Interviews
Tom Smith from Editors talks to Britsound
Photo (c) Jill Furmanovsky
Interview by Rob Quicke, August 4, 2006.
The following interview took place just a couple of hours before Editors made their debut at Lollapalooza at Grant Park, Chicago.
RQ: It was not too long ago when all of you were doing mundane '9-5 jobs' in the UK, and then of course you released The Back Room to great success. Was there ever a time when you thought you wouldn’t break through and make it?
TS: No, I don’t think so. There’s always been a small part of me that’s believed these songs would be popular if people got the chance to hear them. Even when we were at university and we weren’t very good and as a live band especially. When we finished university we moved to Birmingham and it took us two years to get a deal and then so that time was hard, but we always had the self belief because, like I said, somewhere deep inside we believed that these songs would be popular.
RQ: You once said in an interview that it was very important for you that Editors had a sense of mystery, a sense of mystique. What did you mean when you said that?
TS: Well I think to start with, when we were you know, young and, you know starting out as a band, and we’d just started to get interest it's very easy to get influenced by things that go on outside you and get carried away with the hype and stuff so, we just wanted to keep grounded I guess as well more than anything. So we had one demo that went out to a whole load of labels, one song and that got, straight away loads of A&R were coming to our shows in Birmingham.
RQ: Bullets?
TS: Yes, it was Bullets to start with. So we knew that people liked what we were doing but we just, we then kind of maintained some kind of mystery by removing it from the Internet, and we didn’t send out any photos or any press releases to start with and we just let it grow by word of mouth. And I think that’s kind of the way our career has gone since then. I mean, since we got the record out it feels like success has been a result of word of mouth so its something we’ve tried to keep doing, you know.
RQ: But it was a risk, I mean you’ve got to admit by taking your songs offline and not providing a flood of information about yourselves, was a bit of a risk. But obviously it paid off didn’t it?
TS: Yeah, it worked for us.
RQ: And surely you must be getting tired now of the constant Joy Division references and comparisons?
TS: I think everyone’s getting tired of it to be honest. I think journalists are tired of feeling they have to ask it. You know, I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved with this album and there’s no way we could have achieved it by copying anyone, you know. Of course there are similarities to what we do to other bands and that’s fine, every band is similar to someone in some respects, but people need to understand that we just do what we do, you know, the way we perform, my voice, the way Chris plays guitar, you know it’s just stuff that excites us and not because of Joy Division. Because we’re too young, you know. So yeah, you know, we’re standing firmly on our two feet and proving to everyone that we’re Editors.
RQ: Now do you ever think of the bizarreness of how writing eleven songs has changed your life? I know it’s a short period of time, a year since The Back Room came out, but do you ever think it’s kind of extraordinary what’s happened to you?
TS: Oh yes, its remarkable. To think that when we first started writing these songs that I’d be sat here you know, two three years later at Lollapalooza, you know, it’s remarkable. I don’t know what to say, you know it’s humbling to see people all over the world want to come and see you play these songs that we’ve worked so hard to create, but it’s about time now we started making some new songs.
RQ: And that’s my next question. Have you written any new songs and when do you expect the new album to come out?
TS: We have a couple of fully formed new songs we’ve been playing live for a while now, and we stop touring in September, and that’ll be our 20th month of touring this record. So it’s about time to stop, but yeah, we’re going to record them straight away and get the creative process going but we also have some time off to write some other songs obviously. So, ideally we’ll be in the situation by Christmas where we might have a clutch of songs recorded maybe enough to make a record, we hope so.
RQ: Have you set any objectives or goals for this second album?
TS: You know what, I don’t know; it’s new for us. We’ve never recorded a second album before, but you know the only thing we go into with it is - we need to make a better record than we’ve made and I think to do that we need to be more ambitious. We’re going to have more time, we’re better musicians than we were when we made the first one, and we’re going to do it with a different producers so that’s going to pull us in different directions. So we’ll see where the songs take us, but we’re excited about having a go, you know, I don’t think we’re going to be scared about putting other instruments on there, maybe other voices, because, you only get one chance to make your second record, you just make it as good as you can do.
RQ: So you said you’re better musicians, is that surely because you’ve now been on the road for about 20 months?
TS: It’s exactly that reason. I mean playing live has always been one of our strengths, you know, to start with especially, people were kind of attracted to that, and I think as the stages have got bigger over that period and the audiences have increased in size I think we’re adapted well to that you know. If you put that band when we first started on the stage in front of five thousand people at Brixton Academy they’d have probably cried and walked off! But a couple of months ago when we did it, it was some of the best nights of our lives. I think we rose to the challenge, and I hope that as we move forward we’ll continue to get better, so we need to maintain that intensity, that buzz we have when we’re playing live and get that in the studio and just build on that and make a bigger record.
RQ: How have American audiences responded to your live performances as opposed to European ones, is there a difference?
TS: You know, the main difference for us is that our record came out in America quite a long time after it came out in the UK for certain reasons. So we haven’t been here as much as we probably could have been, but we need to stop for our own sanity, to start the next record. But you know we’ve toured here, I think we’ve been here about 8, about 12-13 weeks by the time we finish this year. And it’s going well but its such a big place that the audiences are starting to realise what we’re about but its too early to say you know, I think you put in the work its touring here to get some kind of success, not on the first record in America, maybe on the second or the third, so we’ll see. So far so good!
