Editors

It felt amazing to know that three albums in we have a fan base that’s interested and wanting to know where we’ve taken the band; interested in what we’ve created. In this day and age, you feel like the music fan is more transient than it has been before and to come back to know there are people interested in what we’re doing still was an amazing feeling.

Editors Tickets

story by Chris Castaneda
photo by Kevin Westenberg

After nearly eight years as a band, the U.K. quartet known as Editors has accomplished much in their relatively young career. In This Light and On This Evening (2009), the band’s third album, became Editors’ second consecutive number one album in the U.K. In this era of instant make-or-break success, singer/guitarist Tom Smith recognizes the good fortune that Editors have landed by being able to craft a career on the band’s terms. Perhaps, in time, America will realize what the U.K. already seems to know.

Chicago Innerview: How did producer Mark ‘Flood’ Ellis [U2, The Smashing Pumpkins] help and nourish the development of the band in the studio?
Tom Smith: I definitely think he helped. There’s some songs that he helped more than other songs; some songs we didn’t need so much help. Very early on when we started the rehearsal, we had a big pile of songs and we knew we kind of wanted to take them somewhere we hadn’t been before with our sound and the way we make songs. For example, ‘In This Light and on This Evening’, the title track. The version that’s on the album is the version we recorded before Flood was involved, but in the same session we recorded ‘Papillon’. Stylistically it was still the same, but it was a very different song from the one that Flood helped us make on the album. We needed his ears, we needed his instincts to kind of sift through all these ideas we had that we didn’t need and make it work as a pop song. On our previous records we agonized over things a lot more, taking days just to get the right snare sound and recording things piece by piece. This record was very different to the way we worked before, and Flood was the overriding reason for that being the case.

Chicago Innerview: Was he the initial choice to produce the album?
Tom Smith: He was for me. Of course, you never know until you get working with someone in the room if you’re going to get on personally. He was on the top of my list. For a couple members of the band, I think the fact that he has such a history and had made so many records was actually a negative thing. They might have wanted to work with someone younger who maybe was a bit more hungry to make a name for themselves. As soon as we met Flood and sat in with us in the rehearsal studio, talked about the songs, what he liked and what he didn’t like about them and the way he wanted to make the record, I think all four of us were in agreement from that point on.

Chicago Innerview: How have you handled Editors scoring back-to-back number one albums in the U.K.?
Tom Smith: It doesn’t feel like something you need to handle. That almost makes it sound like it’s some kind of burden that you have to carry. It felt amazing to know that three albums in we have a fan base that’s interested and wanting to know where we’ve taken the band; interested in what we’ve created. In this day and age, you feel like the music fan is more transient than it has been before and to come back to know there are people interested in what we’re doing still was an amazing feeling. We’ve always hoped that as we started the band and we started to make records and build our career that we’d have an audience like that. That’s the kind of audience you want to have.

Editors :: with The Antlers :: The Vic :: February 15.

Editors

We’re not famous. We have fame because of our music. We don’t have a level of celebrity. We’re the same people, but our passports are a little more used.

story by Garin Pirnia
photo by Jill Furmanowsky

Rock bands tend to get polarized into two categories. If a band has an anthemic, soaring guitar sound, they are automatically dubbed Coldplay or U2. If a band creates dark, brooding music, they get compared to the likes of Interpol and Joy Division. Whereas being compared to any band acts as a point of reference, it’s not at all the best way to judge the music. Birmingham quartet Editors has been building steam since their frenetic 2005 debut, The Back Room. Many critics have labeled them “The British Interpol” for their gloomy, sonic landscapes, lead singer Tom Smith’s baritone vocals and his psychological lyrics — but don’t compare them to Interpol. It pisses them off.

“Of course it bothers you,” Smith tells Chicago Innerview. “We’re Editors. There are moments in our sound with similarities to other bands, that’s fine. The press always puts bands in boxes. Yes there are moments, but when we put all things together, we sound like Editors. I don’t think we sound like Interpol.” The band’s influences encompass R.E.M. (Editors play a great live cover of “Orange Crush”), Spiritualized, and LCD Soundsystem. Classifying their music is also murky terrain. Post-punk comes to mind, but according to Smith, guitarist Chris Urbanowicz stated it best with the term “new grave.” Says Smith: “We make exciting, passionate, rock music — music that makes you feel alive, gets your blood pumping, makes you dance, and touches your emotions.”

