MUSIC MONDAY: All Access with Editors The UK's #1 Band

Author: Min-Q Kim
Posted on: Monday October 26, 2009 at 1:00 PM
Filed under: music, editors, in this light and on this evening, exclusive

For this interview, New York contributor Min-Q Kim went across the pond and on the road with the rock band Editors beatnik journalist style - in order to capture the behind-the-scenes reality and late night epiphanies of the band, whose album In This Light and On This Evening was just announced as the #1 selling album on the British charts.

Editors L-R: Chris Urbanowicz (guitarist with mystique), Tom Smith (lead singer), Russell Leetch (bassist), Ed Lay (drummer), (Photo: Kevin Westenberg)

ALL ACCESS WTH EDITORS

"We all had one too many glasses of champagne last night," says a bleary-eyed Chris Urbanowicz, guitarist for the UK-based Editors. It's a few hours before Editors are to play a sold-out show at Colston Hall in Bristol, and they are hours removed from celebrating their standing as the top music act in Britain, but the talk of the tour at the moment is the catered dinner -- specifically the rice pudding - and hangovers. The Canadian opening band Wintersleep slink in to the backstage green room, looking a little worse for the wear.

"They celebrated harder than we did last night," Chris quips. "I think they had a bottle of champagne each... How you feeling?" he asks Wintersleep lead singer Paul Murphy.

"Yeah, I blacked out last night," Murphy responds.

"Nice work," says Chris, showing his approval with a thumbs up.

Editors' music is serious as a heart attack: their new album cites as its influences the dystopian-sounding soundtracks to Terminator and Blade Runner. So it might come as a bit of a surprise to hear that the band members are actually very light-hearted and gregarious. The Bristol show is a family affair for lead singer Tom Smith, who has his parents, wife, and infant son in town to hang backstage and see the show. Chris' admitted obsession with Pro-Wrestling has manifested itself in a lineup of vintage WWF action figures he arranges neatly on top of his amp before every show. He's also a huge sports fan: a loyal supporter of his hometown, but rather hapless, Nottingham Forest, and his adopted hometown NY Rangers. Bassist Russell Leetch is the real cut-up. He'll bust out with funny voices and is the self-proclaimed tour bus Playstation FIFA champion. Ed Lay the drummer is the quiet one. A band called Air Ship has joined the tour in Bristol, and the boys send over a bottle of champagne as a welcome gesture. Ed declares, modestly, "We'll be opening for them someday."

Chris Urbanowicz (above) has a small obsession with classic Pro-Wrestling. Listen to his guitar work and tell me you could've guessed that.

The next three nights are a whirlwind. The Bristol show is a revelation, as is the London show two nights later at the Hammersmith Apollo. In between, we manage to catch a rowdy Biffy Clyro show (who opened for Editors on their last US tour), a Champions League football (read: soccer) match at a proper London pub, some world-class curry, my first taste of guinea fowl, a chance run-in with Jamie T (whose new album we covered ecstatically a while back) at the Highroad House cocktail lounge, whiskey, nightcap martinis, and countless pints of beer. On stage, the band's live setup has grown to include a huge light-up screen and an elaborate light show, to accentuate the modern, larger-than-life sound of their music. Their big ominous songs have the crowds mesmerized, and I am in there, too, hands up, blinded by lights.

It's rare to find a band like Editors that has the power to make an arena full of people standing perfectly still in rapt attention one minute, jumping up and down and moshing the next.

The new album, for the record, is an absolute juggernaut: dark, stirring, haunting and gorgeous. The synth work does indeed conjure the stark imagery of a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Yet, as lead singer Tom Smith points out, "When an album feels like this, the fragments of hope and love that do occasionally shine through, shine through ten times brighter than they would normally do so."

My personal favorite song is the finale, Walk the Fleet Road. Says Smith of the track: "I would say I'm a worrier. I would say generally my glass is half empty and I would say I take things too seriously. Sometimes I need to be told... Sung as in conversation with the one I love." Have a listen: