Idlewild


Idlewild Bonus Quotes You can read the full article on Idlewild on page 40 of Under the Radar, Issue 4. Below are some more quotes from our interview with front-man Roddy Womble, as well as extra photos from our New York photo shoot with the band. Most of these quotes didn’t make it into the article. Lenny Kaye and Scottish Poets Mark Redfern (M): How did Lenny Kaye influence the sound of the record? Roddy Womble (R): I don’t think he influenced the sound of the record, but he influenced us as people. And I think that nobody’s, obviously music being as it is, all the chords have been kind of played before and all the words have been used so it’s, it’s the way you put your personality into it that makes it original in any respect. And I think that he influenced us as individuals that we approach music in a slightly different way. And I think that’s why The Remote Part does sound different from A 100 Broken Windows. M: Right, right. R: But I just think the Stephen Street songs sound too much like 100 Broken Windows cause we were still in that mindset of how we write songs and what we were and I think Lenny Kaye changed that attitude ourselves really. M: Like how did he change your personalities? Like in what way? R: Well, he didn’t change our personalities in a way that we became not recognizing who we were. M: Right, right. R: But definitely just in the way that just musically, he changed, like he would explain things to Rod about different things he could do with his guitar playing and same with me lyrically ’cause he’s also a writer as well I think and exceptional guitar player. So, just those sort of subtle changes just it’s difficult to explain specifically, exactly what it was but just ways to approach like writing choruses, writing words, writing, you know, songs meaning things basically. I think he just underlined the meaning of songs to us. He made us realize what songs actually mean. Um, which is quite a significant thing really. M: Right. And then after that you went to Scottish Highlands, in like the middle of nowhere, right? To write for a couple of weeks, or something like that? R: Yeah. Well, I mean, a lot’s been written about that and essentially we’ve always done the stuff up in the Highlands I mean it’s somewhere a lot our friends live. We have a friend that has a cottage and he was going away and he said well why’d you not just come up and hide out in the cottage for a month and so we went up there. And it’s quite bleak and you know, it’s very, it’s a particular taste to like The Highlands cause you know, the weather’s shit and there’s like no one about and it’s um, but I like it. It’s something I really, really feel comfortable in that environment. We all do. We just had real fun. And it was, there was a sense of like, it was one of the most sort of condensed, kind of, creative spells I’ve ever spent I think. You know, but really good fun. M: And I wanted to ask you more about Edwin Morgan. And how he got involved in the record? ‘Cause no one over here really knows much about him. R: No. He’s very he’s like a. He’s the Poet laureate of Scotland. And I studied him in school actually. And I just been a big fan of him really since I was younger and I just contacted him really, wrote a letter to him and started from that. And he was interested in the fact it was a young person in a band who was interested in him, interested in like putting across ideas of lyrical themes and ideas and songs? M: Right. R: And from that we just, it wasn’t originally planned as a collaboration between a young rock band and an established poet, ‘cause I mean that is kind of pretentious to presume that that could actually work. M: Right. R: And I was skeptical about it as well. But, it just seemed so right that after we’d done it, that it just fitted. And I think that it is nice. It’s like a lyrical full stop to the record. Bob’s Departure M: Are you still friends with Bob? You still keep in touch with him? R: Yeah. I mean, I’m friends with him you know, as much… He’s kind of an estranged friend you know? He doesn’t really want to talk to me when I phone him. But, you know, we are friends. M: Right, right. And so it was kind of an amicable departure? R: He didn’t want to be in the band anymore basically. And that was that. And he didn’t know how to say that. He didn’t know how to say, “I don’t want to do this anymore." And he didn’t know why he didn’t want to do it. He just, he didn’t like going on tour basically. You know, he’s a real… He lived in the same house all his life and being away he wouldn’t appreciate things like you’d be away somewhere like NY which is a fucking amazing town and you would just be like, ‘This is amazing, I can’t believe I’m here, like playing this concert’ and he’d just be like oblivious to it all, you know, just sitting on a barstool he could be anywhere, you know. M: And then I read in NME and all that bullshit that you guys went to blows in a punch up and then you said that you didn’t have a fight and all that. R: Ah, I