The Travelling Band (Interview)

by Andrew Jackson on 5.11.08

We met the travelling band at Manchester’s ‘Deaf Institute’ as they were preparing for the local club night, Sideways Saloon, hosted by their own record label of the same name. Formed out of a collective of north-west musicians the travelling band offer a blend of cosmic-country-folk-pop that is a far move away from the conceived idea of Manchester’s rich musical lineage. As manager Dave Smith explains, “The Travelling Band represent a Manchester that’s more West Virginia than Withington”.

The Travelling Band are winners of this year’s, Glastonbury new talent 2008 where they impressed a panel of judges including Glastonbury’s Michael and Emily Eavis, Q Editor Paul Rees and Radio One’s Huw Stephens to claim themselves the slot of opening the other stage at the festival.

With an upcoming single and album soon to be released, the winners of Glastonbury new talent 2008 and their own club night, this folk-country band are fast becoming one of the most talked about artists to emerge from the Manchester music scene in many a year.

How the 4Q you doing?
We are great thanks, how are you?

You have been together for about two years now, can I ask how you all met and how The Travelling Band started.
The Travelling Band started as a combination from a few different bands. We all knew each other from jamming at parties and in people’s living rooms around Manchester. We all respected each other’s music and thought we worked well together. It wasn’t until Steve met someone in Brazil, who invited him over to New York to record, that we realised if we put our heads together and our music we could come up with something really good.

So you went over to record in New York, was that the first time the travelling band came together?
Yeah we got together as a recording project and in New York was the first time we all played together. Adam, Jo and Steve had some great songs written and they could play and sing really well. We tried to put the best bits from each band into this project. We had a lot more we could have played but we wanted to use the cream of the crop for our first album.

Your debut album, Under The Pavement, comes out on the 10th November. Can you tell us a little about it?
The album consists of 11 tracks which were all recorded in New York City. We were really pleased to have Eric (Roscoe) Amble and Tim Hatfield to produce it. They’ve worked on many great albums by the likes of Steve Earle, Ryan Adams and Tim Hatfield.

How long did it take to put the album together?
Well we made the first trip to New York 2 years ago. The second trip was 6-8 months later and our final trip over there was 6 months after that. We feel that we have now reached the point where we are pleased with the finished piece and can put it out there. It was hard working on it full time because we still wanted to play live over here in Manchester. I like that we have been able to play some of the music off the album at gigs and at festivals in the U.K.
What can we expect from your debut album?
We don’t try to achieve a certain style; it has evolved from each other’s different contributions. It’s safe to say that we are a folk-country band and a lot compare us to the early 60’s, 70’s Americano scene. We wouldn’t like to fit solely in this bracket and it maybe that people find it easy to put us here. If you listen to the album there are a lot of crunk-pop melodies and harmonies but also a sense of psycedelia that lingers in the background

Has this style helped you get noticed more?
What we are doing is a lot fresher than the same old orange juice every morning, so to speak. We are not trying to fit into anything in particular, as with our Americano image, and we don’t worry about what other people are doing. There are so many who write music and so much access to it nowadays that we think there is a place for everyone to find who they like. Some people will like us as much as others who like different styles. We barely have time to rehearse than to worry who we may be up against.

Well it helped you get noticed at Glastonbury, how was the festival scene this year?
Yeah it was really good. We did an acoustic set on the other stage at Glastonbury. We did six gigs in total at Glastonbury and won the new talent award, which led us to play on the other stage. We also got a chance to play at the Equinox festival with bands such as the Ting Tings and Franz Ferdinand. Michael Eavis liked us so much that he let us stay on his farm. It was pretty cool, we got to feed his chickens and milk his cows.

Have you done many gigs outside the festivals season?
Since April/may we’ve done nonstop touring. We’ve played around 130 venues already this year. We’ve been playing all over the U.K but also held our own night called sideways saloon, which is also our record label. Adam started sideways saloon as more of a family thing giving us a chance to play with friends and bands we like. We’ve actually just re-launched it here at the Deaf Institute playing one night a month.

Where would you like to be in a year’s time?
Barbados (Laughs), or Cleveland. We would really like to start our next album and possibly do two if we have the time. We would need to find the right place to get it written and produced. At the moment we still have to concentrate on the first album, and balance the band with getting money to feed ourselves. It’s not straight forward at the moment. A new album sounds good in the future and we hope a first one is a success.