Travis share single ‘Gaslight’ and talk new album ‘L.A. Times’: “America is so wrapped in their own history”

nme.com:

Travis have shared their jaunty new single ‘Gaslight’ and spoken to NME about their new album ‘L.A. Times’, supporting The Killers on their upcoming tour and 25 years of ‘The Man Who’.The Glasgow quartet’s first record in four years is set for release on July 12 via BMG and focuses on the City Of Angels, where frontman Fran Healy has lived for the last decade.During that time, the charismatic band leader has found himself the victim of a car-jacking and in a separate incident was “mauled” by a sausage dog that he tried to rescue from the scene of a car crash.“Do you wanna see my scar [where I was bitten]?” he laughed holding out his hand as NME sat down with him to survey the damage at BMG’s London headquarters. “It was a beauty.

I almost lost my hand saving my neighbour’s dog.”Despite his own personal traumas, Healy confirmed that none of them will feature on the record itself.

Instead, it hones in on the social disparities of the city – with first single ‘Gaslight’ finding the frontman contemplating how to defeat this ugly form of mind manipulation.“I’ve had personal experience of it, my kids have had personal experience, friends have had it, you get it in schools, you get it in the police, you get it with politicians,” he explained. “Are we living in a time where it’s happening more?

No I don’t think so. We’re like, ‘Oh my God it’s everywhere’ but it’s always been everywhere. It’s not nice to be on the receiving end of it but it’s nice to be emancipated from it.