Idlewild Set To Play Birmingham This Weekend

Having taken a break in 2010, friendship and the bind of their creativity brought Idlewild back together for 2015’s ‘Everything Ever Written’. With it, came critical praise, an album in the top 20, and the band selling out venues as large as they ever had. With new members Luciano Rossi and Andrew Mitchell on board, Roddy Woomble, guitarist Rod Jones and drummer Colin Newton felt a renewed sense of purpose. So much so that the week that ‘Everything Ever Written’ was released, they were already back at the drawing board to start work on what would become the bold step sidewards, forthcoming album ‘Interview Music’.

“A lot of the songs are about dreams and dreaming and the thoughts and ideas that come from this state,” says Woomble. “I live in the Scottish Highlands, and between there and California you’ve got two locations that can put you in a dream like state – driving down Sunset Boulevard as the sun sets or driving over the remote Ardnamurchan peninsula as the sun rises. The world seems unreal, magical. You’re dreaming through a landscape.”

Before finishing the album, the band performed a run of shows to celebrate the anniversary for their seminal record ‘The Remote Part’. One of those shows would see them meet up once again with the producer of that record and ‘100 Broken Windows’, Dave Eringa, who would provide Idlewild with the grounding they needed to finish Interview Music.

“Dave produced five songs on the album, but also brought a focus back to the band, and actually made us finish it!” admits Woomble “He made it sound like us. What’s really important about Idlewild is that we are basically punk rock kids,” concludes Woomble. “No one ever taught us how to play anything. We formed a band and we learned. In our own way. We were inspired by the bands we saw just getting up on stage, making a noise and exchanging ideas, and trying to change your ideas. That’s principally what the band still do. I’m not a kid rolling around screaming into a microphone on the floor anymore, but that ideal is still at our core.”

Idlewild will play the o2 Institute in Birmingham this Sunday. Their new album ‘Interview Music’ is out now.