you play in a band, you’re in competition with other bands, end of story. I think in America it seems to be much more kind of cool, you know – like if you’re in a band, you go to see other bands and say, "Yes, you’re a good band!" But in Britain, it’s very much "I’m in competition with you." But Britain’s always been like that; people are cynical as anything. The weekly music press, all these things contribute to it. So I think it’s good when you get a compliment from a band. We know Placebo and we’ve played with them a lot and they’ve always been keen on our band, and that’s really nice – we just finished a big tour with them in Europe last year, and I think they’re a good band, too, and it’s just a nice thing, you know. The Manic Street Preachers, they asked us to tour with them and we did that, and that was nice as well. It’s just…it’s nice, you know – you don’t have to let it get to your head. I wouldn’t say it means any more than, say, some 15-year-old from Scunthorpe saying, "Oh, I love that song!" but at the same time it’s a different kind of respect.

Have you guys had the chance to meet any musicians that you idolize?

Roddy: The thing is that I don’t really idolize. I love bands like Teenage Fanclub and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, and I’m more in awe when I meet them than I am when I meet Brian Wilson. Obviously, Brian Wilson’s done some fucking amazing records, but at the same time, he’s just not as relevant to me as someone like Teenage Fanclub.

The U.S. tends to put so much weight on bands who come from the U.K. – always looking for the next British Invasion. And when people hear you’re from the U.K., you’re automatically lumped in with Coldplay and David Gray and whoever the hot act of the moment is. Then, when they hear you’re from Scotland, people think, "Oh, they’re another Travis." How does that sort of shortsighted categorization make you feel?

Roddy: It’s just lazy, really.

Bob: Lazy journalism.

Roddy: It’s like if in Scotland said, "Oh, yeah, At the Drive-In are just like Dave Matthews Band – they’re both American!" They’re both completely different! So that’s the same sort of thing with us and David Gray – polar opposites. Nothing against Mr. Gray or Coldplay. I don’t have a problem with it; I just think they’re much more middle of the road. And they write good songs; I think that’s why they’re so popular, because they write songs that sound good on the radio and stuff. I think we can do that sort of song, but we also try to do different things. I’m not saying we’re a better band; to me, we’re just a more interesting band.

Is it important for you guys to be heard on the radio or would you rather follow other bands in the way they’ve gained attention, building a fan base through playing live?

Roddy: We’re not too bothered, coming from Britain where everything’s completely different anyway, you know, like you play a few concerts and you’re suddenly discovered and are on the radio every night. I think if people are genuinely interested in playing your song, that’s cool – it can be like Country FM in Nashville or wherever. I don’t mind just playing gigs and gigs and gigs to build a fan base, and I don’t mind if suddenly a radio station picks up on the song, either way.

Bob: It’s all folks hearing your music.

Roddy: And it’s not as if we’re the new band coming out with our first single – we’ve got three albums out and have spent the better part of four years touring constantly in Europe!

If it’s all about people hearing your music, how do you feel about your songs being spread around via the Internet? Say, Captain, which you can’t get at all over here but can find all over Napster.

Rod: The problem with that is if they’re putting out stuff that you haven’t released and you don’t want people to hear, like a song that you did in your second-ever gig that was just rotten and you don’t want people to hear, it’s like….

Roddy: It’s like putting an embarrassing photograph of you on the Internet, you know, when you’re wearing swimming trunks.

Rod: It’s someone tainting your band by putting out what you don’t want them to see.

Bob: Unreleased stuff, that’s out of order really, because if you can get a whole album before its released on the Internet, then everybody would be doing it and no one would be buying.

Roddy: The problem is that I think it’s really good that it gets music out – I’m totally not computer literate and I’ve never been on Napster in my life so I don’t know what it’s like; I’ve only heard stories. For me, I do think musicians should be paid to do what they do; otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to produce any music. Unless you’re super-successful, you require a certain amount of people to buy your records and go and attend your gigs to be able to carry on making records. But at the same time, I also think it’s a really excellent thing that you can pick up some Czechoslovakian hard-core band you’d never normally hear of.

