Travis: 2024

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

The latest album from Travis, L.A. Times, arrives 25 years after the release of The Man Who, the Scottish band's breakthrough second album. The Man Who was a massive hit for Travis, vaulting its four members into stratospheric fame and the pressure that accompanies it — attention that they didn't necessarily desire. Since the late '90s, frontman Fran Healy, bassist Dougie Payne, guitarist Andy Dunlop and drummer Neil Primrose have released an additional eight studio albums, including L.A. Times.

Like the City of Angels, L.A. Times has a prickly edge and eclecticism ... but there's an undertow of darkness rippling through Healy's lyrics and a husky, wistful tone to his sweet tenor.  Travis has always upended expectations of who and what they are as a band, and that's evident on this new album, produced by Tony Hoffer (Phoenix, Belle and Sebastian, Beck) as it vacillates between tender contemplation, caustic wit, and even Healy's blunt spoken word, a roiling Glaswegian rap, on the album's title track.

For FUV Live, Healy played a solo session of two songs from L.A. Times — "Bus" and "Naked in New York City" — and the vintage "Sing," from The Invisible Band.

Healy is loquacious in the best possible way: he's a generous spinner of tales, adroit with colorful metaphors. In our conversation, he veered in many directions which sparked tangents: his love/hate relationship with Los Angeles; the years swirling around The Man Who; and songs born in dreams. He spoke honestly about how he found his way through the past five years, a personally challenging time. And a brief mention of '60s pop star Sandie Shaw even got Healy singing a snippet of a cappella Bacharach/David.

Healy is seriously contemplating an escape from Los Angeles and becoming a New Yorker in the near future, especially since his son will be attending college in the city. "I think New York is the absolute melting pot," says Healy. "That's why New Yorkers are some of the coolest people you'll ever meet."

[Recorded 8/1/24; Engineered by Jim O'Hara with Erin Merriman; produced by Megan Offtermatt; videographers: Louisa Schramm, Olivia Iannaccone, Alena Godas, and Therese Burgo.]