Sometimes it feels like you’ve waited forever for a show to come around, and the first full band show from The Travis Waltons is definitely one of them. Despite their debut album, Your Neck Is Bleeding, coming out at the tail end of 2011, the band have spent a lot of time writing and recording their follow up album and touring hasn’t really happened.
My wait for a show like this goes back even further though, having wanted to see a full band show since back when some of the songs were performed by Dan’s solo project. It probably doesn’t hurt that the live lineup is completed by members of another favourite band of mine, Tellison. With a tonne of new songs to add to a fairly great back catalogue, if you’re into your fairly emotional guitar music this set will be truly unmissable, as well as providing an opportunity to get an early peak at the new material.
The lineup also contains Low Flower who, based on their Soundcloud have some pretty strong sounding guitars and emotional vocals which take me back to a classic 90s emo sound, not too far sounding in places from bands like American Football, although they do show a louder fuzzier sound in ‘Kill It Good’ which has a bit of a Stapleton vibe to it. Left Leg are also on the bill, a band who seemingly utilise odd timed guitars, raw vocals and have recently become four piece. Their art-rock sound will no doubt be a bit of contrast on the rest of the bill based on what I’ve been able to listen to beforehand. There’s apparently more to be announced too, and a BBQ, so even food is covered. Can’t say fairer than that!
What with it being their first full band gig, and with the new album not far away, Dan and Rob from The Travis Waltons agreed to chat with us for a bit about the new lineup, recording with some ridiculous guests and touring:
7Bit: The new album takes on a new band lineup I believe? How did the two of you come about working together?
Dan: Me and Rob met at an open mic night in Cambridge and have talked about doing a band pretty much once a week ever since. One night I asked my number one musical hero, Paul Gonzenbach (from the Jim Yoshii Pile-Up), if he wanted to work on a song together and, when he said yes I was like ‘oh my god Rob, Paul wants to do a song together!’ and then Rob said ‘I’ll ask Matt Pryor (from The Get Up Kids) if he wants to do something’ and it all sort of went from there.
7Bit: Rob, I must admit I’m not familiar with your musical background, what bands/projects have you been involved in previously?
Rob: Less than nothing. Well, back in 2006 I did a little Postal Service-esque EP with Andrew Futral (Field Mouse, Age of Rockets, Arranges for MC Chris) out in NY, but otherwise absolutely zilch. I met Dan eight years ago and we spent that entire time threatening to be in a band with each other until it finally coming to fruition last winter.
7Bit: You’ve managed to get a few incredible guests on the album, who ended up visiting the studio in the end, and how did you get such big names involved?
Rob: Well the record kicked off with Dan saying he had asked Paul Gonzenbach to get involved and there’d been a positive response. It snowballed from there – we started putting together a wish list of voices we loved.
We wanted to do something a little different to the usual cameo appearances, so on a fair few of the tracks those guests actually take the lead vocal. It gave us more room with the sound, allowed us to write with other voices in mind. It’s pretty liberating, and it still feels like Dan and I behind it, which is a good balance.
Just to add: Charlie Simpson, Paul and Matt didn’t even know who we were before we first got in touch. They actually just read our pleading email, listened to the song we’d written with them in mind, and said yes. It just shows that the signed-act scene is willing to help those coming up, more than most might assume.
Dan: We recorded with Jamie Lenman (Reuben) and Stephen (Tellison) in London, with Reuben Humphries (Captain/Charlie Simpson) and Chad Young (Right Turn Clyde/Esqueleto) in Cambridge where we did everything else.
7Bit: How did recording compare to the last record?
Dan: For a start we went in with way less of an idea of how a song was going to go – we did most or all of the song structures the night before we recorded drums. It was great doing all the basic stuff and then having Rob add a load of things on top though – it’s given it kind of a different feel, I think. There’s a lot more piano on this record for sure.
7Bit: There’s been no tour since the release of Your Neck Is Bleeding, and you’ve built up quite a fan base in that time. Will you be heading out on a full tour to support this release?
Dan: I mean obviously we would love to be able to tour, but being in a band is so super expensive and it’s super tough getting time off from real-life jobs and stuff. It would be great to make it happen though, we’re really psyched to play live. We used all our holiday and spent all our money on recording the album, but we’ll save up. Touring really is the best.
7Bit: The new live lineup features a few familliar faces from the band Tellison – who’s playing what in the band, and how are you guys finding it playing the songs with the larger band?
Rob: Stephen is on bass – he’s not played bass in a band before so he’ll be enjoying himself I think. Then Pete and Ric (Tellison live band/One Toy Soldier) are on guitars.
So there’s those guys, plus myself on keys, Ed on drums and Dan taking lead vocals and playing guitar. Turns out three guitars, a bass and a synth makes for a really, really loud sound. It’s going to bring a shit load of depth to Dan’s older tracks, and it means we can pull off the new stuff as it’s intended.
Dan: It’s three guitars mostly just playing the same thing but it sounds so great.
7Bit: Do you have much more to do in producing the album?
Rob: There’s a vocal left to mop up, otherwise it’s just mixing and mastering now. It’ll be pretty quick.
7Bit: Is there a label release planned for this one, or will you be doing it yourself?
Rob: Hah. You tell us. In winter we were just two guys trying to do a great record together before we turned 30. Now it has all this potential and we’re figuring out what to do as we go. Feels good!
7Bit: This London show is the first with the new lineup, what can people expect to hear from you?
Dan: I’m not trying to jinx it but I think it’s sounding really great. Just bigger versions of the old stuff and big new stuff. Hopefully some crowdsurfing and shredding at the same time, that’s always been my dream. See what happens I guess, I hope people turn up.
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