Scottish indie rock band Travis is back with a vengeance. With an American tour set to begin next week in San Francisco, the pop group is marking the 20th anniversary of their multiplatinum album "The Invisible Band." "To support the reissue," frontman Fran Healey observed, "we are bringing it all back home—well, home to where the album was recorded with a tour of the U.S."
Remastered in a new edition with a host of unreleased demos, live recordings, and outtakes, "The Invisible Band" has never sounded better. Completed back in 2001 at LA's Ocean Way studios with Nigel Godrich at the helm and Grammy-winning engineer Emily Lazar, "The Invisible Band" makes for an unforgettable musical journey that has only grown richer in the ensuing years since its original release.
In an interview this week for an upcoming episode of Salon's "Everything Fab Four" podcast, bass player Dougie Payne shared the joy of revisiting the album, which Travis will be performing in its entirety during their upcoming shows. For Payne, playing the LP live has made for "a really great 45 minutes of light and shade and group dynamics. In my mind, I'm back at Ocean Way studios in LA, and I just lose myself in the moment."
Payne has been especially surprised by the group's rediscovery of the softer, more profound moments that live at the heart of "The Invisible Band." The band has been particularly pleased with "how well the really delicate and quiet songs have come to life on stage. Songs like 'Dear Diary' and 'The Cage'—they're very fragile little things" that have been captivating audiences on the band's latest tour.
"It just seemed like such a good marriage between the show and the song."
And Payne is well aware that when Travis hits the road next week they'll be joined by a host of new listeners thanks to the American version of the hit TV show "The Office." In a season two episode of the show, officemates — and "will they, won't they?" would-be lovers — Jim and Pam (John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer) listen to "Sing" on an iPod. It's a stolen moment that sent hearts a-swooning to Travis's lead single from "The Invisible Band."
Watch the "Sing" video:
"It was such a powerful and lovely emotional moment," Payne remarks. "It just seemed like such a good marriage between the show and the song. Instances like this are real magic, you know?" In this way, he admits, "music acts like a time machine that exists outside of time. It doesn't matter how you get a hold of it or how it finds you—only that it does."
For Travis, the synergy between "Sing" and "The Office," one of the most successful syndicated TV shows of all time, has resulted in their music being discovered by new generations of listeners. And as lucky concertgoers will discover next week at the Fillmore in San Francisco, "Sing" is the beating heart that sets "The Invisible Band" into motion.
