2015 has been a revelatory time for Idlewild - putting out an album on our own label and it being so well received - the tour selling out, and getting to visit Japan & America again after all this time. Like I say, there is a new feeling about what we can do and where we can go - I mean, we’re realists so we’re not aiming for number 1, but artistically, to quote David Metzler - ‘it is creation, and being creation, it is new every time’.
Day 1 - Sunday October 18th - Edinburgh - Chicago
It’s only just over a week since we returned from Japan - my jet lag is barely under control, and we’re meeting at the airport again for another long haul flight. We’ve not done this sort of travelling for 10 years at least. This year has been pretty amazing in that respect. I’m not moaning. I’m excited.
In between these trips we played a sold out concert in Paisley Abbey with the Royal National Scottish orchestra. Playing with a 60 piece orchestra in an 11th century abbey is not the usual sort of event that we cram in. Needless to say it went by a bit of a blur and I’m sure it’s significance will develop with time. I’ve been told it went well.
Anyway - another long haul flight - although I must say, after the Japan trip (14 hours of flying) 8 hours to Chicago doesn’t seem too bad. Normally on planes I try to read and twitch nervously for the duration - this time for some reason I am much more relaxed - I drink a few beers and watch a few terrible films, which is what everyone else seems to do on an aeroplane. Curiously, I also watch another film through the gap in the seats in front of me. Of course there is no sound, but it doesn’t matter. I enjoy it more than the films I chose.
We are doing this short trip back to basics, just the band - no sound man, tour manager or equipment (other than our guitars and pedals) - we are using the support bands. To be honest I had my doubts whether Idlewild would ever play in America again - we haven’t been out here in ten years and our last three albums haven’t had a US release. from 200-2005 we had a bit of a run I guess - we toured frequently had a record label (Capitol) who issued our records and put a bit of money behind us (which is what it is all about really, no more so than in America) - we had a bit of success on college radio, made some fans and ended up with a sizeable cult audience, particularly on the coasts.
When our deal with EMI ended in 2005 that was the end of our American deal too, and since then we have never been back. It is difficult to sustain anything in America if you’re coming over from Scotland without a record label or support. Visas, flights, van hire etc - you’re in debt before you’ve started - the country is so vast & varied too, you can be popular in one city, drive 12 hours to the next one and play to ten people. It is no wonder why American bands find relatively easy in the UK - a country full of eager music fans and no drive is more than a few hours.
Never the less, a lot of folk have remained interested in our music. Buying the albums on import and being vocal on social media about getting us back over to play. We have done literally no press for this tour. In many ways, is remarkable how it’s happening at all, but tickets have sold well considering, and our new American booking agent Mike, is a big fan of the group and views this short tour as the start of something new.
Taxi into Chicago - to be back in America feels familiar & weird. I worked out on the plane that combining all the Idlewild tours, and including all the time i spent living here (as a teenager in South Carolina, as an adult in New York) - that I have spent 6 years of my life in the US and have visited (or at least driven through) every single state except Alaska. I feel like i know the place, and yet don’t know it at all - and maybe that’s whats great about it.
The hotel - the city suites on Belmont avenue - again deja vu - we have stayed here lots of times before - even the smell of the room is familiar. I phone my wife to tell her we’ve arrived - she recalls a panic attack she once had in this hotel during a gruelling three month American
tour she was on with her band. Our room faces onto a brick wall. I’ve just arrived but can sympathise.
We all head out and do that thing where we walk down a street and no one can decide where to go, so we walk back to where we started and just go to the bar across the street from the hotel. It is a sports bar and the baseball is on all the TV’s. Chicago cubs against the New York Mets - the world series. A big deal judging by some of the dudes getting worked up around us. I don’t know much about baseball, or sports in general. but I like the outfits and the associated language -
‘a big hitter’ ‘in the ballpark’ ‘covering all the bases’ etc.. When i was at American high school I remember how passionate some folk were about it. So I keep any cynicism quiet and actually start to get involved in the game. Of course several glasses of delicious Goose Island IPA help with that.