RQ: Now let me talk to you about Guy Garvey. I interviewed him a couple of weeks ago when Elbow played The Double Door in Chicago, I gather you were at that gig as well weren’t you?
TS: Yeah, we played over at Metro, and then we got off stage and went straight over, walked in about three songs in.
RQ: Now tell me a little bit about your friendship with Guy, because didn’t he help produce some of your first demos?
TS: What happened with them is that after Guy and the other boys heard our first couple of singles he just got in contact and asked if we wanted to do a tune together, and Elbow are one of the bands that I think we’d all cite as major, major influences on us. We loved that band, they’re one of the greatest English bands in the last ten years I reckon, so we jumped at the chance. We had this song floating around that nearly made it on the record but didn’t quite make the grade, and we went into their studio in Manchester and did it, in two days. Two of the best days of our lives, it’s strange becoming friends with someone that you consider you know a hero or someone that you greatly admire. And then from that, yeah, the songs were the best things we’ve ever recorded and it was the B-side to Blood I believe. So, yeah, since then, whenever we can we hook up, go and see them or they come and see us and they’re lovely guys.
RQ: I read an interview with you when you sort of agreed with the journalist from The Observer newspaper, who said your music isn’t really suited to outdoor festivals particularly in the sunshine, and you sort of agreed. Do you still believe that, what do you think now that you’re about to play thousands of people here at Lollapalooza?
TS: You know what, I don’t think… I don’t really believe that. No, I think that because there’s a thread of darkness to our music that it does work well in dark clubs but, you know, we’ve done a few festivals out in the sunshine, and we give it everything we’ve got and the audience responds to that. Yes, it’s a different setting, you know it’s not The Beach Boys, but it’s got a place and it works on some levels. We did a few festivals at home where it’s dark and that’s absolutely incredible, you know, but we’ll see.
RQ: American festival audiences are very appreciative anyway; they’re up for it. It’s also an hour set, so does that make a difference as well?
TS: Yeah, we get to show them everything what we’re about over an hour, and you’re right - festival audiences are always more up for it, and American audiences, we’ve only done one American festival that was Coachella and that was one of the best gigs of our life. So if this is anywhere near as good as that that we’ll be very very happy.
RQ: Why was that one of the best gigs, what made it a highlight for you?
TS: Well you know it’s the whole Coachella thing. It’s such an honour to be there and we were one at the same time as Madonna and I remember thinking “oh great there’s going to be no one there, everyone’s going to go and see Madonna.” But we were like, literally next door to her, in the tent next door, and the place was rammed, it went off, it was amazing. We played one of the best shows we’ve ever played and the sun went down as we were playing. And it was pretty magic and it was just one of those festival moments for us really.
RQ: Talking about the music that you’re going to be playing - obviously you’ll be playing Munich and Bullets and other well-know songs. But what about these new songs that you’ve written. Will you be playing a couple of those or not?
TS: Yeah, one of them we’ll play a song called Bones we’ll play this afternoon. So one new song, a couple of B-sides, and the majority of the album.
RQ: Talking about Bullets, there seems to be a sort of general consensus now that in many ways it’s a classic debut single. What are your thoughts about that, when you were writing it, did that song come easily to you or not?
TS: It’s one of the oldest songs on the record and I remember when we were playing it at the rehearsal room at university, I remember thinking that sounds like a song that a signed band should have. It felt like a leap forward in our song writing because it has a kind of pop sensibility to it, but it has a quite abrasive and quite hard at the same time. We’re very proud of it and I’m very pleased that people seem to have latched on to it in a big way. I think it’s about time we released it in America actually I think American audiences might get that song, we’ll see.
RQ: You formed the band as friends at Stafford University. With increased fame and the pressures of fame and popularity, do you still really get on well with each other, or have there been a few skirmishes?
TS: You know in all honesty, of course there are stupid…when we get tired there’s are stupid little… we annoy each other but we’ve never had any falling outs you know. Because we have that friendship, and we’ve always had that before we were in a band, so nothing’s changed. The chemistry between us hasn’t changed in any way. We’re exactly the same as we were when we were at university, when we didn’t have a record deal so we’re very grateful for that.
RQ: Do you think in many ways that’s why you’ve stayed together or perhaps why you might stay together, because a lot of bands don’t have that friendship do they?
TS: It’s helped us on the road definitely; living in a bus together is a kind of a test of your relationship!
RQ: You also said in an interview “I think inside of us there is a big band struggling to get out.” What did you mean by that?
TS: Well, I think there are some big songs on the record, and we’re not afraid of melody and we’re not shy of disguising that really. We try our best to do it in our own way that’s kind of credible, but we write big songs. When we toured with Franz Ferdinand we were playing in big arenas with them and our songs kind of suited that environment to an extent, so, we’ll see.
RQ: And last question; where would you like to see yourselves in a couple of year’s time?
TS: It would be nice to come back here and headline wouldn’t it? There we go, in a couple of years that would be nice. You never know. Yeah, get the second album under our belts and it’s ten times better than the first; that would be nice too.
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