Travis are preparing to embark upon their fourth U.S. tour in support of The Man Who, before entering a Los Angeles studio this fall to work on the record's follow-up with producer Nigel Godrich.

The Scottish foursome plan to spend October in the studio to lay down some of the new tracks they have written on the road. They are also looking to recruit Scottish comedian Billy Connolly to play banjo on one of the tracks on the new album, which is currently being scheduled for a July 2001 release.

In the meantime, Travis are looking forward to playing new cities and larger venues on this current stint, which will kick off Sept. 5 in Washington, D.C. "We're going to places that we haven't played yet," says frontman Fran Healy. "We're hitting New York again. We're doing our biggest show [in America], to date -- 3,500."

The band has been working hard in their quest to get their songs out and break America, often times in advance of their record label Epic, according to bassist Dougie Payne. "We've been ahead of them," he says. "Second to last time we went [to America] we kind of said to them, 'Look, don't give us a day off, just give us press and interviews and stuff to do everyday, and in-stores. Use the shows as an excuse for us to do the rest of the work.' They're what kind of gets the [songs] out there and they did, so we we're pushing them a little bit."

Healy attributes the band's hard touring attitude to their dedication to sharing their songs worldwide.

"It's all about not wanting anything back," he says. "To be honest, to be pretty fair, I have trouble doing gigs. I find it hard. I've never really massively enjoyed it 'cos I just don't like it, but I'm fucking on a mission. If it was up to me, you wouldn't have any fucking shows at all, none. But it's not up to me, 'cos you're doing something with a song, and the song's delivered to you, it sits on your table and it says 'You've gotta take me out to as many people as possible! Sorry mate, you don't matter anymore!' And you're just like, 'Fair enough.'"

JOLIE LASH
(August 24, 2000)