Day 2 - Monday 19th October - Chicago
Wake up. It’s early. Jet lag. Stay in bed until I know the diner next door will be open and then get up and go to it. Diners are one of my favourite things about America - I know I am guilty of romanticising them - imagining all the everyday human dramas that go on over scrambled eggs; all the lonely cups of coffee drunk it booths.
Our first visit to Chicago was back in 1999, where we spent a week in Electrical audio, the studio owned by Steve Albini, recording five songs for our album ‘100 broken windows’ with Bob Weston. Bob had recorded many underground rock records that we had pored over - record by Rodan, June of 44, Rachels amongst many others. At the time we were all very into that sounds and aesthetic and recording with Bob was a pleasure. He was a great host too - he picked us up from the airport in his transit van, took us to the studio (where we were staying) then out for a meal to his favourite restaurant and then onto see Cheap Trick at the Riviera theatre. We also spent a good bit of time that week watching bands at the Lounge Ax, the sadly defunct indie rock hang out/venue - we saw At the Drive in, who blew all our minds. It was a eventful, unforgettable week, and the songs we recorded weren’t bad either.
On subsequent US tours (2001/02/03/05) we always visited Chicago, playing at the Lounge Ax, the double door (3 times), and finally the metro. We also opened for Pearl jam at the united centre. At the risk of sounding stupid, it feels much more of a normal city than say, LA or New York. In a good way though - full of very friendly mid-westerners proud of where they’re from. Bars feel ‘local’ if you know what I mean. Probably a good city to live in, although the winters would be miserable.
The bottom lounge, where we’re playing is in an odd part of town, surrounded by industrial units - The Jaguar club are opening for us on these four shows. They are a New York based band and are graciously supplying us with their back line to play through. Thanks guys! they seem like a lovely bunch of people.
After soundcheck I sit in the front bar for a bit and get chatting to some fans who have driven and flown from far and wide for this gig - it’s fairly mind blowing the commitment people have towards Idlewild. I can understand why America took to us initially though - we were clearly influenced by US bands (REM, Superchunk, the Replacements to name a few), so had a familiar sound, but with a Scottish sensibility which was vaguely exotic to American music fans I think. We were also loud and unpredictable live, which gave the whole thing an exciting edge. ‘100 broken windows’ was a cult hit here (Spin magazine named it as the ‘number 1 album of the year you didn’t get to hear in 2000’) - I think most of our US fans discovered us through that record - either that or supporting Pearl Jam around America in 2003, where we played in front of tens of thousands of people each night under their endorsement.
We take the stage - the crowd is a respectable size, and importantly all very into it. We’re playing really well these days and have a set list of 30 songs to choose from. we spent a lot of time making the songs as varied as they could be - changing arrangements, adding harmonies, editing sections that didn’t interest us anymore. It is a unique version of Idlewild now and the set list has never sounded better. We are recording the UK tour next month to preserve this set, and this year, in audible amber. You can order it here.
After the show we sell t-shirts and chat to fans (and Bob Weston who has come down) before all heading back to the hotel. Jet lag forces everyone to bed. Apart from Colin. nothing ever forces Colin to bed.
Day 3 - Tuesday 20th October - Chicago
Odd to have a day off when we’ve just got going, but such was the planning. The day starts off well. Breakfast at the diner next door - Denver omelette, coffee, side of cinnamon rolls(!) and hash browns. feel like I’ve eaten two meals afterwards. It’s the American way.
Breakfast over, we take taxis’ to the north of the city - thanks to the generosity of studio manager Mark Greenberg we get a tour of the loft - the studio owned and run by Wilco. I have been a big Wilco/Uncle Tupleo fan for over 20 years - they are a band we all love. What an amazing place and space they’re got - We’ve been slowly getting our own place together in Edinburgh to practice and record, but the Loft is off the scale - it is every bands dream to have a place as inspiring as this to work in!
We go to a local diner for coffee to talk about what we’ve just seen. Everyone is really inspired and talk turned to our new record, and the way we’re going to record it. It’s a great moment - all of us in a neighbourhood diner somewhere in suburban Chicago, over weak coffee, getting excited about music, art, ideas….
