Since releasing their
first single "Bullets,"--which sold out in a day--Birmingham-based indie rock
band Editors have had the British press raving. Their album The Back
Room has been praised as
"a stunning debut" (MOJO) and "an extraordinary piece of
music" (NME). Lead singer Tom Smith spoke with Ticketmaster while the
band was in L.A.
in January performing a handful of intimate shows. The band will return to the
U.S. in March for a more
extensive tour starting at Austin's South by Southwest music festival.
TICKETMASTER: I
hear you met in a Music Technology class. Did you initally want to become sound
engineers?
TOM
SMITH: Yeah, kind of...I don't even know what we were thinking (laughs)...You get to
that point when you finish college and you're not really sure what to do with
your life and obviously we're massive music fans and in our heads somewhere we
wanted to be performers and be in a band, but we hadn't met the right people, so
going to university obviously increases your chance of meet like-minded people.
Maybe somewhere in our heads we knew that we wanted to work in studios but we
were all terrible at it and, you know, it was so technology based that it was
kind of for--for the want of a better word--geeks, do you know what I mean?
(laughs) 'Cause those are the kind of people who are good at that type of thing.
We became friends very quickly and some of us did well and some of us didn't,
but our music grew out of our friendship.
TM: Very early on, you generated a lot of industry
buzz and were courted by
several labels.
Why did you eventually decide to go with Kitchenware, an independent
label?
TS:
I'm not gonna lie and say we had millions of pounds on the table from other
labels--we did have offers from major labels but it was a pretty easy decision
to make when we met Keith, the guy who runs Kitchenware. He was just so
passionate about our music and so in tune with what we wanted to do...You had
bands like Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party at the time on independent labels but
still making music that was crossing over--it really wasn't hindering them. And
with Kitchenware, there's a history to the label that we learned about after we'd met Keith and made the
decision. It's nice to be a part of the resurgence of the label.
TM: What is the label's
history?
TS:
They were big in the '80s--they had a number of guitar bands. Prefab Sprout was
probably the biggest one. When we finished University we thought about moving to
London, but we
didn't...We're very proud to be where we are and we're very happy to be working
with the people around us.
TM: Describe the Birmingham music scene. I understand that it's
the birthplace of heavy metal Judas Priest, Black Sabbath & Led Zeppelin
have their roots there .
Does there seem
to be a reigning genre there today?
TS:
UB40, Black Sabbath, Duran Duran--you know these bands, the famous ones that
have come out of Birmingham--they all sound pretty different.
It's never been like what a Manchester was or the Northeast now is, or had
one kind of thread...It's like any big town, you know. People kind of look down
their noses at Birmingham as a place and its
musical heritage...but it sheltered us and it looked after us and even though none
of us individually are from Birmingham, I don't
mind people thinking of us as a Birmingham band. So I hope we're doing the
place proud.
TM: You changed your name from Snowfield to the
Editors. What prompted the name change and where did the name come
from?
TS: We didn't like the name Snowfield, really. It conjured up
the wrong imagery for what we're about. We loved the way the word (Editors)
looks. We're actually just called Editors, there's no "the." It's an easy
mistake to make, so we don't get upset when people call us that. But it's a
stamp, you know, band's names. Oasis or Elbow--you don't think of the literal
meaning of the word when you say them, and if you give a word a meaning or a new meaning, after a period of time it
takes on what you've given it. And Editors was one of those words that we
thought looked great and it didn't need the "the" because why use two words when
you can use one? ...People have said, "oh, you changed your name because of Snow
Patrol" when that's (false).
TM: So who are your musical influences?
TS: When we started listening to music together
and forming ideas for the band, there were two records in particular we bonded
over--the first Strokes record and the first Elbow record. Elbow are an amazing
band.
TM: They are. And they're virtually unknown in the
U.S.
TS: Right, it's a
shame. It's criminal, to be honest...I
think somewhere between those two bands is what we're trying to do. Personally,
the thing that got me wanting to be in a band in the first place when I was 13
was when Definitely, Maybe came out
and the Brit-pop thing exploded in the U.K. But I quickly moved onto things
like Radiohead and I discovered R.E.M. and their entire back catalog. Murmur and Reckoning, their first two records, are
my favorite ever albums now. We like
to react to everything, new and old.
TM: Your music is constantly being compared to Joy
Division as well as your voice to the late Ian Curtis. Do you find this
tiresome?
TS:
In the U.K. it's kind of gone away now. I
understand when you're a new band and describing new music, it's very hard not
to mention other bands. Of course, I see similarities in what we do with some
bands, but we've never had any pretenses with what we do. We've never made any
decisions about our music thinking about any period of time or any kind of
scene. We try to make passionate, exciting guitar music. We do it in a dark vein
because we're not equipped to play happy songs (laughs). But as bleak as the
music may sound on first listen, I think that there's a lot of hope and
romanticism in the lyrics as well...And we're too young to be influenced by Joy
Division.
TM: Have you noticed any differences between
U.S. and U.K.
audiences?
TS: In the U.K. we're considered to be a fairly
big-ish band of the new bands now. Here, we're an unknown entity. People said
that the L.A.
audience would be quiet and a bit stand-offish, but they weren't. Everyone is
very friendly over here and I'm surprised at the amount of people who know the
words to a lot of the songs, which is great. The internet is a very powerful
thing at the moment and it's brilliant...So even though our record is not even out
here (U.S. release is in April 2006), there
are some people who are fans, which is amazing for us because it was very
unexpected. But yeah there is a difference now because in the U.K., our album's
been out for a while and we have--well I wouldn't say an army of fans--but we have a number of
fans who sing every word back at me very passionately.
TM: In a recent
interview we did with We Are Scientists, Keith (the lead singer) cited the
Editors as one of his favorite live bands. What bands do you think put on an
amazing show and why?
TS:
We are Scientists (laughs) for their constant amusement and incredibly catchy
pop tunes. They're an amazing band, we had a lot of fun touring with them this
year. They are intelligent jokers and cleverer than they make on. I saw Arcade
Fire this year which is another level of music performance and you think, "we
might as well stop" when you see a band like that. Or we'll try to catch them up--that's
what we'll try to do!
