THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “L.A. Times is our most personal album since The Man Who,” says Travis frontman Fran Healy. “There was a lot of big stuff to write about back then, the tectonic plates had shifted in my life. I was 22 when I was writing those songs. They were my therapy. Over 20 years later and the plates have shifted again. There’s a lot to talk about.”
Glasgow’s multiple BRIT and Ivor Novello-winning songwriting giants introduced their their 10th studio album with the single Gaslight, their first new music since 2020. The song marks the beginning of a bold new era for the band. L.A. Times is an incredible achievement that arrives 25 years since the band released their breakthrough No. 1 album The Man Who, a nine-times platinum-certified record in the U.K. alone.
Bolstered by horns, handclaps and a symphonic sunburst of gang vocals shot through the chorus, Gaslight serves an instant reminder of how, when Healy (vocals, guitar); Andy Dunlop (guitar); Dougie Payne (bass) and Neil Primrose (drums) convene to make music, the resulting sound is impossible to mistake for any other band.
Speaking about Gaslight, Fran Healy says: “I read a few weeks ago that gaslighting was the most web-searched word in the world. We are living in a time where our realities are being warped by bosses, leaders, friends, teachers and politicians. It really is everywhere. Gaslighters want to control you. They tell you things which undermine your confidence in yourself and make you question reality and it makes you feel like you’re going crazy.”
Produced by Tony Hoffer (Air, Beck, Phoenix), L.A. Times was written by Healy in his studio on the edge of Skid Row, Los Angeles, the city he has called home for the last decade. Its ten songs see their creator, inevitably, trying to make sense of the road travelled to this point — a sentiment reflected in the stunning album cover photograph. Echoing some of Travis’ most beloved records, we’re greeted anew by four distant figures amongst vast surroundings, this time beneath the concrete and glitter of downtown Los Angeles at night. An unbroken lineup since their formation at the Glasgow School of Art in the 1990s, the coordinates of their extraordinary journey together are marked by this latest in a series of arresting images by world-renowned photographer and Travis collaborator for over 20 years, Stefan Ruiz.”
