Anything but Idle
In the depths of London’s west end, Chris Spillane has a drink with Scottish Indie rockers, Idlewild, to discuss the band’s flirtations with the charts, student lifestyle, and the Big Apple
The recent crop of chart hits and pop success can be catogerized into one of three musical infections (barring the crazy frog whose creator should be extradited for hate crimes against humanity). The first of these is a seasonal problem known as Rip-offs Maximus: Whereby victims strap on their Fender Telecasters and play angular riffs until another trend sets in. Acquired Overproduced Pop syndrome is second in the deadly trio of infections: sufferers are subjected to a change in lifestyle, which requires them to collaborate with Guy Chambers (of Robbie Williams fame) and write songs about the pressures of fame. The third and most serious is commonly known as Torchsongitis: this plagues victims an overbearing sense of sentimentality, usually with a string quartet harping along in the background. Symptoms include looking tearfully into the camera while yet another girl walks out of your life and adds a few million to your bank balance in album sales.
The music industry is a fickle business. Some artists, like James Blunt can rise from obscurity and embrace the spotlight effortlessly. Whereas others can tour for years, putting their hearts and souls into their profession with little or no commercial success. Hopefully in the growing world of music downloads and MP3’s the talents of harder working, possibly more deserving acts will be recognised.
Please welcome on stage Caledonian folk-rock outfit, Idlewild. Front man Roddy Woomble, lead guitarist Rod Jones and drummer Colin Newton met on a window sill during a party in their halls at Edinburgh University in 1995 where Roddy was studying Photography. Within hours of meeting each other they decided to start a band from their collective appreciation of REM, Sonic Youth and Bob Dylan records. One E.P, four albums and a few hit singles later Idlewild are headlining one of several Grolsch Summerset gigs at the opulent outdoor venue Somerset House, London.
Backstage at Somerset House is just as impressive as the architecture surrounding it. Whilst following the tour manager to Idlewild’s dressing room, a slim and softly spoken man appears with a toothbrush and toothpaste in hand, mumbling something about his teeth. He walks off for a few minutes: baffled, the tour manager walks off as well and I’m left in the dressing room with Rod and Colin. Colin recently became a father and is in high spirits “Roddy’s brushing his teeth, it must be a big interview! Are you ready to hear all about his philosophies and thoughts on life? Where you from?” “York Uni.” I reply, “Ah well, you’re in the wrong business, you want a beer?” as he points to bands rider. I oblige by taking the biggest bottle of Grolsch on offer and talk about drumming until Roddy returns. On Roddy’s return, personal hygiene restored, we take a seat by a window overlooking the Thames and in his rich Scottish accent, he opens the conversion “Chris, can you confirm, are they flies flying over there or am I seeing dots?”
Slightly to the left of the mainstream with skirmishes on the charts with singles Modern Way of Letting Go and American English, Idlewild have been moving slowly, but surely into one of Britain’s most accomplished bands. Idlewild seem eager to leave their roots, in particular Roddy who appears to be defensive when talking about their previous records “We’re interested in different kinds of music now, we’re not interested in the punk rock as we did that as well as we could do and I’d think it be really boring if we did the same thing over and over again.” Hearing this may be a disappointment to those who are fans of Idlewild’s earlier records, including the quintessential 100 Broken Windows, yet the newer albums still contain the Idlewild of yore.
“We always reference our past records, there are moments which harp back to what came before and that will probably continue on the next record.” Confidence is high in the Idlewild camp as he talks about his aspirations on their next record: “We can really do anything now, we can make a really folky record or a really rocky record.”
Roddy claims he doesn’t ‘pay attention’ to the rise of bands such as Razorlight and Kaiser Chiefs, dismissing them for bands he does like. “Malcolm Middleton’s record is great and lot of American stuff like The Arcade Fire, but as far as Razorlight is concerned (hesitates) I like the Bloc Party record.” Surprisingly Roddy is a fan of stoner rock especially AC/DC and the earlier Queens of the Stone Age records, which from listening to Warnings/Promises isn’t clear, yet it’s a topic he talks of at great length “Collectively we didn’t want to play music like that, but we are capable of it…We do a lot of covers and jamming in our practice space.”
“At the time last year when we were writing and recording the record, what we were interested in was kinda like vocal harmonies and a rootsy sound with acoustic guitars and that’s just what Warnings/Promises is about. It was a year of our life and that’s the kinda sounds we wanted to make…It‘s not pigeon holed as the sound we will always make, but that‘s what a band is, they go through stages.”
Roddy’s folk roots were something that he tried to deny growing up as can be seen on Hope is Important and 100 Broken Windows, yet on the last two records Idlewild have moved and matured into a band not dissimilar to REM. Their sound has become more rounded, more harmonious, maybe more suited for the stadium environment that they’ve recently been subjected to on recent tours with REM, U2 and Coldplay.
It would be easy to assume that Idlewild have compromised their sound for popularity, however Roddy coolly denies these accusations: “We certainly don’t sit around tables thinking ‘lets get this [record] as radio-friendly as possible’…Obviously because the vocals are very clear and there’s lots of harmonies, it does sound whatever you want to call it, radio friendly.”
