Athlete on 'Tourist'

added 19 December 2005 at 15.58

Athlete take an altogether more sombre tone on the follow-up to 2003's jovial 'Vehicles & Animals'. Hear Carey Willetts and Steve Roberts talk us through the Deptford boys' sophomore effort track-by-track.

When Athlete emerged onto the Rock Scene in 2002, they were a group of fresh-faced young optimists armed with a bunch of uplifting, infectious tunes like 'El Salvador', 'Westside' and 'Beautiful'. Three years on they've delivered the altogether darker but no less beautiful 'Tourist' album. Bassist Carey Willetts and tub-thumper Steve Roberts talked Xfm through the whole record, track by track.

'Chances'
"It feels like a really good opening track to an album 'cos, like you say, take all your chances while you can is really positive; 'Right, okay, gotta grab hold of this, make it go somewhere' And it felt very much like that to us at the time." [listen]

'Half-Light'
"It's kind of about the great aspects of being away and also the hard aspects of being away; you miss people. And that song and 'Tourist' are probably the most obvious ones that are 'I love being here but I miss you'." [listen]

'Tourist'
"It's probably the most self-explanatory song on the album but it was a really enjoyable song to make, partly because it has the strings on it which we really enjoyed." [listen]

'Trading Air'
"I suppose it was kind of written around the story of me and my wife getting together, which looked like it wouldn't happen for quite a while, what with her moving to Germany and then coming back engaged to someone else..." [listen]

'Wires'
"You write songs for a variety of reasons and for him, he didn't intend on writing a song about his newborn daughter almost dying, it's almost like therapy in some ways." [listen]

'If I Found Out'
"It was almost that the song became about it self, in a really weird way. 'Cos you're writing the song and the lyrics are almost about the process you've gone through writing the song." [listen]

'Yesterday Threw Everything At Me'
"We spent some time trying to think of some things that are inherently a lie, but kind of trying to turn that around. For example; plastic flowers." [listen]

'Street Map'
"The whole thing is a really beautiful song but it needed an edge to almost allow it to be that beautiful, you need an element of dirt or something that's off-kilter somewhere." [listen]

'Modern Mafia'
"It wasn't really meant to be a completely agressive 'We hate you, come on!' kind of song. It was more just kind of the positive side of how we are together." [listen]  

'Twenty Four Hours'
"Because it was one of the last songs I think we knew where we were going with the album and we felt a lot more confident about the sound we were creating." [listen]

'I Love'
"I think we all agreed it's possibly the best way to end this album and it does sum up a lot of the feelings that we've gone through on it." [listen]

www.athlete.mu

Tagged as Athlete, archive

bookmark

what is bookmarking?

latest videos

  • Video: by Oasis 'I'm Outta Time'

    Oasis 'I'm Outta Time'

  • Video: How did New Order rise from the ashes of Joy Division? Peter Hook tells all. by Xfm Meets New Order Part 1

    Xfm Meets New Order Part 1

    How did New Order rise from the ashes of Joy Division? Peter Hook tells all.

  • Video: How New Order made the million-selling 12-inch monster 'Blue Monday'. by Xfm Meets New Order Part 2

    Xfm Meets New Order Part 2

    How New Order made the million-selling 12-inch monster 'Blue Monday'.

  • Video: Peter Hook reveals how New Order mastered playing electronic music live. by Xfm Meets New Order Part 3

    Xfm Meets New Order Part 3

    Peter Hook reveals how New Order mastered playing electronic music live.

schedule

  1. now: 1:00PM - 4:00PM

    Jo Good

    The best new music and classic tunes including the X-list at 1. Email Jo.Good@xfm.co.uk or text 83xfm (standard network).

  2. next: 4:00PM - 7:00PM

    Dave Berry

    Drive time with Dave Berry, call Dave on 0871 222 1049 or txt 83xfm (std network).