Provided by Nicole Day, here's 17 minutes on the grill for Justin, Elliott and Tom that was filmed in Mexico city last May. She did a great job of getting her subjects talking. I did find it fascinating that she found the band through Instagram. It's such a left-field way of discovering music, but I'm glad she did. The more people that attend this dark little party of ours, the better and how they arrived isn't important. Just that they got here.
There's a broad scope of subjects covered here, including all the ones you're probably familiar with, but unusually there are some new perspectives on them. A few facts are reaffirmed, and some are expanded upon. For example, one thing I noticed is that during the chat Tom comes right out and says that they fired Chris. Not "Chris left the group" but that he was asked to leave. If you've forgotten, this was from the official statement issued by the band in April 2012:-
"In a decision entirely based upon future musical direction, and with huge sadness, Editors and Chris Urbanowicz have parted ways."
If you followed that micro-drama from the announcement to the present day, you'll be aware of the way this was dissected and replayed in the interviews that followed it. Most revolved around a single, burning question to explore and some of those exchanges between media and band were actually quite painful to watch. Details were bluntly dug for, with a high expectation on the part of the interviewers of total candor and entitlement to whatever information existed. Even if this really was something that was primarily a matter for the people involved and not for those who thrive on gossip. For a while the narrative continued to be that Chris had simply left the group due to musical differences.
However, it was from all of those repeated interrogations during the TWOYL campaign that the finer details of the split came out. As I said if you've been a fan for a while you already know it so I won't rehash it all here. The point I'm trying to get at is that even this far removed from April 2012, it's important enough to the band's history that it still comes up. However, rather than the more gentle approach of the past where the issue was handled with verbal delicacy, Mr Smith is now able to tell it like it is; they fired him. No probing was required and no persistent lines of inquiry needed.
How we all feel about that as fans isn't the issue, and I know that even now we all have our opinions on that matter, but it speaks to the willingness of those involved to finally feel confident enough to just be plain and honest about it. I don't know if this is an attitude change that comes with age, life experience or whatever but it stood out enough for me to notice. This feels like they've now set their sights so firmly on the future that what has gone before is just an unalterable fact that's doesn't require sugar-coating any more. Good for them.
How we all feel about that as fans isn't the issue, and I know that even now we all have our opinions on that matter, but it speaks to the willingness of those involved to finally feel confident enough to just be plain and honest about it. I don't know if this is an attitude change that comes with age, life experience or whatever but it stood out enough for me to notice. This feels like they've now set their sights so firmly on the future that what has gone before is just an unalterable fact that's doesn't require sugar-coating any more. Good for them.
Of course a more simplified point of view is that after 6 years they are simply sick to death of hearing this question and "We fired him" really is the quickest way to put it to bed as a topic. My overactive imagination tends to lead me back to the former explanation, but I'm always prepared to be wrong, wrong, wrong.
Enjoy the chatter ;)
stream it here
stream it here
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x
