They may think they hit the big time with ‘The Back Room’, but Editors are on the cusp of something far greater as they prepare for the release – and surely the resounding acclaim – of follow-up album ‘An End Has A Start’.
Let’s get straight to the point; this is a genuinely impressive follow-up to the genuinely impressive debut. Produced by current wunderkind Garrett ‘Jacknife’ Lee, the new offering is full of rather beautiful music. Certain tracks pack an instant punch, like the eponymous ‘An End Has A Start’ and the haunting ‘Well Worn Hand’. Other songs, such as urgent-sounding ‘The Racing Rats’, creep up on you after repeated listens.
I catch up with one half of the band in a London hotel over water and peppermint tea. Rock and roll. Tom Smith, lead songwriter, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and possessor of an impeccable complexion, provides an insight in to the creation process of the new album: “We toured ‘The Back Room’ for what felt like forever, we had two songs left over from the tour (‘Bones” and ‘The Weight Of The World’), nowhere near enough to make an album. We locked ourselves away to make something more textured. We didn’t want to make the same record again. We just went for it – bigger bits bigger, smaller bits smaller.” Avoiding any clichéd conversation about the difficult second album, Russell Leetch, bass guitarist and possessor of a really infectious laugh, describes the different recording processes: “Two weeks in the studio with the debut, two months with this one, using the studio as a tool. The first time we stepped into a studio, with a proper producer, was to record our first album, so we weren’t going to say, ‘we really want strings’ – it was just us playing. And we wanted to push that further with this record.”
We want to be a band that exists and makes a series of records, and maybe makes mistakes but also pushes themselves and does different things.
Working with Jacknife Lee has propelled their creative desires for the album and the guys can’t praise him enough. “I love him,” gushes Tom. “We worked with him for a day about two years ago when we re-recorded ‘Bullet’, so we’d had contact with him, but it was only a day and we didn’t really know him that well”. The band tested the waters further by taking the two new tracks, performed on tour, to Lee. “One of the first things he said to us was, “Whatever you want to do with this record, the sky’s the limit. Anything you can imagine, we’ll have a go at doing.” To hear that, from someone who wants to work with your band…!”
“He really wanted to work with us on this record,” continues Russ, and Tom agrees, with an element of pride and bewilderment. “He thinks we can be one of the great bands, and I don’t know, I hope we can, I think we can.” The band wants to continue working with Lee on future albums, to develop their relationship and their sound.
But what exactly is the Editors’ ‘sound’? “There’s a dark heart to the record. On the surface of it, if you just listen to it once, or just read the lyrics, it’s quite sad, but we like music that has a pulse – that makes you want to move, as well as move you.” Sadness is prevalent throughout the album, but there is an underlying hope within the often stark beats and with Smith’s aching voice. I ask Tom if many other people tell him that his voice makes them want to cry and apparently I’m the first to admit it so directly.
What I mean to say is that Editors’ songs allow you to wallow in sadness – relish it even – if you are feeling low, or provide an uplifting accompaniment to a good mood. This balance, or ambiguity, isn’t easy to achieve. Tom and Russell get what I mean. “Even with the first single from the new album, we wanted to make this glorious, piece of music that was like a wall of sound, like the clouds opening”. The conscious juxtaposition of ethereal sounds and dark, deathly lyrics are a displacement that they explore eagerly: “that contradiction, those two things colliding is what’s always excited us.”
It’s reported that ‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors’ wasn’t the initial choice for the first release, and that it was going to be the more radio-friendly title track. “For us to come out with a 5-minute song with a choir at the end – it’s a big lump of a thing to have as your first single!” Tom is keen to avoid a one-trick pony status for Editors, a concern which is all the more prevalent today when guitar bands are, like, everywhere. “The last thing we want anyone to think about us is that we’re a band who are a product of our time, that we were successful in a certain period of time because that’s the way the time was – everyone in tight jeans getting a record deal. Fuck that, we’ve always thought we were more than that. We want to be a band that exists and makes a series of records, and maybe makes mistakes but also pushes themselves and does different things.”
