After a quiet 12 months, South London quartet Athlete have launched into 2005 with gusto. The Deptford band have traded the quirky pop sensibilities of their debut album Vehicles And Animals for a more epic, sweeping sound on their follow-up record Tourist which came out in January. And it's a formula which seems to be working so far with Wires, the first song to be released from their album, charting at number four. Wires recounts a fraught dash by front man Joel Pott when he discovered his newborn daughter, Myla, had been rushed into intensive care. The serious subject matter also reveals a more grown-up band than those who described their first album as "a camouflage of Casio rock" in their interview with BBC Norfolk in March 2003. Bassist Carey Willetts tells Zoe Applegate why keyboards bought from car boot sales have been swapped for orchestras and gospel choirs and also reveals why Athlete like playing in Norwich. Your second album, Tourist, is out at the end of January, when did you start recording it? We did about six weeks in April and May in Heliocentric, near Rye, then we went to the Dairy in Brixton for three or four weeks then went to New York and mixed what we'd done up to that point then had another writing session and went back down to Heliocentric for a two weeks in September and then went to New York and finished mixing the album in October. So it's been quite a jet-set process then? Yeah, it's a bit strange. You're in the middle of the country somewhere then a couple of weeks later you're in the middle of New York working on the same songs. It's a very different feel but a lot of fun. Why did you go to New York to mix the album? The person we wanted to mix it was a guy called Michael Brauer [who mixed Coldplay's debut album] who has added loads to this record. Mixers are quite territorial. Once they know what a room sounds like and they know where the gear is they don't particularly want to go anywhere else, so you have to go to them. He works out of a studio called Quad which I think is where Tupac got shot. Do you still share the song-writing duties? There is still a very democratic process that we go through, but we decided rather than us all sitting in our basement being there for every minute of every single thing - just because we didn't have enough time - we all went our separate ways for a couple of weeks and wrote songs, came up with ideas and messed around with sounds. Then we all came back together and played each other our ideas and some people came down with almost full songs, other people came with parts of songs so it was more efficient and played to people's strengths more. Joel's very good with melody, Tim's very good with chords and Steve's very good with beats and I do a bit of melody and a bit of chords. It all tied in fairly well. Lyrically this time we made Joel do more. If any of us wrote lyrics we'd then sit down with Joel and talk him through it.  | | Athlete's Carey Willetts |
We felt he's got to sing the song and he's got to be able to feel it and mean it and if he can't then the song suffers. We would talk through what we were writing about and he'd sing over it and then go either, 'I'm not sure about this bit or that bit' and we did the same with his lyrics, so the whole lyrics had a cohesiveness to them. After the first album came out, before the Mercury nomination, we went the album's doing okay, not amazing but okay so let's get on and start writing the second album. So within six weeks of the first album coming out we'd started writing the next album: Wires, Chances and another song - which didn't make it but will probably be on our website. Then the Mercury nomination came and suddenly everything took off. The writing process got put on hold while we went on tour. We did a tour with Travis last Christmas around Europe and suddenly realised we had to write another album. So we started to write while we on tour which was a strange experience but it seemed to work. In February and March we spent six weeks writing as much as we could to get the songs done then we had another writing session in August. And when you spread it out your ideas evolve. We've always been big believers in everything evolving. Wires evolved over that whole period and so did Chances to a certain extent. All the other songs - when you're writing - it's better that you have a few weeks to sit back and listen to it and knock the edges off rather than writing it, recording it and there it's done! How does Tourist differ to that of your debut album? On our debut album we bought lots of cheap keyboards and had a lot of fun just making odd noises and on this album we felt we'd done the cheap keyboard thing and we wanted to move on and do something richer, so we started talking about strings, gospel choirs and we started buying slightly more expensive keyboards and better computer programs. A lot of us were into albums like the Soft Bulletin, the Flaming Lips and we noticed that Beck, the way he uses strings is part of the song rather than stuck on top. That for us was a big inspiration. I think it's a richer album. Lyrically it's more personal. It's partly about being away. It's called Tourist because lots of it is written while you're away from home and trying to figure out how you cope with having relationships - trying to make it all work and be good. The use of strings on this album is apparent on lots of the songs. Did you arrange the strings yourself as a band? We got this guy in called Alan Peters who did all the Echo And The Bunnymen strings back in the day who was a friend of our producer. On Tourist, Wires, Street Map and Chances we had a string module where you would put down basic melodies. He'd come down and we'd go, 'Here are our ideas' and he'd go away and score up some ideas and bring it back and we'd talk about it. He did such a good job, he ended up conducting the whole thing as well. Some of the things he added, especially in Street Map, were touches of genius. So it's been a different way of working? Up until this point we've always been very closed-handed - you're very precious about what you write so you make sure you've got control over all of it. We often do demos which are quite produced so everybody's already got ideas about what kind of parts they're going to play and what sounds they're going to use and how they're going to develop the song so we've already got that before we even start speaking to a producer. This time we tried to take our hands off a bit to let [producer] Victor [van Vugt] have a few ideas and push us into certain directions. I think he came into his own trying to make us more musical rather than going, 'They're the basic chords, bash them down!' It is a different process trying to let somebody else have ideas for your songs. But doing the strings was a lot of fun.  | | Carey Willetts at the UEA in 2003 |
