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It?s Wednesday the 13th of April. It?s a sweet spring evening in London and we?re
at the Shepherds Bush Empire to interview Idlewild on their Warnings/Promises
tour. Roddy is sitting in the production office quietly browsing his Yahoo
email. He pleasantly says hello and greets us with a warm, happy smile. The rest
of the band are relaxing in their dressing room after sound-check and are having
a chat about new bands.
We catch up with Rod, the bands guitarist and the man behind Idlewilds' music to
talk about the new album and find out what's going on in Idlewilds' world right
now. It seems that Idlewild is a genuinely happy camp at
the moment. Read on?
Phil: How?s the tour going?
Rod: It?s going well! We?re about eight dates in now I think and they?ve
all been good actually. Usually it gets off to quite a slow start but I think
all the practice has finally paid off. All the songs have been going down well
and there?s no traditional mid-set lull so it?s all going really well.
Phil: You seem tired Rod.
Rod: Ah believe you me that?s nothing to do with touring ? just last night
(laughs).
Phil: How are the new songs going down?
Rod: They?re going down really well actually. We?ve played every song on the
record now over the last week and changed the set around and played some older
ones that hadn?t played before and pretty well every one of them has gone down
really well.
Phil: Cool. Do you ever get bored of playing the old stuff?
Rod: To be quite honest, yes. But when that happens we try and rework them and
do different things with and sometimes do them acoustically and you know, just
mess around with them and write new bits for them. There are songs definitely
that we?re more enthusiastic about playing than others but that?s just the
nature of it. New things are always a bit fresher you know.
Phil: Let?s talk about the new album, Warnings/Promises. Why Warnings/Promises?
Rod: It?s just something that mentioned early when we were making the album and
it really stuck. It was warnings and promises and promises and warnings for quite
a long while so eventually decided one way or the other. We just thought it was
a good title for a record ? you can read quite a lot into it.
Phil: There have been a lot of reviews mentioning that the sound of the new
album is very REM. Is that something that bothers you?
Rod: Not at all. This is the most frequently asked question on this album and
probably on the last record as well but I?m a big fan so I don?t mind being
compared to a band that I really like. Subconsciously, everything you do and
listen to affects your music. If affects your personality so it?s going to
affect your music. I think that this comparison stops at the fact that we?re
just a rock band. I mean, there maybe the occasional song where there is a hooky
guitar line and a lyric that does remind you of REM I suppose but I certainly
don?t think that Roddy sounds like Michael Stipe. I think that if at all, he
probably did on our earlier records but I don?t think so now. It?s a compliment
but a slightly odd compliment.
Phil: How much of an affect have the personnel changes had on the new stuff?
Rod: Oh a massive change you know. Um, in many ways, They?re other musicians
with other ideas and we really tried to record this record as honestly as we
could and make it so you could just hear five people in one room, which I think
you can. You can hear five personalities and also the band is a much happier
place. We feel like a band now and that obviously has a massive affect on you as
a person and in your song writing.
Phil: And how did recording in L.A influence things?
Rod: Again, it was just about putting yourself in a different environment and it
was very different for us to hang out in a big house with a pool and spend three
months in a studio where The Doors and Fleetwood Mac recorded is going to have
an affect on you. It?s going to have an affect on a song that was written in the
Highlands and taken to Los Angeles, listening to it as you drive down Sunset
Boulevard gives it a completely different meaning. It?s something that we needed
to do ? it kind of happened by mistake but it was definitely a good thing for the
band.
Phil: What?s your favourite song on the new album?
Rod: Um, I think 'Good Night' is just something different for us to try and use
vocals more than instrument so maybe that.
Phil: Did you find that the songs really came out of themselves when you toured
them acoustically?
Rod: They did but a lot of them were written that way anyway. Songs like ?If I
Hadn?t Slept? were written in a back of a bus on the Pearl Jam tour with an
acoustic guitar so we knew they would transfer well and we?re into these folk
melodies anyway. I think what surprised people, is that we didn?t just go and
bash out our songs with acoustic guitars which I think a lot of people were
expecting us to do. Instead we got a piano and an accordion and a violin and try
to approach them as folk songs and it just went so well.
Phil: Do you see yourselves as more of an albums band than a singles band?
Rod: Definitely now yeah. I think pretty well right up to The Remote Part we
were a singles band. When we wrote a song, we would try and write a single ?
constantly trying to do that. I think that with The Remote Part, we tried to
make an album as a whole although it did end up probably being a collection of
singles (laughs), where as this album definitely is, it?s an album, that
horrible word ? a grower. There are immediate songs on it but there are songs
that are far less immediate. It?s more about listening to the entire record a
few times and getting something out if rather than just buying a couple of
singles. I think that?s why a lot of people have listened to it once and written
a review. It?s kind of annoying but I know that a lot of people have a lot of
things to review but it is annoying because it?s an album that you have to
listen to a few times before you can really understand it. I think that if this
was our first record then it would have been a lot better received. The last two
records were such a leap from where they were before and with the last record
everyone was saying that it was our ?stadium ambitions? record which is not true
at all but I suppose it had that feel to it; so this record has gone off on a
tangent. We wanted to write good honest songs again but put them across in a
different way. It?s definitely a less extreme jump than we have done before. I
think it?s the best record we?ve made and if it wasn?t, we wouldn?t have put it
out.
Phil: Who was the last band that blew you away?
Rod: It would have to be The Walkmen. The last time I saw then I just thought
they were so phenomenal.
Phil: Are they friends of yours?
Rod: Yeah they are and I mean they were great last time we toured with them in
Britain but the last gig I saw them at they were almost perfect. They have such
an unusual way of approaching pretty, straightforward melodies and they?re one
of those bands that every time you see them you?re convinced that it?s a
different member of the band that makes them so good.
Phil: And one more question to finish with. When was the last time you were
heckled?
Rod: Um, probably the last gig to be honest. We get heckled at most of them.
Phil: Really?
Rod: Yeah, the thing I find in Britain certainly, is that we have this loyal
fanbase that will go out and buy our records whether it?s their favourite one or
not and I think there are people that want us to just re-hash Captain over an
over again. I have absolutely no interest in doing that whatsoever. I understand
that that album means something to some people and it means something to me
as well obviously. I think when people grow so attached to a certain record it?ll
never be bettered to them and in my eyes I think we?ve made much better records
than Captain but some people don?t think that and when we don?t play 'Captain' we
do get heckled. That stuffs going to happen but I find it quite absurd that
people come to gigs and heckle and throw things at you. I just find it weird
that someone would want to pay money to come and do that. I suppose it?s all
about looking cool in front of your friends. Generally it?s funny, as long as
it?s not something hard that hits you in the face!
Phil: Well thanks for your time Rod!
Rod: Thanks Phil.
Interviewed
by
Phil Storey
Photography by Tim Gwinnett
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