mean, that’s the NME for you. It’s like tabloid now, you know. M: Yeah, I know. R: It’s like, it’s not the music anymore. It’s just, that’s all they’re interested in if someone’s punched someone or what trousers someone’s wearing. I mean obviously it’s not pleasant when something like that happens and that’s what I just said, I mean Bob was an aggressive drinker and he drunk a lot and he could be, he could get, kind of out of hand and he just got out of hand one night and it was just, there was no point in like being with someone like that when you’re not like that yourself. M: How do you think Allen and Gavin will influence the sound of the next album? Or do you think they will? R: I mean Allen’s been playing with us for years these last couple years live and on The Remote Part he plays guitar on one song and you know he’s been a part of the band really for a while. It just, so we’ve just made him kind of more legitimate and he feels better about it now, you know. On stage he doesn’t feel like he’s just underlying Rod, he feels like he’s part of the band, which is very important for us and for him. And with Gavin, I mean Gavin’s been one of my closest friends for years you know, so it’s actually quite exiting to have like a new member of a band that you’ve just always wanted to be in the band. It’s really weird to talk about it but at the same time, it’s just kind of a pleasure to be playing music with someone new like Gavin you know? M: Right, right. That sounds good. R: Well, it’s brilliant. It’s totally positive. We just finished doing the Australian tour and it was so much fun it was like being on holiday. Touring with Peal Jam and Playing Talk Shows M: You guys are going to be touring with Pearl Jam, right? In May? R: That’s right, yeah. M: What do you think that’s going to be like, because your fans, at least your die-hard fans and Pearl Jam’s fans don’t really necessarily coexist in the same musical place. R: Well, I don’t know. I hope so. In a perfect world, it would be amazing. That we would get on with Pearl Jam and would hang out with them, it would go down well for the audiences just have a great time. In a non-perfect world, we would just be completely ignored by the audience who are just waiting for Pearl Jam. But I mean hopefully it will be cool, you know. We met them actually. They were playing in Australia at the same time and we went to see them and then we went, hung out in a bar chatting to them. And they just seemed like real amazing people. So I think it’s gonna be fun. M: Right. That’s cool. Have you been a long time fan of Pearl Jam or was it something more that the Record Company kinda set up? R: No, it wasn’t done through the record company actually it was through the band. Jeff, the bass player, picks the support bands and he was an Idlewild fan and he approached us about doing it. M: Wow. R: Which makes it even more flattering really. M: Yeah, totally. Well I mean whatever happens I’m sure you’ll pick up some new fans and get more publicity out of it and all that. R: Oh totally. I mean, we’ve done so many support tours over the past five years that we know the whole deal with it you know? We know that you go on and there’s gonna be 50% of people who just don’t care and there’s gonna be 50% of people just checking you out and that’s…As long as people pay attention that’s the main thing you know. We’ve done a few support tours when you play it’s just complete apathy. You know, it’s just people with fingers in their ears and that’s just so soul destroying but…I don’t think it’ll be like that. M: Right. When you were last in America or at least one of the times you were in America you performed on Letterman, right? R: We did, yeah. M: What was that experience like Playing for a cold TV audience who didn’t really care about you and then also you’re playing to like millions of Americans across the country? R: Well, you’re not conscious that you’re playing to a million Americans cross-country when you’re doing it. You’re just conscious about the group of people in front of you, which by and large are made up tourists. They get tickets and come from like places, like Granny’s from Kansas and people from like Osaka in Japan that have got tickets for Letterman. Which is kinda funny. And also the studio’s really cold. There’s some curious thing about David Letterman, he keeps the studio like its a…below freezing. So I was just conscious that it was very cold the whole time. Those kind of things are like, they’re just like weird days. It’s difficult to describe you know it’s just like, you know you have a day that you understand like you get up you understand you do something else. Like for us, suppose it’s going on tour, you know, we get up we sound check we hang out we play we have a few drinks and that’s the kind of day. David Letterman show is just a weird day. You get up you do all these weird things, you stand there in front of cameras, you meet Paul Schaeffer and then you do this show. It’s just kind of an odd day, you know? But it’s