Tourists No More: An Interview With Athlete
By: Brett Hickman |
Sunday June 26, 2005 |
| On Athlete's second album, 'Tourist,' "The consistent thread in both albums is a sense of melody. Just having a good tune that's quite memorable and that has that possibility for people to sing along with it. We found ourselves having to go to something a little bit more richer. We started using the piano a little more, got an orchestra involved on a couple of the tunes. Its actually a more epic and grander sounding album." |
| Disarming in their lack of pretense, Athlete make lush pop songs for people who love lush pop songs. Owing as much to the recent past of Brit-pop as they do their fellow countrymen who inhabit the current crop of emotive balladeers, Athlete's Tourist is a delightful listen. Keyboardist Tim Wanstall took time out while on the road to speak with Static about the band's upstart success, being hand-picked by U2 as openers, and the band making a trip over the pond to the States.
Static: How is the album doing so far (in the UK)? Tim Wanstall: The UK's been amazing, it's like a number one album. It went platinum within about nine days of coming out. So that's been incredible. In Europe, its pretty much like starting from scratch, which is quite exciting. Going back to doing club gigs and feeling like you have a point to prove. We're already playing for four-five hundred people a night. It feels like it could really kick off there. Tell me a little bit about the difference between recording the debut and the new one, Tourist. They're quite different sounding records in some ways, actually. The consistent thread in both of them is a sense of melody. Just having a good tune that's quite memorable and that has that possibility for people to sing along with it. The first record was quite quirky in a British pop way. Very "up" the way through. We had a lot of fun playing around with keyboards, guitar pedals. On this one part of it is being in a different place in life. A couple of us have had kids. Just stuff that we've been through. Since we've been writing tunes there just naturally felt like there was going to be a different mood to the record. And because the tunes we were coming out with were more emotive than the last one it meant that we couldn't really use the same production that we used for the first one...that it would have cheapened the songs. We found ourselves having to go to something a little bit more richer. We started using the piano a little more, got an orchestra involved on a couple of the tunes. Its actually a more epic and grander sounding album. In some ways, a lot less going on. Its simpler. In terms of the basic parts that the four of us are playing we really have to concentrate hard on them. You all knew each other early on, correct? Yeah, that's right. We all met through mutual friends when we were about fifteen or sixteen. Just by virtue of all being interested in music. Just started jamming together and learning to write songs. And the other three guys took it a bit more seriously about the time I went off to college, did a kind of a three-piece thing, a bit Brit-pop sounding. They just had the feeling of being one of a load of bands that just sound like one another. They gave it up and became inspired by American bands like Grandaddy and The Flaming Lips. At that point I joined back in. We spent about a year and a half just writing a load of songs. Not doing any gigs, not telling anyone what we were doing. Then we stumbled onto the song "West Side" off of the first album, and at that point we just knew that there was something there that was going to be us, I suppose. You mentioned some of the band's influences, but what are some examples of your favorite music of all time? In terms of growing up I suppose, I'd say British bands like Radiohead, and Blur particularly. Especially that first record. Blur had that pop sensibility whilst at the same being a band. I was into the Pet Shop Boys...that was the first album I ever bought. I just loved them as a kid because of that whole electronic keyboard thing kind of going on. Similarly, after that I discovered Kraftwerk. That's still something that's buzzing in me. Even looking on to future records, we'll maybe weave more of that electronic thing in the future. What was the last book you read? A book called "Fugitive Pieces" by an author called Anne Michaels. Its this beautiful story based as the second WW is ending about this Jewish guy who grew up being hidden on a Mediterranean island by this old guy. The old guy has a love of geology and he develops a similar love for it. Its about how his life is affected by this and its very much of the moment. For a novel the language is just unusually poetic. That's what I enjoyed about it so much. The way the sentences are formed just washes over you. A really, really beautiful book. I would recommend it to anyone. What's been your biggest moment being involved in Athlete? The one that most affected our progress here in the UK was being nominated for the Mercury music prize. It introduces to you to a wider audience. The combination of being nominated for that prize and playing the festivals at the same time put a stamp of credibility I suppose. Lets people know that they won't be laughed at for having our record in their collection. The biggest one recently would be being asked to be main support for U2 on a couple of their UK dates. Coming from the biggest band on the planet, that feels like a huge pat on the back. |
