Fran Healy
Fran Solo
On Wreckorder, Travis’ front man gets a little help from his friends

By Andy Argyrakis

Considering Fran Healy fronted Brit pop act Travis for the past decade, it’s understandable he wanted a change of pace, even if 2008’s Ode to J. Smith found the guys at the top of their game. Though the group is far from broken up, it’s currently on a break as the singer-songwriter follows his solo muse for the first time with Wreckorder.

“I just wanted a break and the other guys just wanted a holiday from the band,” he verifies, phoning in from a tour stop in California. “I thought for the longest time that being in a band is a lot like being married to three other guys, and in a sense it’s almost true. As long as I’ve been in the band, I’ve viewed [Travis] as a sort of exclusive thing, but it just dawned me last year that everyone wanted a break, me included, but while the guys just wanted to hang out, I wanted to keep writing songs.”

Other than taking a slightly stripped down Brit pop/acoustic rock direction, Healy’s new collection sounds pretty much like all the previous Travis projects, just with the maturity that comes with writing songs as a 37-year-old, rather than a twenty-something during the band’s formative period. “The only difference is the other three musicians are not playing on it,” he confirms. “It’s still me as the songwriter and this is just the next batch of songs coming from the well. I played most of them myself, and aside from the help of a few other musicians, mostly it’s me.”

As for those guest collaborators, they just so happen to be the illustrious likes of Paul McCartney, a longtime fan of Healy’s songwriting who plays bass on “As It Comes.” Alt-country crooner Neko Case chimes in on “Sing Me To Sleep,” turning up her chanteuse-like charm over Healy’s casual singing.

“She played in Berlin last year and I went to see her, then after the show when she was meeting and greeting, I went up and introduced myself asking her if she’d want to do a duet with me,” recalls Healy. “She said ‘yeah that would be great’ and I went off and wrote the song. She’s a great singer and has one of the most original voices out there, which make her records so unique.”

Healy’s signature singing and writing qualities comes through on the disc’s ten cuts, and his sense of humor is also apparent, particularly when naming the title. Though Wreckorder appears to imply some sort of organized chaos, it’s merely a twist of the term “recorder.” “I was playing about the way it looked and it sounded the same as a tape ‘recorder,’ but with the extra letters, it looked different,” he continues. “I just liked the way it looked visually and way it sounds. It has to look good and sound good, because if it doesn’t, you need a new title.”

On solo dates, expect to see Healy’s face near a microphone and a guitar by his side, all while showcasing both new tunes and old band staples in a more  organic state than the studio versions.

“It’s the way we wanted to do it for the first phase of the record, because first of all, trying to [replicate] a band like Travis would be really hard,” he muses. “Plus I’ve been in a band a long time and it’s good to just be nice and quiet breaking the songs down acoustically. The interesting thing for me with the Travis songs is that they’re my songs, which is something I always forget. But I essentially sat in my bedroom writing about what’s gone on in my life and [this live format’s] given the old songs a chance to be presented in the way they were first written.”

Healy plans to continue playing with Travis and doing solo work, though it’s unclear what will come next. “At first when I thought about [the solo break], I thought it would be for a year, but now that I’ve done it, I want to do more,” he admits. “I’ll have to do it until I want to do Travis again, but it won’t be long I think. Everything’s all cool with the guys and sooner or later there’s going to be new Travis music. I just don’t make plans because things just pop into my head.”