Idlewild
Long after the time most bands stagnate, split or get too comfortable to care much either way, Idlewild prove one rule certainly doesn’t suit all. Nearly twelve years after they formed in Edinburgh, the band are still evolving, still taking risks and pushing the boundaries of what they want to create. They have a new label, a new band member and a new album, ‘Make Another World’, that bristles with taut melodies, guitars that say more than a thousand words ever could, and keen lyrical observations of a world where we all exist, however briefly or unwittingly, in each other’s lives. It is an album that knows the simplest line or the shortest song can have the greatest impact, that realises sometimes less can be a whole lot more. An album that proves Idlewild remain vital, inspired and absolutely relevant.
“I would be the first person to stand up and say if we weren’t”, front man Roddy Woomble insists. “I just wouldn’t do it any more. But because we don’t have to adapt to any trend going on, we’ve always been able to develop and move on, rather than settle in one sound that completely defines us. It constantly fascinates me to be in a band, to go into a space where there’s nothing and leave an hour later having written a song. I’ve always thought that was pretty remarkable.”
While the passion and motivation remain ultimately the same, Idlewild have still come a long way from the party in a student flat where they met in 1995. “I was sitting on the window sill and Colin [Newton, drums] came over and spoke to me. We were pointing at Rod [Jones guitarist] because he was dressed in a tight orange suit with bright red hair and he was surrounded by women. We were both shaking heads thinking, who is that guy? Then we got friendly with him later. I suppose we all bonded over the fact university wasn’t quite all it was cracked up to be. You think it will be full of bohemians and intellectuals, and actually it’s just like school but with everyone getting drunk. So you tend to stick with people you meet who are like you. We began practising in Rod’s bedroom a week after that.”
The band started playing gigs almost immediately and soon released a mini-album, ‘Captain’. Word of mouth spread and they received rave reviews and a deal with Parlophone/EMI Records that spawned their debut album ‘Hope Is Important’. While their manic live shows got people talking, Idlewild suspected they hadn’t even started to explore their real potential yet.
“We weren’t particularly good players so we used to compensate for that by jumping around and having a real disregard for ourselves and for our audience’s safety,” Roddy remembers wryly. “But I think we realised quickly that we did feel we had more substance to us, so we really improved our song writing. It just took other people a while to grasp the fact we weren’t still teenagers making a noise.”
The rest of the world caught up soon afterwards, realising Idlewild were a band whose powerfully perceptive lyrics and gorgeous harmonies could get them played on the radio, but who could still cause chaos live if they fancied it. Albums ‘100 Broken Windows’, ‘The Remote Part’ and ‘Warnings/Promises’ followed, bringing chart success, huge critical acclaim and prestigious support slots with Coldplay, Pearl Jam, Rolling Stones and REM.
Idlewild have never aspired to stay still though. They are driven to move forward - even if it’s not the easiest option - for the sake of their music and their sanity. When their contract with
Parlophone came to an end in 2005, they walked away and started again, later signing with Sequel, one of the few truly independent labels left. With Allan Stewart on guitar, bassist Gavin Fox left and was replaced by Gareth Russell, an old friend of the band’s they had known for years. “Though it’s not generally a fortunate claim to have band members leave, we’ve been lucky actually,” Roddy reflects. “It was always just appropriate and whenever new people have joined, it’s brought the band back to life again.”
Meanwhile, Roddy settled back in Scotland after a year living in New York and started writing new material. “It was good to be back,” he says. “In New York, it was so hectic, there was always so much to do. Back here, I found I actually got more ideas.” The songs he started writing with Rod on his return were more acoustic, more folk-inspired than anything Idlewild had done before. Feeling they may not be quite right for the band, they eventually found their way onto his acclaimed solo album, ‘My Secret Is My Silence’, produced by folk musician John McCusker. “After ‘Warnings/Promises’, I wanted Idlewild to go in a more folk direction, but I also realised Colin and Allan didn’t really want to do that,” he explains. “So doing ‘My Secret Is My Silence’ freed Rod and myself up to an extent so that afterwards, we could go and write a rock album.”
The result is the startling simplicity of ‘Make Another World’, an album of stripped back rock that is as brutal as it is tender, as intimate as it is expansive. “Though the guitars are colder sounding, and it doesn’t really give off a happy feel, I think it’s definitely got melodic pop music at the core,” Roddy says. “‘Warnings/ Promises’ had a real warm sound to it and was almost laid-back for us, whereas this is the opposite of that. We’ve never been interested in repeating ourselves. This one is short, sharp songs that say everything they want to say very quickly, often with guitars. It’s definitely a bit more savage sounding.”
The musical warmth of ‘Warnings/Promises’ still permeates its follow-up through Roddy’s lyrics though. From the wry opening words (“in competition for the worst first line I can use…”) to the poetic play of ‘No Emotion’ and the evocative lines of ‘Once In Your Life’, ‘Make Another World’ observes the world around it with disarming perception, but without judgment. “I suppose it’s about cityscapes, modern language and the way a person makes a city and the city makes the person,” Roddy says. “It’s that idea about how we’re all passing moments in everyone else’s life. That’s what the whole album’s about in a way. When I look out of my window into the flats across the road, I can see four other people’s lives happening. That stuff fascinates me.”
Certainly, ‘Make Another World’ is an album made by five people who have taken the time to stop and absorb the world around them. It’s the sound of a band who, after twelve long years, are only just getting started.
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