/MUSIC ‘TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF WHAT’S HAPPENED IN THE WORLD’

CITYLIFE catches up with Birmingham gloomrockers Editors on the eve of their big comeback following a threeyear hiatus. With a brand new album, Violence (due March 9), and a UK tour (visiting Manchester Cathedral) on the horizon, there are numerous preparations which need to be made and finalised, from band rehearsals to a hectic promotional itinerary.

Above all else, though, the Brummie quintet’s biggest priority has been their mental preparation – in particular, assuming an extra tough layer of skin.

“Being in this band, we’ve needed a really thick skin over the years,” says Russell Leetch, Editors’ mild-mannered bass player. “Especially here in the UK. Just the other day, we read a three star review of our new album, but it still felt a bit begrudging. Even though it was a positive review, the reviewer still had a little dig at us! To the British music press, there’s still this image of us as this dark, really serious band who sound like Joy Division. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

He’s got a point. When Editors first emerged, during the early2000s, those ubiquitous Joy Division comparisons might well have been valid. The band’s 2005 debut LP, The Back Room, was rife with jagged post-punk melodies, lyrics of morbid introspection and, most crucially, with vocalist Tom Smith and his intense baritone delivery, Editors possessed a frontman who had eerie echoes of Ian Curtis at his manic epileptic peak.

Over a decade on, however, Editors have demonstrated impressive depth and invention, their six albums to date showcasing a sound which has evolved from gloom-rock to wiry noirpop to Eighties-style electronica.

The band’s eagerness to embrace change is perhaps best illustrated by their attitude towards the tenth anniversary of their debut LP, The Back Room, back in 2015. With so many indie-rock bands celebrating ten year anniversaries of late (even the rubbish, utterly forgettable bands), Editors wisely chose not to partake in this culture of nostalgia.

“It’s weird, this constant craving for