Before becoming Editors, they called themselves The Pride then changed it to Snowfield. They wanted a record deal and decided on a name not associated with any definite imagery. Editors was born and soon The Back Room evolved, generating the pulsating hit “Munich” and lots of hype. Expectations to follow it up with a better or equally affable album inevitably surfaced. “You don’t want to let yourself down or be a flash in the pan, or just be lucky,” says Smith. “We know we’ve made improvements. It’s a step forward from the last one,” he says of new record An End Has a Start.

After a two-year hiatus, Smith and company went back into the studio and recorded End, which was released Stateside in July. Half of the songs deal with themes of death but there’s also an aura of hope to them, such as these lyrics from the title track: “You came on your own /That’s how you’ll leave /With hope in your hands/ And air to breathe.” And on “Bones”, Smith declares: “In the end all you can hope for/ Is the love you felt to equal the pain you’ve gone through.”

“I’m not a deeply troubled person but I do worry at times,” says Smith. “It’s more meaningful to say something more, to delve deeper when I write lyrics.” Smith mentions that the greatest difference between the two records is that the former sounds claustrophobic while the new songs weren’t fully formed before they went into the studio — thus they had more time to experiment and add texture. Their sound live is huge, even bigger than on the albums. “Playing live is the most pure way of expressing your sound,” says Smith. “It’s important for people to see our faces.”

Since Editors started out a few years ago, they’ve come a long way. The band managed to quit their day jobs working in a bank call center and a shoe shop. Music is their job now. “We’re not famous,” says Smith. “We have fame because of our music. We don’t have a level of celebrity. We’re the same people, but our passports are a little more used.”

Editors :: with Biffy Clyro and Ra Ra Riot :: Park West :: Sept. 11.

Editors, Jeremy Enigk, Mute Math, Stars, Kelly Stoltz

EDITORS
Call them England’s Interpol or Joy Division on Prozac, but Editors’ The Back Room is an impeccably crafted post-punk debut featuring stabbing staccato guitars, swirling synths and disco drums that pump out multiple anthem orgasms. The propulsive singles “Munich” and “Bullets” helped drive a label marketing blitz that made sure we knew that these comely, stardom-destined Brits looked good while suffering for their art. Frontman Tom Smith’s melodramatic baritone may shamelessly infringe on the Ian Curtis copyright, but he’s got the emotional range to simmer down the atmosphere when ending the album with the sleepy closer “Distance.” Although Editors chose a sound that holds about as much currency as an overdue library book, Smith is living proof that the whole brooding, city-dweller-with-a-Camus-paperback-in-his-trench-coat vibe never goes out of style. And if the second record bombs, he can always kill himself and become really famous. (Friday, 3:30-4:30, Q101 Stage) –text: Sean Foran

JEREMY ENIGK
Jeremy Enigk was a member of the emo-core band Sunny Day Real Estate who released the groundbreaking album Diary in 1994. A couple of years into the band, Enigk found God and departed the group. In 1996, he resurfaced and released his solo debut, Return of the Frog Queen, sounding like an angst-ridden Colin Meloy. Enigk went on to form Fire Theft while juggling other projects. His sophomore solo album is due in October. (Friday, 3:30-4:30, PlayStation Stage) –text: Garin Pirnia

MUTE MATH
New Orleans foursome Mute Math knows how to work MySpace. As of this writing, the electro-indie rockers have tens of thousands more MySpace friends than Justin Timberlake. Pretty impressive, considering they self-released their debut album and cultivated a loyal fan base through old-fashioned DIY tactics. They upload every show on their video blog. They rely on word-of-mouth to get people to go to their energetic live shows. They’ve sold 30,000 albums from their van, labels be damned. After Hurricane Katrina destroyed their hometown, Paul Meany (vocals, keyboards), Greg Hill (guitar), Darren King (drums, samples) and Roy Mitchell-Cardenas (bass) had no choice but to jump into music full time, embarking on a tour this year which has included performances on the Warped Tour and Bonnaroo. For fans of intelligent rock with an atmospheric experimental bent, Mute Math is worth a listen. (Friday, 3:30-4:30, AMD Stage) –text: Dorothy Hernandez

STARS
For emulators of self-immolation everywhere, this Montreal collective say, go ahead. Have at it. Set Yourself on Fire. At least that’s the title they gave to their latest release. So if you want to look like the monk on the cover of the first Rage Against the Machine album, Stars are not about to hold you back. And just like Rage, Stars are not afraid to show their political stripes. “I hope your drunken daughters are gay!” croons Torquil Campbell on “He Lied About Death.” Stars are best when they keep the rabble rousing to a minimum, like on the decades-spanning “Reunion.” The chamber-pop arrangement and male/female vocal interplay recalls an Idlewild-era Everything But the Girl, before Ben Watt lost his intestines to illness and his soul to a sequencer. (Friday, 3:30-4:30, Adidas-Champs Stage) –text: Josh Cox