After this we take taxi’s downtown and to the arts institute of Chicago - the 2nd largest museum in America housing some of the worlds greatest works of art - American art, old masters, you name it, it’s here. I’m not ashamed to admit that alongside seeing some of the greatest works of art on the planet - I’m also fairly pumped to wander the corridors where they filmed some of the scenes from ‘Ferris Bueller’s day off’. Like anyone else who grew up and was a teenager in the late eighties/early nineties the films of John Hughes played a significant role in my life - pretty in pink, some kind of wonderful, the breakfast club, and my favourite - ferris buellers day off. I can’t think of a director who captured the inner lives of American teenagers (and subsequently Scottish teenagers - any teenagers!) so accurately — the ‘poet laureate of teen angst’ as he’s known, the American high school experience chronicled. Also, all brilliant & honest time capsules - I went to American high school in the eighties and it was exactly like that.
After all that art we have a late lunch in a downtown diner. Ruben sandwich, fries, beer. Today feels like we are on holiday. In fact all the tours and shows we’ve done this year have felt like that. More bands should take a break - then they will feel grateful and like they are on holiday instead of moaning all the time. Hannah, Andrew, Lucci and and I head to dusty grooves in wicker park - one of the best record shops in the city - maybe the best if you’re into jazz, which we all are. Spend some dollars and then hit a few more record stores before retiring to the Rainbo club for some drinks & pinball. I was taken here in 2005 and remember having a great time. It’s by all accounts a bit of a low key, indie rock landmark - dimly lit, very friendly, with great music and cheap beer.
I actually don’t think this day could have gone any better.
Day 4 - Wednesday 21st October - Boston
Up early and back to the airport for the flight to Boston. It’s actually ok and on time, and not much waiting is involved, and minimal nerves & turbulence and so I’ve almost forgotten about the experience by the time we’re picking up our hire car. We’re upgraded and given an absolutely massive thing - if you can imagine what a splitter van would look like if it pretended to be a car.
Inside it’s spacious and comfortable though - no ones complaining. We drive into Boston.
The gig tonight is at a venue called ‘the sinclair’, in Cambridge - the nicest bit of Boston as far as i can see. Cambridge is the home of Harvard university and is suitably full of students dashing between classes with books under their arms and scarves trailing behind them in the wind.
There is a great bookstore that I’ve been to before - the Harvard bookstore. Where I live (the Hebrides) there are no bookstores. I love bookstores, so i take full advantage of this free time and spend over an hour looking through and reading the great selection of books on the shelves -, leaving with Patti Smith’s new memoir ‘M Train’ which i immediately start reading in a neighbouring coffee shop.
The venue is very good and new with a great restaurant next door where we eat. Once again the crowd are deeply into the songs and afterwards we meet folks who have traveled from as far as Canada and Texas. We drive after the show for an hour to Sturbridge to stay at the roadside - ‘Scottish Inn’ - Rod behind the wheel - classic rock on the dial. It flies by and we are in our room & bed by 2am.
Day 5 - Thursday 22nd October - Brooklyn
Wake in the Scottish Inn. Outside it’s a beautiful day - clear & crisp - the leaves on the tree are fabulous colours - Sturbridge is very pretty. This is `New England and i like it. head to Annie’s kitchen - the diner next door. The man at the booth next to mine wishes me a good morning, recommends the omelette and goes back to his newspaper. It is all a bit like something out of a John Irving novel. I order pancakes and look out the window, imagining a life as a New England academic being recommended omelettes but choosing pancakes at Annie’s kitchen every morning.
The drive to New York is quite painless - we listen to classic rock radio again, everything they play is pre-1980. What are classic rock stations of the future going to play? I have the feeling they will still be playing the Eagles.
One toilet stop in the Bronx later, we are handing the car back at the car hire in Brooklyn in the early afternoon. Tonight mostly all of us are staying in an air b&b apartment in Williamsburg, although I’m staying with a friend and (former New York flat mate) in Manhattan. I lived in New York for most of 2004 in a room on 13th street in the East Village. The room was small, but i was rarely in it, instead I wandered the city taking it all in, and meeting some outrageous characters in the process and generally having a great time. Homesickness, hatred of air travel and falling in love took me back permanently to Scotland in 2005 but i will always be fascinated by this city - it is well and truly one of the most remarkable places on planet earth. When i left, Williamsburg was just starting to become the place to go out in - ten years later it most definitely is the place to be. There are so many great looking cafes, bars & shops - and all with a lovely neighbourhood vibe. It’s one subway stop from Manhattan - no wonder why everyone wants to live here.