“We write the songs and we put them out on records and we can’t control anything beyond that, but some songs become what they mean to people. We just hope that they’ve made a connection.” says Roddy. “Our songs are about things, but they’re not pseudo-intellectual or anything, they are rock songs.”
Are they autobiographical? “Anything you do is going to be autobiographical, your interview will be autobiographical as you will put some of yourself into it. So, of course they are pretty self-intimate, but not about specific people. They are more kind of ideas about things rather than like ‘she was my girlfriend, she was a bitch!’ I’ve never really been interested in that kind of stuff…It’s more suggestions about things I’ve thought that people can take onboard or ignore.”
The subtleties that lie within the band’s lyrics could prove to be a stumbling block in their popularity as I discovered when talking about potential single Not just sometimes, but always “It’s a song about the life cycle” stresses Roddy rather ambiguously.
Roddy dropped out in the second year of his Photography course due to Idlewild’s hectic tour schedule “I was happy to drop out to be honest…I didn’t like being a student, I found it really like school. It was really depressing, it was like the guys at school who had gone and left home for the first time, they thought it was hilarious to puke in the sink.”
“Luckily my course was full of a lot of older people and foreign students, which was quite interesting.” He continues at length, identifying the problems he faced at university, “I’ve never really been a student-pub kind of guy, even when I was there I was thinking I don’t like this, there’s something about this I don’t like.” I suggest that this is part of growing up, causing Roddy to act and respond nervously “Yeah, well, erm, I think that is a generalisation because you can choose not to be part of that. I’m not saying I criticise people who do that, far from it and when you ask me about student life, I have to say I couldn’t wait to get away from it.”
After mixing Warnings/Promisesin New York Roddy moved there for eight months: “It’s just a great place, it’s unlike any city in the world. It brings you to life…The thing about New York is that it has elements of London in it, in it‘s own fashion, it‘s nicer to look at for a start, architecturally and the way it looks especially the Lower East side where I lived… It sounds stupid me trying to explain it but it’s one of these places you do need to go sometime in your life.”
“Everyone in New York is in a band. The area I lived in, everyone is an artist or a writer, a painter or works in the media. It’s one of these places that’s quite cool to live in for a while because you’re constantly surrounded by creative people, but it can get a bit much as most of my friends in Scotland are school teachers or social workers.” laughs Roddy as he describes the environment of New York.
“I’ve been to a few parties certainly where I’ve walked into and thought ‘I’m getting out of here’ because they’re not the kind of people I want to be surrounded by.”
Towards the end of the interview we talk about Live8 and Idlewild’s absence from this event “We are one of these bands that exist on our own and we move at our own pace in our own world. All these new bands that are getting asked to do it are more on the radar and we’re not on the radar.”
Roddy wasn’t one of the three billion people believed to have watched Live8 as he doesn’t own or watch TV. Surprised by this admission, conversation swiftly moves on and we discuss the merits of the music both on and off the radar with bands such as Wilco, Teenage Fanclub and Smog getting the Roddy Woomble seal of approval, but to add a hint of mystery he adds “There’s loads of good stuff.”
Nonetheless more mainstream talents are met with a slight aversion and confusion by Roddy, as discovered when Allan Stewart (Guitar) and Gavin Fox (Bass) went to see Green Day “I can’t offer an opinion because I’ve only heard that single that sounds like Nickleback!” Looking confused he starts to sing Boulevard of Broken Dreams to the tune of Wake Me Up When September Ends “It’s an okay modern rock song but it’s not that interesting.”
An hour later Idlewild have made their way onto the stage and play a storming set, effortlessly mixing old material with new, thus elating just about everyone filling up Somerset House. It seems Idlewild have found their niche and will continue to develop into one of the most respected bands around, maybe even knock Travis off the top of the Scottish music podium. Where Warnings/Promises has been their Out Of Time, the next release could be their leap to the big time in the mould of their very own Automatic for the People.
Hope is Important (1998)
Idlewild’s first album proper, after the chaotic EP Captain, shows pop-savvy with several catchy singles forming the backbone of the album. At only 35 minutes, every single song is fused with contagious energy and the album is laced with a raw punk sound that can be extremely infectious. It’s not a perfect album, not by a long way, but listening to it can convert you into a fan easily. Don’t worry if you don’t like it that much – rumour has it Roddy Woomble would agree with you. He’s the frontman – he probably knows.
The Remote Part (2002)Hugely successful 3rd album that introduced Idlewild to the world. It set up camp in the Top 10 and registered high up on the ‘Best Of The Year’ lists. With radio-friendly fare like the pounding World In Your Arms leading the way, The Remote Part quickly became a favourite of the indie generation and managed to create Losing My Religion-style empathy with the masterpiece American English. Combining forces with Scottish poet Edwin Morgan doesn’t hurt, either. Basically, a classic album that should’ve taken the lads to the stadiums.
Warnings/Promises (2005)
A step away from the mainstream and further refinement of the Idlewild sound, embracing folk-rock roots and dispensing with the shouty-shouty sound ever-present in Hope-era songs. Mandolins fall from the sky and there is a central theme of distance. The stand-out singles dominating The Remote Part have gone. The songs really complement each other here. Well, except I Want A Warning. However, melodic offerings like I Understand It again make you wonder why Idlewild aren’t as big as they should be.