KELLEY STOLTZ
It’s not hard to see what led indie powerhouse Sub Pop Records to sign San Francisco’s Kelley Stoltz. His new record Below the Branches is a diverse collection of oddball pop with heavy folk overtones, which at its best is reminiscent of psychedelic-era Beatles. However, that formula is also what betrays Stoltz in the end, allowing the Lennon/McCartney ghost to sit a bit too close to the action — and leaving the listener eager to hear the artist’s talents applied to something a touch more original. (Friday, 3:00-3:45, BMI Stage) –text: Don Bartlett–photo: Nikki Pratchios

Editors, Murs, Soul Position, The Timeout Drawer

EDITORS
The searing song “Blood” opens U.K. buzz band Editors’ debut full-length The Back Room. It’s intense and brooding, with a torrent of guitar/drum beats. At first listen Editors sound remarkably like Interpol, right down to lead singer Tom Smith’s uncanny resemblance to Paul Banks, but Editors quickly transcend their NYC peers with the next track, “Munich”. It’s chaotic, catchy and full of wisdom: “People are fragile things you should know by now / Be careful what you put them through.” Editors also generate slower, more forlorn music as heard on “Camera,” which displays a tinge of melancholy as does the final track “Distance”, where they proclaim: “Honey what got broken won’t go back together again.” The quartet finally makes the trek to North America to promote the Stateside release of their much-hyped album following several SXSW appearances (at which their posters were plastered all over Austin). Editors could be the band to watch in the coming months. (Appearing with Stellastarr* at Metro on April 16) –text: Garin Pirnia

MURS
Though some may wonder why California rapper Murs (of Living Legends fame) hadn’t turned to Atmosphere’s ANT or his former Def Jux cohort El-P for production on his latest effort, Murray’s Revenge, you can’t argue with his loyalties towards top producer 9th Wonder and that beloved L.A. sound. After a good amount of critical acclaim and success with Wonder’s production on 2004’s 3:16 – The 9th Edition, the toned-down beats on Revenge seem disappointing at first, but a close listen reveals Murs’ ultimate plan of attack. 9th Wonder’s sparse production creates the ideal template for Murs to show us how he’s grown as an emcee, as he employs a much broader range of subjects and a better understanding and execution of his storytelling. It seems that Murs taking time to develop as an artist could fan the flames of a serious comeback both in the studio and on stage. (Appearing at Abbey Pub on April 16) –text: Mike Scales–photo: Dan Monick

SOUL POSITION
On his last trip through town, RJD2 worked four turntables and a sampler to take a packed Metro crowd on a tour of the blues-y funk beats he’s known for serving up. When he returns this month, it will be a reunion with his original MC partner Blueprint as they celebrate their sophomore release as Soul Position, Things Go Better With RJ and Al. The pair came up together in Columbus, but solo work and collaborations with other artists have been more common than Soul Position projects, and these days working together is a rare treat. With RJ’s beats as a backdrop, Blueprint shows off imagination and range talking about hip hop’s sad cultural legacy as easily as he riffs on the trouble he finds after too many Jager shots. Still, their collaborations rarely seem to bring out the best of the pair. For some reason Blueprint rarely gets to rhyme over RJ’s most challenging and entertaining beats and while he’s more than capable on the mic, he occasionally takes stylistic risks that don’t work out. (Appearing with One.Be.Lo at Abbey Pub on April 15) –text: Noah Levine

THE TIMEOUT DRAWER
Sweeping theatrical arrangements mask the power occasionally unleashed by Chicago’s Timeout Drawer. The Timeout Drawer avoids the trappings of instrumental rock by focusing on sharp melodies and uncheerful tones, fluctuating between drifting atmospheric landscapes and driven bursts of metallics. At times things meander too much or wallow too long in one place, but when everything works The Timeout Drawer churn out a delightfully restrained heaviness. Their most recent EP, Alone, is a 6-track transit through the many levels of noise they create. The opener “Man Must Breathe” evokes waves building at sea before violently crashing to the shore and reforming on the way back out to the deeps. But “Women and Children Line the Rocky Shore” and “With Cold Feet and a Warm Heart” never really find their legs. “Come Any Closer and You’ll Feel My Claws” finds the band adding vocals, while the closer “The Exorcist” rains down a fury the band only hinted at previously. The Timeout Drawer continues to let its music take on new challenges and when they succeed, it’s a mighty sound to behold. (Appearing for the late show at Beat Kitchen on April 14) –text: Noah Levine