Of all the topics covered, one response resonated with me and it took a while to figure out why.
"I'm not sure it is better to burn bright and go out quickly. I don't think I agree with that, I'd like to make lots of records...take people on a journey."
It's been one of the more consistent tenets of Editors' construction, that they wouldn't be a "flavour of the month group" and that they would amass a catalogue behind them as they evolved and grew. It felt familiar, as if it has been something Tom was saying even during the very early days of the band. In the process of updating dead links at the Archive, I found my answer:-
It's when he's discussing A&R meetings with labels at around 1 minute and 35 seconds of the video. That was 13 years ago, and in spite of lineup, hairstyle and touring-footwear changes that one principle has remained as stable as ever. It's the same idea, over and over again (tee-hee). Staying around for a while was always the plan.
Of course with the longevity that Editors have sustained, it presents opportunities for assessing what's been accomplished. For a man who rarely seems to feel comfortable looking back, it's lovely to hear Tom reflecting on his own personal changes over the course of the band's 6 albums, and that he would advise his younger self to be a bit more relaxed and to smile more. I wonder, though, if he hadn't experienced those discomforts and stresses at the beginning of the band how the successive records would have sounded? Speaking for myself, The Back Room will always be a symbol of youth, adrenaline and pent up energy being restrained and released in measured amounts across the whole record. It seemed to then proceed in a direction which led to the more weighty issues addressed on the band's second album, which was like them experiencing a mid-life crisis about twenty years too soon.
If time travel was possible, and he had been told to take life easier by his future self, An End Has a Start and what came after would be profoundly rearranged. Would the urgency and the risk-taking be present? There would have been different titles, different subject matter, everything. For example:-
Hooray for Healthy Bones!
Spiders Need Love Too
When Anger Shows I Take a Brisk Walk
And then maybe they go a little preachy but well-meaning for album 3
Eat Raw Meat = Botulism
You! Dismount that Moped and Walk the Fleet Road (congestion sucks)
etc etc etc.
I suppose the purpose of that stream of gibberish was to just reiterate that it's probably just as well we can't go back and alter what's been, because it's what brought us to where we are. Editors are the band they've become because of all those past experiences, good or bad, and they seem to be quite happy with the end result. I sure am. Enjoy the chatter ;)
Of course with the longevity that Editors have sustained, it presents opportunities for assessing what's been accomplished. For a man who rarely seems to feel comfortable looking back, it's lovely to hear Tom reflecting on his own personal changes over the course of the band's 6 albums, and that he would advise his younger self to be a bit more relaxed and to smile more. I wonder, though, if he hadn't experienced those discomforts and stresses at the beginning of the band how the successive records would have sounded? Speaking for myself, The Back Room will always be a symbol of youth, adrenaline and pent up energy being restrained and released in measured amounts across the whole record. It seemed to then proceed in a direction which led to the more weighty issues addressed on the band's second album, which was like them experiencing a mid-life crisis about twenty years too soon.
If time travel was possible, and he had been told to take life easier by his future self, An End Has a Start and what came after would be profoundly rearranged. Would the urgency and the risk-taking be present? There would have been different titles, different subject matter, everything. For example:-
Hooray for Healthy Bones!
Spiders Need Love Too
When Anger Shows I Take a Brisk Walk
And then maybe they go a little preachy but well-meaning for album 3
Eat Raw Meat = Botulism
You! Dismount that Moped and Walk the Fleet Road (congestion sucks)
etc etc etc.
I suppose the purpose of that stream of gibberish was to just reiterate that it's probably just as well we can't go back and alter what's been, because it's what brought us to where we are. Editors are the band they've become because of all those past experiences, good or bad, and they seem to be quite happy with the end result. I sure am. Enjoy the chatter ;)
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x