We ended up doing them at Abbey Road in studio one. There's a lot of history in those walls and then you've got a 26-piece orchestra, listening to them play, and it was shocking. It was the first take and we were like, 'How can you play that so well already!' Joel's voice sounds different on this album. Is that something that was deliberate or has evolved? I think the whole album sounds warmer and partly Joel's just learning to sing better. Every time we go into the studio he's getting more used to singing there and enjoying it a bit more. Overall, I think the last album as a sound is harsher, a little bit more angular. This album is a lot warmer and richer but also I think the subject matter is different so you have to approach singing it in a different way. So when you're singing about some of the things he is singing about on this album both good and bad you just sing it differently whereas the last album everything was fantastic. We'd just got signed and in some ways it's a happy, poppy album which is fine and we're all really proud of it but this one has got a little more depth to it. As you're heading out on tour what is going to be your favourite song to play? Wires will be a lot of fun just because people will know it. It will be the first taster to see if people are getting it. On the album, I Love, is a beautiful way to finish an album and it's a nice summing up. If I Found Out as well, recording the gospel choir was a lot of fun because I spent a lot of time arranging that. Working out how they'd sing it was a lot of fun. On tour will it just be the four of you or will you be bringing any string musicians or backing singers along? The first tour in January will be just us but the tour in March, we've got a string quartet who also can sing. What is the song Wires about? It's actually about Joel's daughter, Myla. The night she was born Joel got sent home from hospital but when he got home there was a message from his wife saying that his newborn daughter had a seizure and was rushed into intensive care. It's actually about him rushing back to the hospital because he's not sure whether she's going to last the night, but when he gets there just knowing that it's going to be okay - and she is. For him, it was a hard subject to approach but it is a really positive song for the good that has come out of it. This tour will be the fourth time you've been to Norwich. What are your memories of previous gigs here? My main memory is playing there with Electric Soft Parade and playing football against them and beating them quite handsomely. There is something that is fresh about getting out of town and people seem more laid back, at ease and willing to have a bit of fun. You notice often right from the start that the gigs are a lot of fun. Some places it takes three or four songs and then people get into it. That's the one thing in Norwich, it's never felt it's been like that. People are generally straight in to it. And the good thing about playing in Norwich is you can get back home to London. It's not too far which is nice. But once you're on tour I actually quite like staying out. It's almost easier when you're away to be away and live in this little cocoon for a bit. Bearing in mind that you toured for so long with Vehicles And Animals, what are your thoughts about going out on the road to promote this album? I'm excited about it. Playing live, I love it, it's one of the most enjoyable things. Well, it's either the best thing or the worst thing. If it's going really well it's the best thing - if it's going badly there's nowhere else you'd rather not be. You can't help but be a little bit nervous about how the album's going to be received. People don't know it yet and it's that nervous stage but hopefully everyone will love it and it will be a lot of fun again. When Vehicles And Animals was released it seemed to be co-ordinated with the arrivals of Joel's and Tim's children. Are there any more offspring on the way? [He laughs] Um, yes. Tim told us the other day they're having another baby which is due around festival time. So fingers crossed it will come in mid-week and we'll be at home as opposed to Barcelona or somewhere at the weekend. Last time it seemed to work really well but that was just a fluke. Hopefully this time it will be just as flukey! Bands like The Thrills and Franz Ferdinand are doing really well in America at the moment. Have you got any plans to go out there? Yes. We've got a tour pencilled in for May. The last album we just let go a little bit out there. We just put it out - we put it out really late, last May. We thought if a few thousand people get it then great, if not, then not to worry and we'll really go for it on this next album. The plan is to go for it as much as possible so we'll be there in May for three or four weeks and then be going back a lot over the year. If you roll back two and a half years ago how has life changed for you and the band? Not a huge amount. We've probably got less time at home these days. We're busier especially at the minute - everything's going better than it's ever done before and we're all really pleased about that. But in terms of other ways we're not really this huge, hyped band. Lots of people haven't got a clue what we look like but might know our music. On the one hand that's been a positive thing for us, but on the other we're starting to be aware that it needs to change and people at least need to identify Joel's face and put it to us as a band. We're all a little more confident than we used to be and ready to give our opinions about stuff. Hopefully there's a bit more money as well! Well, it would be nice - at the minute there's not so much. This last year we've been writing so we've not been out making money in terms of gigs and anything like that. A little bit more extra money would be nice - it would be nice to buy a house anyway but it seems like it's a far-off cry! | 
