Back-room Boys

They've done their homeowrk. They've done their practical experience. Now they're ready for the big time. Birmingham-based four-piece Editors tell Kevin Courtney about moving from the small print to the headlines.

LIFE is sweet for Editors right now. They've only been out of the traps for a short while, but already the Brummie quartet are racing ahead of the pack. At this pace, they're looking at hitting the A-list by year's end. Their single, Blood, cracked the UK Top 20 during the summer, and their debut album, The Back Room, is doing brisk business, building up chart momentum as word gets around about the moody, compelling music contained within its stark black sleeve. Their first single, Bullets, released only last January, has been changing hands on eBay for upwards of 30 quid, and tickets for their gigs are getting hotter by the minute. Meanwhile the music press has been predicting a great future for these four young ex-sound technology students. The only blot on the very bright horizon is those pesky Joy Division and Interpol comparisons.

I meet singer/guitarist Tom Smith and guitarist Chris Urbanowicz just a couple of hours before their sold-out show at Whelans last month, and they exude the fresh-faced eagerness of a young band who are thoroughly enjoying their rock'n'roll adventure.

"Yeah, we're very pleased with the way it's gone," says Tom. "We were never splashed anywhere before we'd released a piece of music or we were ready. We played to half-empty venues and the word got round. It was people deciding for themselves and telling their friends to come and see us. When we tour the UK next month, we're playing in places like the sold-out Astoria, which feels, as obviously our album's been out a couple of months, like it's a reaction to the music. People like the music, and are not so much interested in what drugs we take. The press have been nice to us. They've been very good; they haven't introduced us as the new knights in shining armour."

Editors' quest for rock'n'roll's holy grail began in, of all places, Staffordshire University, where the four lads from different parts of England were doing a music technology course. Like mechanics deciding to become Formula One racing drivers, they figured it would be more fun (and more glamorous) to go out and drive the cars than to just sit in some backroom tinkering with them.

"It was no risk for us," says Tom. "When we were in college we didn't like our course, and when we were out of college we didn't like our jobs . . . So we chose to live in Birmingham and look for a record deal. And one thing we had was self-belief. We were confident in our songs. We weren't gonna be U2 or anyone big like that, but we believed that we were good enough to get a deal, and the reaction to the record . . . as musicians, it made us very happy."

Signing up for a music technology course, says Tom, was a good way of meeting likeminded sorts, the kind who might be up for forming a band. Listening to the sharp-relief tunes on the debut album, though, it's plain that the lads learnt something about the dynamics of sound while at Staffordshire. They may have found the course a bit boring, but it still sounds like they were paying attention in class.

"Yeah, definitely," admits Tom. "We'd all wanted to be in bands before, but you finish school and it's like, what do you do now, do we do the music course with a desire to get into production, working in the studio, that kind of thing? But you're also increasing the odds of meeting someone to form a band with if you do a music course."

"There were a lot of failed musicians on that course," offers Chris. "I definitely didn't wanna form a band. I didn't even want to pick up a guitar. I was just, you know, still in that Britpop hangover when I first went into the course."

Both Chris and Tom were Britpop brats, buying records by Blur, Oasis and their ilk at 13, going to all the gigs, and dreaming of being Liam, Noel, Damon or Brett. Some current stars would be keen to distance themselves from such influences, but Tom is happy to credit the Gallagher brothers with getting him started on the rock'n'roll path.

"It was just, in 1994, when Definitely Maybe came out, that was what made me pick up the guitar and learn to play the songs in the first place. And it was those songs I learned to play which taught me how to play guitar, and I guess, from that, wanting to write songs. But it did quickly become tiresome, that kind of thing. I mean, Chris kind of quickly fell out of love with guitarists. I got into Radiohead and Spiritualized, which was a kind of step away from that laddish music in a way, but it has definitely been an influence, I would be lying if I said it wasn't."

For Chris, the Britpop hangover was cured by the arrival of The Strokes, and he credits the New York quintet's debut, Is This It?, with rekindling his desire to make music that really matters. "The Strokes were a really important band for every band that's out at the moment," he asserts. "From Franz Ferdinand to Bloc Party, I think they just opened the door and made rock exciting again. And me especially, I was begging for it."

If there is a legitimate Interpol comparison, says Tom, it's probably in the fact that his voice has that same commanding tone as Interpol singer Paul Banks, and that they, too, have come out of the post-Strokes rock renaissance. Both bands share a penchant for chiming guitar riffs and deliciously dark lyricism. Plus, there's the shadow of a certain Ian Curtis lurking somewhere in both bands' back rooms.

"With all respect to Interpol, they're a great band," shrugs Tom. "I do have a similar vocal range to Paul." "I think they like our records," confirms Chris. "The bass player [ Carlos D] spins Bullets in his DJ set."

"I think we're unashamedly trying to write pop songs and use melody," continues Tom, "albeit in a slightly darker way. But I think we're much more direct than Interpol. You know, we understand why comparisons happen. We're a fairly new band, and it's easier to compare bands by mentioning other bands than actually trying to describe what they do."

The Back Room is on Kitchenware Records