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In This Light And On This Tourbus

Q met with Editors bassist Russell Leetch at the start of their UK tour of third album In This Light And On This Evening. Despite the often gloomy disposition associated with the band's urban sound, Q found some more spirited topics for conversation. That is once France, Chris's music taste, the prospect of meeting rock legends, tour bus toilet paper, and any bands that came out in 2005 were all out of the way...

Q: Hi, how are you doing?
Russell Leetch: Very well thank you, all is good.

Q: Congratulations on a Number 1 album. How has it been received live?
RL: It's been very good fun. There's a whole new vibe to it. I used to like seeing bands that had loads of instruments onstage... a synth here, a keyboard there. That makes it more interesting to watch. [Pauses] But it still gets people rocking.

Q: Are the old fans still with you after the change of musical direction?
RL: From the hardcore fanbase, definitely... all the dark wave and Goth fans that we maybe lost we've got back now. They're more appreciative of this new material than they were of the second record which had a very big produced pop sheen to it. It's rough and ready and takes more of a listen to. I'm not sure about the mainstream audience. We came out a weird time when live music was absolutely flourishing and so many bands were blowing up...

Q: Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, etc...
RL: Yeah. That was all coming out so we got bundled into one. All those bands are really diverse and it's interesting to see what paths people have taken.

Q: What inspired the electronic sound of the latest album?
RL: We've always been fans of electronic music so we wanted to use synths and do something different. On the first record, the song Camera was synth-led and we just thought we'd focus it more on this album. There are still guitars there. We'll continue what we've been doing by working with Flood again on the next album. We've been going somewhere and we don't want to stop so we're keeping at it for a little bit.

Q: Re-watching that Terminator boxset...
RL: [Laughs] That's such a weird reference. The first three notes on Bricks And Mortar are the same riff as the theme tune so Tom (Smith) said in an interview that the ominous synths had a dystopian-type Terminator feel. It just stuck. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know. [Smiles] But I think The Terminator's a good film.

Q: The original or Terminator 2?
RL: The original and T2 are both great. I didn't actually mind the third one. But the fourth one... that was a bit weird.

Q: Bass-playing aside, you've been credited as a video director. Can we be expecting Terminator 5?
RL: [Laughs] No! I just compiled a load of video footage from tour and someone put it together and that was the video. I don't think it quantifies the term 'director'. It makes it sound too good! But I think we'd like to do music for a film, actually making the score.

Q: Now that you and Chris Urbanowicz live in New York, is the tour a nice reunion for the band?
RL: We tour so much that we're constantly together. We haven't stopped since October in the UK, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, America... When we have time off it's proper and we don't need to see each other. We'll all come together feeling refreshed and with interesting things to talk about. It beats sitting in a dressing room with the same guys just swearing, calling each other names and being boyish.

Q: So you'll never try to show Tom and Ed (Lay) the New York way of life?
RL: Well, we'd love to make a record there and I think we will do at some point... maybe on this next record. It's good to make albums in different places.

Q: As far as life on the road together goes, Edith Bowman told The Metro that on the Editors tourbus there will be no flushing of toilet paper down the toilets...
RL: That's right. [Pauses] That's the main rule. The band members never seem to get so intoxicated that they want to throw up but people that come on our bus often do. They're usually sick in a cup or a bag, or something plain weird. Essentially it is a bus and we're sleeping on it. Apart from that we're relaxed and try not to be annoying about anything.

Q: Who has stereo control?
RL: Usually it's my iPod that's on there which, dependent on the record, annoys certain people. There are reliable records that you can put on... Remain In Light by Talking Heads - everyone enjoys that. But then you might put something on which is a little bit more intrusive. [Thinking] Chris generally hates everything.

Q: As a rule?
RL: Yeah, he doesn't really listen to music anymore. [Laughs] He's pretty bored of it. I think he only likes the music he wants to create. He doesn't want to listen to other bands.

Q: Apart from Chris, what are you enjoying in Camp Editors?
RL: We all like the new albums by Beach House and Spoon. The other day we watched Loud Quiet Loud. It's a documentary about the Pixies reforming, which I'd recommend to anybody. I've been getting into Bauhaus recently. [Eyes widening] That divides opinion in the band camp!

Q: After these dates you'll be spending time touring on the continent where you have a huge following...
RL: Yeah, we're doing lots of festivals: Rock Werchter in Belgium, Pinkpop in Holland, and more across Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain... We're very busy.

Q: Are there places specifically that you look forward to re-visiting?
RL: A lot of it really. It's always fun. I love that you can drive seven hours and you wake up in another country with a different language and new food and drinks to indulge in. German food's fantastic. But there's always a section where you go through Eastern Europe: Macedonia, Croatia, Poland... We'll get bored of the food. [Rolls eyes] It's boiled vegetables and boiled meat. We need to find some nice restaurants there.

Q: Are Editors' European language skills up to scratch as a result?
RL: Mine are generally terrible, even my English! I can't speak anything in German or French. It's really abysmal. I'd like to learn German. That, then Spanish. French would be last. In fact, I'd prefer not to speak French...

Q: Not a problem at UK festivals. You've got spots at Isle Of Wight and V over here. Any more?
RL: We're doing loads but they're not ready for announcing. Obviously we're hoping to be at Glastonbury. But the Isle of Wight running order is Spandau Ballet, Editors, Pink and Paul McCartney. That's quite a line-up... [smiles] I'd pay my £150.

Q: At V you play before the other legendary Paul, Mr Weller. Who would you rather brush shoulders with?
RL: Well, we've already met Paul McCartney at Jools Holland. He came in and had a beer with us which was nice. [Shrugs] But I've never been into Weller's music so I'm really not that bothered about him.

Q: What else is on the horizon for Editors?
RL: We'll be touring right through to September. Then maybe we'll start working on a new record and get that out early next year. It'll be nice to be a band that came out in 2005 and not be associated with anything else from that year. We've released three records and that's more than the majority of bands these days. We want to put out a series of albums and people can judge us after that.

Q: You can lose that "sounds like Interpol" tag...
RL: I can't see that at all now. Everyone goes on Spotify and the "Artists Similar" are always Bloc Party, Interpol, British Sea Power... Yeah, they're roughly guitar bands but they all sound different. So once we've put out a series of records people can say what they like about us... whether Editors are any good or not.

Editors are currently touring the UK before heading to mainland Europe. They are confirmed for Isle Of Wight and V Festival this summer.

Words: Eve Barlow (Eve's personal music blog can be found here)

Russell's becoming a regular on Qthemusic.com, not too long ago he picked a nicely varied playlist of Roots and Influences songs for Q Readers:

Editors pick their Roots and Influences: A Spotify playlist.

11:07 AM | 19/03/2010