What about the difference between touring and recording – do you guys like them both equally? It seems like touring has made such a huge influence on your recording, but do you enjoy it more than studio time?

Roddy: I think it’s just the case that they’re both completely gratifying in totally different way. I mean, when you play a gig and it’s a good gig, it’s just for like forty minutes or an hour or whatever it is – but it’s an instant reaction of a hundred or a thousand people you’re playing to. It’s quite addictive and quite a strange atmosphere, a different kind of reality. But then it ends and that’s it, whereas the recording thing is only the four of us, but we’re creating something that we put a lot into it and are really happy with. At the end, it’s got a much bigger life span. So that’s gratifying in the long term whereas gigs are gratifying in the short term. They’re difficult to compare. I think you can have too much of either one. I think I prefer recording, actually, but at the same time the basis of the band is playing live. I think Bob probably prefers playing live to being in the studio.

Bob: Yeah.

Roddy: But it’s not as if any of us hate it.

Rod: You can’t have one without the other.

What is your songwriting process like?

Rod: We just have a little rehearsal room and go over ideas really – someone will come up with an idea and we’ll just play over it. If it comes together quite quickly, then we tend to keep it, and if it doesn’t, we tend to move on to something else.

What comes first – words or music?

Rod: Well, Roddy’s always writing words – he has a book full of words – but he won’t come and say, "Right, I want a song to go with these words."

Roddy: Probably the tune comes first, really. Occasionally, there’s been a few songs where it’s just me and Rod. Rod comes up with an acoustic [tune] and I come up with words at the same time. Generally what will happen is that Rod, Bob and Colin will work on some music and I’ll come in the next day and we’ll make it a song.

A lot of the songs have references to artists, like Gertrude Stein and Jackson Pollack; I suppose that’s because you were in art school, Roddy. But were you all studying art at university when you met?

Rod: No!

Roddy: Rod did design, I did photography and Colin did biology!

Bob: And I didn’t do anything! (Laughs)

Have you seen the movie Pollack?

Roddy: I haven’t – I only heard about it recently. Ed Harris, right?

Maybe he’ll be at your gig tonight!

Roddy: Yeah, dressed as Pollack. (Everyone laughs)

So there’s the stuff that you’re passionate about and thus goes into your lyrics, but what about the things you’re passionate about outside of your music? Or does music take up all of your time and energy?

Roddy: It does, and I’m quite happy about that. By that I mean that’s what we’re interested in, making records and playing them and talking about them. We go to see bands – all our friends are in bands as well – so it’s kind of pretty much all-consuming. Obviously I love good films and reading books and I’m interested in painting and photography – not to the extent that I want to talk about it at length. It’s just the same way that you’re interested in whatever you know you like. Occasionally, things make such an impact that you end up referencing them in songs. But it’s not supposed to be so like, "Oh, listen to me – I’ve read more books than you!" style.

How did you guys get together with Grant Gee for the video to "Roseability"?

Roddy: We normally do videos with our friends James & Alex, some independent filmmakers – they’re really fantastic, and we’re really good friends with them. And we’ve made some crazy videos with them – I don’t know if you’ve seen the "Little Discourage" video, with Rod dressed up as a choirboy….

(Everyone laughs)

Roddy: So the record label came to us and said, "Can you not just make a straightforward video? These ones never get shown unless it’s after twelve o’clock because they’re scare children!" So we decided to do a performance video. James & Alex I think were busy at the time or whatever, so we ended up doing it with Grant because he’s done loads of work with Parlophone bands like Radiohead and Coldplay. He’s a cool guy and the video looks good. It’s quite a simple concept – we invited fans through our Internet site to show up and be the audience. But my favorite video we’ve ever done is "Little Discourage". (Grinning) I think that’s a masterpiece.

Bob: Just that little boy in the beard – that was just a stroke of absolute genius!

Roddy: It was! I mean, it was quite a thing because I got ride a bike through the highlands, Bob got to chase a bearded boy, Rod got to jump into the North Sea dressed as a choir boy, and what did you do Colin?

Colin: I did nothing.

Roddy: Oh, you played table tennis.