20 today! 12 Memories was an album which was mostly disregarded in the press as Travis’s political record. It was in fact Travis’s most personal record. I wrote 2 songs about the impending war in Iraq. The Beautiful Occupation, written 18 months before the US and UK invaded Iraq, about everyone’s frustration at the blatant US/UK war mongering and a feeling of a ramping up to conflict whether we liked it or not, and Peace the Fuck Out, written just before the war started. It was the year politics became personal for everyone. Millions of people from all walks of life in cities all over the world marched and protested against the sham war but it went ahead all the same. Travis were the only band who included any mention of the war in a released single. All our contemporaries steered clear of it. Probably wisely. We ended up taking the single, The Beautiful Occupation, to the the MTV Europe Music awards with 100 naked protestors. The rest of the album was mined from 10 sessions of hypno-psychotherapy I signed up for when I came off the Invisible Band tour. I was burnt out and someone said I should try it. From these sessions I came away with many forgotten memories, which found their way, in one way or another, to the surface and eventually into these songs. Hence the album title. The artwork by Anton Corbijn, is double exposed film, a photograph taken on top of another photograph on the same roll of film (no photoshop) of the members of the band in places that evoked strong memories for them. Me in Possilpark at my first primary school, Neil in the playground of his primary school, Andy in a play park from his childhood and Dougie in the back alley behind his childhood home. 12 Memories seemed to split fans down the middle. Some who came on during The Man Who and Invisible Band seemed put off by our sudden sullen darkness. Others who knew us better and knew we had both a dark and a light side, loved it. Personally I think it’s one of our best most honest records. Love Fran x
Stream here:
found.ee/travis-12memories