Tonight’s gig is the best yet - packed out and the crowd are great. There are quite a few familiar faces out there - lots of people that we used to know. Andy Greenwald - an early champion of our band and now a successful author and podcaster - Tim Wheeler and Mark Hamilton from Ash, a band that we supported back in 1998. Tim and Mark have both lived in America for years. It’s good to see them.
The night end strangely in a Scottish bar called ‘Iona’ where the music is far too loud, and we are all wondering why we’ve ended up in a Scottish bar.
Day 6 - Friday 23rd October - New York
Wake up - walk along Rivington, up Clinton street (stopping for some superb blueberry pancakes at the Clinton Street bakery) - up Avenue B, through Tompkin square, along St Marks place looking for the bookstore (it’s closed down) - continue on to the Strand bookstore - spend an hour there -
through Greenwich village to the west village and meet Rod in a coffee shop. We are doing an interview where we rank all our albums - we’ve done one like this before, I guess that's what you do when you’ve got lots of records out. My top 3 Idlewild albums - joint 1st place - ‘Everything ever written’ and ‘warnings/promises’ close 2nd ‘100 broken windows’ - three albums that i feel are accurate descriptions (artistically, personally) of me in that moment of time. Rod and I disagree about it a bit, and we’re not really used to doing interviews together so we talk over each other a lot (actually we do that all the time) - after the interview we walk slowly up to the venue chatting until we get to the Gramercy theatre.
New York has made it’s mark on Idlewild - we recorded a bit of ‘the remote part’ in New York at the Magic shop with Lenny Kaye producing. Lenny is a bit of a legend to me - a really inspiring man to be around. ‘Warnings/Promises’ was mixed here, uptown with Michael Brauer. Michael mixed a lot of the Dylan bootleg albums - i remember quizzing him constantly about that. last year Rod came over to mix ‘Everything ever written’ with Jon Angello in Brooklyn - The New York bands have always had a big influence on us - Patti Smith group, Sonic Youth, Television, Ramones…. I’d like to think that there’s a little bit of this city mixed into a lot of our songs.
The gig is great - considering Blur are playing their first US show in a longtime a few blocks away we pull in a good crowd. It is the biggest stage of the tour too, which is nice and I can actually hear myself over Colin’s cymbals. Idlewild is more of a collective now almost - each member has their own projects on the go (the most recent in Andrews excellent first solo album ‘Soroky’) and when we meet to play and write there is a really creative pulse and energy to proceedings. We’re all excited to start another record and have lots of songs ideas to build on.
Afterwards a big group of us head out, descending on a local bar - turns out there is Karaoke going on and so we all get to it - Andrew shines with his version, Hannah with her note perfect ‘Your Cheating Heart’ and I try my best with a selection from the musicals - ‘I am sixteen going on seventeen’ and ‘Surrey with a Fringe on Top’. It’s now 2am and only in New York do you have the option to go and watch Jazz and play ping pong - and that’s what we do, until about 5am when I walk home eating pizza. The streets are still buzzing & alive. What a place.
Day 7 - Saturday 24th October - New York
This doesn’t really count as a day ‘off since the tour is over, but we’re still here for another day - a day that involves much wandering around Greenwich village and the west village, bloody mary’s at Cafe Dante, pizza at Motorino’s and then in the evening Hannah, Andrew and I take in the Fred Hisch trio at the legendary Jazz club the Village Vanguard……
2015 has been a revelatory time for Idlewild - putting out an album on our own label and it being so well received - the tour selling out, and getting to visit Japan & America again after all this time. Like I say, there is a new feeling about what we can do and where we can go - I mean, we’re realists so we’re not aiming for number 1, but artistically, to quote David Metzler - ‘it is creation, and being creation, it is new every time’.
'Utopia' is out now.
