MAN IS BACK WITH SON’S BLESSING
film Almost Fashionable – A Film About Travis. Both it and A Ghost are up there with Travis’s finest tunes – those stadium-sized singalongs that bring strangers together. Fran regresses to a teenage boy when he enthuses about The Only Thing, a duet with Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles and the socially distant video he’ll do with her. Grinning, he said: “Imagine hanging out with Susanna from the Bangles. F ****** hell.” Fran’s newly-acquired rocket fuel also includes a musical. Nina’s Song on the new album is the first song of a musical to be produced by The Crown’s Andrew Eaton, based on a Man at the Helm, the debut novel by Nina Stibbe. “It appealed to me because I’m an only child and I didn’t really have a dad and I really wanted a dad, so that song is all about looking for a new dad,” said Fran. While the music for 10 Songs was done before lockdown, the rest is up in the air. Usually, Travis would be promoting around the world and doing gigs but this can’t happen. Even the video for A Ghost is home-made, a lockdown burst of creativity from Fran and Clay.
With the feel of a-ha’s Take On Me, it was drawn by Fran and Clay filmed the real-life bits. It’s the band’s best video – even beating Coming Around, which had Fran dressed as a huge egg.
For most teenagers, spending lockdown making a video with your dad would beat having to homeschool but Fran insists his son has been happily doing his schoolwork.
His “funky” private school in LA was ahead of the curve and, after finishing on the Tuesday, was straight into online school on the Wednesday.
“He didn’t miss a beat,” said Fran. “I f ****** hated school. I felt like I was in prison. But the online school is pretty cool. Clay loves it. He’s like me. He’s not a big fan of mixing with tons of people. Maybe I’ve rubbed off on him.”
It’s not a surprise then to hear Fran has been quite happy during lockdown, “I think I’ve been social distancing for the past 27 years,” he admitted.
“I’m a bit of a stay-at-home person. When you’re in a band, you spend most of your time out performing. So when you come back from the road, I like to stay in and be with my family.”
Up until now, when the band have stopped touring, they go their separate ways but in lockdown, they’ve been connecting more than ever making isolation videos to drop instead of gigs.
Fran said: “Travis are like every other band. We exist as friends on the road. When we come off the road, we barely talk to each other.
“But lockdown has become a bonding thing. We’ve been doing these projects which have taken a lot of work. But it’s been good. We are communicating every other day with each other.”
Fatherhood, divorce and even drummer Neil breaking his neck diving into a swimming pool in 2002 haven’t stopped Travis.
Like many of us, Fran is worried about how damaging the pandemic will be to the music business because touring is everyone’s bread and butter nowadays.
But live music will return and I’ve given Fran an idea.
Glass Onion was the band before Travis, Andy being the only constant. Fran joined in 1991 and Dougie in 1996.
Fran said: “I auditioned and got the job as singer at Glasgow’s Berkeley 2 Studios. It would be so good to do a gig there to celebrate 30 years.
“But I look at Travis starting when Dougie joined. That will be 25 years next year. We’ve had a long life but I feel like we still have a lot to do.
“Travis are in really good shape.” Travis’ new single A Ghost is out now. 10 songs is out on October 9.
FRAN HEALY ON PUTTING HIS SON FIRST