good to have days like that. M: Yeah, I mean, I always think its strange with I see my favorite bands on shows like that and I wonder who’s in the audience, they’re all clapping coz the little applaud meter comes up. R: Well, they’re clapping coz they’re told to clap. M: Yeah, exactly. But it’s like how much are any of them into what they’re hearing, you know. R: Well, I’m sure most of them aren’t. M: Yeah. R: Actually we did Conan O’Brian show and that was funnier. Conan O’Brian was a really nice guy actually. He was telling us a really funny story when Snoop Doggy Dogg was on and it was just pure like old folks tour from like, you know, somewhere in America who were made up the audience and he was giving all, you know, “mother fucking bitch,” all that kinda stuff and all the audience were just like…(laughs) I guess it’s like an alien land, it’s nice to touch down on sometimes. Obsessive Fans and Film Scripts M: Have you had any really obsessive fans? R: Yeah, we do actually. I mean, I’m not boasting. In fact, it’s something that I don’t think it’s that healthy to encourage. But we do have, we have people that come follow us around on all our tours you know, especially in Britain. We have people from Japan and Germany that fly over and follow every single show and people from Scotland that take things a little too literally, you know. M: Right. Is that a bit weird for you guys, I would imagine? R: Yeah, it’s weird, but it’s not something we dwell on. I mean generally they’re quite young. Um, you know, I’m 25 years old and they’re generally about sort of 15, 16 years so I um, I kind of have sympathy for them more than anything and I’m always like, “why are you spending your money?” You know what I mean? I love bands and I love going to see bands but I wouldn’t follow a band about you know. M: Not for a whole tour, that’s a bit much. R: No. M: You know, a couple shows. R: Exactly. M: If a band comes to town and plays two shows maybe go to two shows. R: Exactly, yeah. M: But not follow on the next show and the next show and the next show. When we last spoke I think you were working on a film script or you had an idea for a film script that you were telling me about because I used to read scripts, I was a script reader for a while out here in Hollywood and I was wondering if you still had ideas to write scripts or were working on… R: Well, I do a bunch, I mean, I write a lot but I mean most of it is crap. And I realize that and I think that’s quite good that I realize that ‘cause so many people don’t. They write this stuff and think it’s great. As a film student that’s what I did, and the people in the course were just, there was one of them that was talented and the rest of them just thought they were great. They’d always be talking about their new script and you’d read it and you’d just think, ‘this is the worst thing I’ve ever read in my life,’ you know. I generally, I’ve got this attitude and it comes to sort of things creative like music and script writing and writing and photography, anything: people who talk about it are rubbish. It’s the people who don’t talk about it that are, that have got something to say. M: Yeah. That’s true. I went to film school as well so. R: Yeah, well you know what I mean then. People are like, ‘I’m doing this, I’m doing this project,’ and you’re just thinking, ‘you’re not doing anything. You’re just doing something that’s going to be meaningless ultimately.’ It’s the person at the back that’s really quiet that you never get to know that’s probably doing something that’s completely brilliant, that half the people never ever get to see. Recurring Dreams and Being Remembered in 20 Years M: Two more questions. One question we always people that we get weird responses, do you have any recurring dreams or nightmares? R: No, but for a while I dreamt a lot about bees. And I read this in one of those like shitty books you get, like 'Analyze Your Own Dreams,' and it said that was a sign of bad fortune. So, I try not to dwell on that too much. I just thought it was 'cause I liked honey. M: Right. Those books are full of shit anyway. R: Yeah, they are. M: What mark do you think Idlewild are leaving on popular music right now? R: You know, I have no idea. I'd like to think that people would get some kind of inspiration, some kind of thought, 'coz to me songs are kind of explanations to yourself and those explanations people can read into it and kind of find some comfort in it. So, I hope that's what it does. But I have no presumptions about it. I have no general ideas about what our songs are doing to people, I just hope that people are getting something from it that is a good thing. www.idlewild.co.uk Listen to Idlewild’s “A Modern Way Of Letting Go” here. Pick your desired format and speed. Windows Media 56 Windows Media 100 Real Player 56 Real Player 100 Watch the video for Idlewild’s “A Modern Way Of Letting Go” here. Pick your desired format and speed. Windows Media 56 Windows Media 100 Windows Media 300 Real Player 56 Real Player 300