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Fresh from a huge Hong Kong show, Travis swim back into independent waters with their upcoming release Ode to J. Smith. Bassist Dougie Payne talked to Bong Miquiabas while the band was in town

Your new album Ode to J. Smith came together quickly. Describe the compressed time period.

The writing took place in two weeks in December in a little rehearsal room in west London. And then we did another two weeks in January. Then we did five shows in February just to play all the new songs, did little club shows in front of 200-300 people. It was great fun; it was our first time since our first album that we played the songs live before we went into the studio to record them. So we were ready and well-prepared. We went in with a producer named Emery Dobyns, who was fantastic. We recorded it all in ten days, just sort of bashed it out. It was brilliant. It felt great immediately from the get-go. Felt very live, felt very exciting. It was all going down at once, all going onto analogue tape. We used two eight-tracks stuck together, so 16 tracks from Abbey Road. It just sounded fantastic. With [recording software] Pro Tools and computers, you have endless takes, you can just go on and on and on. But with tape, you’ve got to get it right, you’ve got to play well, you’ve got limited number of tracks, so that’s why maybe it sounds different from previous records. Because we limited our options, we limited our palate. It’s resulted in a much tougher but cleaner record, because there’s not so much going on. All the parts have to be there, it’s all pared down, anything frivolous was got rid of.

Were there any artistic motivations, muses, or influences in the recording process?

The primary motivation to get the record done quickly was because my wife was gonna have a baby [Laughs]. Freddie was due on March 9, so we had to get the record done before then because I was gonna take four months off and leap into parenthood. We managed it. We finished the record on March 5, and Freddie was born four days later. It was an eventful time.

How do you think your fans will respond to this album? What’s the feedback been so far?

Feedback’s been amazing so far. The new stuff’s gone down brilliant, better than the old stuff sometimes. People get a little misled about what we are. We’ve always been a rock band. One of our first songs was All I Want to Do Is Rock. But with [the album] The Man Who we got very successful with songs that were more folky, like Why Does It Always Rain on Me? and Driftwood, songs that had the lighter touch. And that’s great, but we did get kind of painted in a corner. And after The Man Who and The Invisible Band, all these bands came along in our wake and got characterised as being soft and acoustic. I think we got the blame for it in a lot of the British press, anyway. But you know, we are a rock band. We always have been. We can do a lot of things. We can do the folky, diary-writing, ballady, troubadour stuff, but we’re always song-led. That’s the crucial distinction to make. The songs demand a certain kind of treatment. Something like Sing, we couldn’t do a thrash-metal version. Songs like J. Smith and Something Anything, they demanded a different kind of treatment, demanded to be treated a little tougher.

I read that the songs on Ode to J. Smith were more character-driven than autobiographical. Could you expand on that?

It wasn’t a concept record. It wasn’t kind of thought through. It was just something that happened. I suppose a lot of it was coincidental. The songs this time around seemed to be coming from the point of view of characters. It was more like writing a novel than writing a diary. It’s a new way of doing things for us. Because we’ve done our fair share of confessional writing. The song J. Smith came quite early in the writing process. And the idea of writing for characters became more interesting. We decided to call the record Ode to J. Smith to give it an anonymous, everyman idea.

So it wasn’t intentional to create a different kind of Travis album?

No, it was something that just happened. And with things called concept albums, I don’t know if such a thing exists. People just write songs. It’s part of human nature to create a narrative. People want to fill in gaps. You create links between songs that maybe weren’t there to create a story. It’s kind of nice to have a little framework. But it didn’t start out that way.

It seems like an interesting time for you creatively. Talk about the decision not to continue with your long-time label Independiente and what your new label Red Telephone Box permits you to do.

With Independiente, we initially signed with them to do five albums, and we did our five albums, and we parted ways perfectly amicably. Everybody was happy, everybody had been successful. It was very unusual in the music business to have a relationship end that way. And we decided to ask ourselves, “How do you get music to people in this new world with technology changing so quickly?” So there was lots of discussion about what would be the best thing for us. The idea came to resurrect Red Telephone Box, which was where we released our first EP. It seemed like the right thing to do. Record labels, certainly the major ones, are big lumbering beasts struggling very hard to keep up with technology. The key now is to be quick, to be nimble, and to be able to move and change. If it’s just us doing it, it’s easier to be quick, rather than going through 50 people. It’s more work and a little bit frightening, but also very exciting. It’s a good thing to have total control over everything: videos, artwork, photos and every aspect of it.

Are there things now with your new label that you plan to do beyond this upcoming release?

No, we generally just go about our day. [Laughs] You have ideas of how you’d like things to go. But I think plans are overrated. [Laughs]

Anything else you’d like your fans to be aware of with this album, this sound?

I think it’s a great record. I shy away from saying too much about records before people have had a chance to hear them. I hate it when I get opinions or reviews forced down my throat. I’d like to let folks make up their own mind. We’re very excited about the record. We feel like it’s probably the best record we’ve made. But that’s not really for us to say.

I wonder if that’s the right thing to say because people always say that. I don’t know, maybe it’s just a matter of taste. I think it’s the most excited we’ve been. It’s the newest and so it still has novelty to it. I think I’ve listened to this record more than any of the others, so that’s a very good sign.

I guess you had some time to listen with paternity leave. How does it feel coming back?

It feels good. It’s hard being away from home. It’s hard being away from the baby. But it’s good to be playing shows, playing new stuff, playing in places where we’ve never been before. It feels pretty buoyant at the moment.

Love it. Think it’s a great place. Really, really like it a lot. And also… [long pause] It’s great for us here. British plugs! [Laughs] Honestly, it’s fantastic. On tour, it’s very weird the things that make you happy. It’s the very, very small things that make your day. You get into the hotel and you see, ah, British plugs. [Laughs]

That may go down as one of your most memorable parts of this tour.

Seriously, it’s been great. I’ve got a couple of friends who live here who’re coming to the show. We’ve had a good tour of Asia. We went to Korea, and we went to Japan to do Fuji Rock, which was really great. And we were in Bangkok, which was mind-blowing, and we’ve got Singapore to go and Taiwan. It’s been a good year so far because we’ve been to a lot of places we’ve never been to before. But here is a great place. I really like it.