I wonder how the band measures their successes, and ask how much importance they place on chart position. Tom responds diplomatically, but with an element of firm reserve. “Important is the wrong word, but it would be ace to have a Number 1 record. Important is doing the record that we love and going out and playing it to people”. Russ agrees: “It’s more important to keep our fanbase. Obviously some people aren’t going to like our record and that’s fine. I think the majority of our fans discovered us for themselves, and if they liked the depth and beauty of the first record, then they should like this one”.
We’ve spent enough time contemplating the reception of their new material, so we steer the conversation to retrospection. What do the guys see as their biggest achievement so far? “Three nights at Brixton Academy was pretty bonkers,” states Tom, still in a state of disbelief. “We didn’t expect to get there from the first record. And I’m still very proud by our Mercury nomination.” He turns to Russ for confirmation – “Yeah?”
We like music that has a pulse – that makes you want to move, as well as move you.
“Yeah. Also just how lots of people discovered the band. I’m glad that our music gets played on the radio against other pop stuff – I think we’re as far left from the mainstream as we can be, for the type of band that we are”. It is interesting to see which bands end up nestled between Mika and Sugababes on Local Cheesy FM, as such exposure to the pop domain tends to be a double-edged sword for a band who wishes to retain credibility, slippery term though it is. Ross asserts proudly, “‘Smokers’ is going through the [insert London-based mainstream radio station name here] net, and that’s the first time we’ve had that”. “And with a song called ‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors’!” Tom chips in gleefully. Russ is keen to avoid musical snobbery, firmly stating, “You can’t be elitist about who your fans are, like ‘we don’t want that sort of people coming to our gigs’ – that’s bollocks. Hopefully the listeners get what we’re about, and it’s not just that we’re played on that radio station hence they should like us.”
So could they name the moment when they felt that they’d hit the big time? “It was really gradual, but maybe May/June last year, when we were doing the festivals and we were high up on bills. 30,000 people watching us as the sun goes down at V – and we’ve got fucking huge lights! That’s like rock ‘n’ roll dream stuff! When you plan your own light show you know you’re getting to be a big band.” A few weeks later, when I watch them at London’s Roundhouse, I spy impressive lights, and I smile at the memory of this conversation.
When Editors perform live, they rely on strong musicianship and stellar songs. There’s no need for excessive witty banter or wacky costumes – just big lights – and the result is an impressive, organic show. After the extensive touring of ‘The Back Room’, they must have strange stories from their travels. “Obviously Japan’s quite alien,” tells Russ, “but other things, like people getting lyrics tattooed, that’s always a bit freaky.” What lyrics? ‘Keep with me’ from ‘Fingers In The Factories’ is one, as is ‘Munich’s line, “people are fragile things”, seen by Editors on the neck of “this big, ex-Chelsea football hooligan”, recounts Tom, following the tale with his favourite phrase, “that’s pretty bonkers”.
So if they weren’t writing music that people wanted to ink onto their body, what would they be doing? I ask them to imagine a career without music. Russ promptly decides “I’d be a surfer”. Tom bursts into laughter as Russ continues: “I’d go live by the sea. Well, I am a Pisces.”
Tom can’t trump that – he’s a Taurus, and neither farmer nor bullfighter appeal – so I ask him if he knows any other Tom Smiths, as I went to school with one. It transpires that he did too. Seeing as we’re comparing them, I admit that my pal is plain old Tom Smith, no Thomas, no middle names – what about him? “Well my parents, because I was a Smith, wanted to separate me even more by giving me two middle names, but no, I haven’t met any more Tom Smiths.” That’s that settled then.
The guys have an afternoon of press chats, radio phone-ins and photo-shoots ahead of them. With time for one more question, I opt for something that would have been more appropriate at the start – what are they sick of being asked in an interview? Tom sets the scene: “I did a 2-week tour of Europe, 8 hours a day of interviews. That got quite hard-going. ‘So, this record’s about death…’ it was pretty draining”. He continues with a particular bugbear. “What journalists do is go ‘everyone compares you to Interpol, you must be so sick of it, but how do you feel about that?’ They kind of reverse it, but still asking the same question: “I know it must annoy you, but…” well don’t ask the question then! Don’t talk about it!”
With that, Tom and Russ rejoin bandmates Chris and Ed at the hotel bar and discuss where to go for lunch. None of them seem fazed by the imminent hype and success, and hopefully it’ll be some time – if at all – before they become jaded musicians. Let’s just hope interviewers stop asking them about death. Or Interpol.
