Scottish rockers Travis have enlisted the help of The Killers’ lead singer Brandon Flowers, and Coldplay’s Chris Martin for their new single, ‘Raze The Bar’.
The single which features on the band’s upcoming studio album, ‘LA Times’, will bemoan the closure of New York’s much loved establishment, The Black and White Bar.
This comes as Travis celebrate the 25th anniversary of their album, ‘The Man Who’.
“some fresh ears”
In a recent interview, Travis frontman Fran Healy explained how his band’s collaboration with Martin and Flowers came about.
“I called up Chris, I was having a moment of ‘I … don’t know how to order the record’. I’d listened to it too much”, Healy said. “I had a running order but I needed some fresh ears so I called Chris and we drove up the Pacific Coast highway and listened to it”.
Healy continued, “He had lots and lots of comments to make and he picked out that particular song ‘Raze The Bar’. He was like ‘Oh My God it’s … amazing’.
“So we go back to the house and he goes to the piano and he starts playing it. I was like: ‘You should sing on it’. He was like: ‘Yeah I’ll sing but you should get more people to sing on it as well’.
“So I called up Brandon and he was like ‘sure’. So the both of them came in and sung on it”.
“a hub for poetry”
Elsewhere, Fran Healy revealed that ‘Raze The Bar’ was inspired by the closure of the Black and White Bar in New York.
Healy explained, “This bar was a hub for poetry, it was all so positive for artists. Then they had to shut it and the landlord went in one night and ripped every single bit of the bar out and whitewashed it so that nobody could ever have the bar again. So the song is like an imaginary last night in the bar”.
Last week, Fran Healy revealed that he feared Noel Gallagher was going to punch him for stealing chords from Oasis hit ‘Wonderwall’, for Travis’ track ‘Writing To Reach You’.
More on this from Nova here.
