Interviews: Editors

Mark: Hi Russ good to catch up with you! How are you?
Russ: I’m all good, Mark…excited about the tour!

Mark: So I was wondering after the the success of the first album, The Back Room, did you worry about making the dreaded second album?
Russ:No not really we wanted to make another record,thats what you want to do as an musician.If we were not confident we would not do it .As a band you always want to go in and record new songs,its all about trying to push yourself . So, no we were not scared about the second record.

Mark: It certainly seems to have pushed you to that next level.
Russ: I suppose, its been very well received by fans and the whole UK tour is sold out. Its also done well across the rest of the world, for us we are at an amazing level for a band two albums in…its good.

Mark: Does it sometimes seem like a long way from when you recorded with Gavin Monaghan at the Magic Gardens studio?
Russ: Yea it does. We still do our b-sides there. The place has a certain charm. Its good to go back there and spend a day with him. We did all our original demos there and they still sound really good we think. So, that’s why we go back back to record our b-sides and stuff

Mark: Some friends of mine (Prospect Lane) have done some work with him…they loved it there.
Russ: Yea, exactly. He is cool! He is at home working with big acts as well as taking time with the smaller acts.

Mark: There has been a lot of talk about death as a theme running through the new album. Are these personal experiences?
Russ: Yea, they come from Tom’s lyrics based on personal experiences that have taken place.They are serious subject matters I suppose, but we always write about serious things. People ask us about them, but we don’t write about just going out with our mates.

Mark: Well, that’s life, Russ.
Russ: Yea, but I think that kinda puzzles people sometimes.

Mark: You have made me think of the Prefrab Sprout song which has the line “There’s so much more to life than cars and girls”
Russ: Exactly!!!!!!!!!

Mark: Seems to me like you have been constantly on the road, any plans for a break?!
Russ: Its been about three years now, we will just carry on through i think. We are still really young, if we were four albums in or wanted to start families then we might have a long break. I think people in this day and age especially forget about if you are away too long. People seem to be more fans of songs rather than albums, so you have to keep releasing songs.

Mark: I felt your major festival breakthrough was this year at Glastonbury.
Russ: Yea, yea.

Mark: I’d seen you before, but this year you seemed so much more like a big stage band. Your sound seemed to carry that much better.
Russ: Our sound guy’s good. Basically, we were given the opportunity to play second headline at Glastonbury, which was incredible on the Saturday. Arcade Fire did it the night before. If you are competing, which we kind of were, you have got this amazing platform. So, you go out there and you try to impress. I mean you have the whole world watching, so you try really hard to impress. We loved every second of it! Not only was it the highlight of our year, it was the highlight of our lives really. I mean not many people get that chance.

Mark: So, you are just back from the States. I hear that went really well. Any plans to return soon?
Russ: We are going back around Christmas to do a load of radio shows. There are plans to go back and support a bigger act in the new year, its all up in the air at the moment. We like touring there, its pretty cool.

Mark: If you were to make a mix for our readers what would be the first three tracks you would choose?
Russ: Sure, I’m making a mix at the moment for in between bands at the shows. It’s our gig, so we want the music we like playing between acts, so this is an easy on for me.

#1 a band from America called Mobius Band who are amazing. They have a song called “Friends Like These”.
#2 The National – “Mistaken For Strangers”. The best album this year!
#3 Spiritualized – “Come Together”

Mark: Finally, could you tell me something about yourself I won’t find on Google?
Russ: The length of my hair to the closest millimeter today cause you could not measure it today.

Mark: Thanks for your time, Russ. Have a great gig!
Russ: No problem at all, its been a pleasure.

Tags: editors