TED EXCLUSIVE - The Editors on break ups, make ups, and worldwide success

It's been an incredibly torrid time for The Editors. For any band, losing such an incredible talent as Chris Urbanowicz is a potentially fatal blow, but for Tom, Russell and Ed, through losing their lead guitarist they also lost an incredibly close friend.

I had the pleasure of chatting with Ed Lay and default 'new kid' Justin Lockey just hours before their show at Exeter's Great Hall, one of many stops on their UK & Ireland Tour which will come to an end at the end of the month. I wanted to find out how the band was coping with the change from 4 piece to 5 piece and what's next for the Birmingham boys.

Gents! How are we? What've you been up to?

ED - Well we've mostly been on tour for the entire year. I say that, we've had a VERY busy year. We went out to Nashville in January, recorded the record, came back, mixed it, went and did some festivals, released the record and then came on tour. We haven't really touched the ground. It's been incredible.

You've been on the road for quite a while then…

ED - Yeah, we played 30 of our shows in Europe but then probably the same amount of festivals before that. Then back here to the UK where we're finishing off with another full month of touring.

What's it been like touring with a 5 piece as apposed to a 4 piece? There's less time in the bathroom I suppose?

ED - [To Justin] You've toured with more people before haven't you? Your old band was a 5 or a 6 wasn't it?
JUSTIN - It was a five but I've toured with another band which was an 8 piece. 5 is the perfect number because then you can gang up on people. There's no stalemate.
ED - Yeah 4 was always a problem you're right - I'd never actually thought about it.
JUSTIN - Ah you see. Politics my friend.

You're probably sick of answering this question but… It's 18 months since Chris left the band. How's it been without him?

ED - Urm. It was obviously very emotional. I don't want to dumb it down, it was the worst period of my life for a couple of months. Just trudging through trying to get songs together with him in the band and nothing was sort of, coming together. And that emotional feeling of 'what's going on' or 'who's causing this - is it us?' we all had all of those questions but the fact is, no one knows what happens when a creative relationship breaks down.

We got out of it but we still had commitments. We still had some shows to play so we got Justin and Elliott in and we were so lucky, they just slotted in so easily. They came in with a work ethic that was just outstanding and their creativity and input was top so we just started working again as a band and that was what we'd been missing for the last 18 months. As soon as they came in, we played these shows, we had a great time and we asked them if they'd like to contribute to the writing process for the next record, luckily they said yes, and within a year we were back touring again.

The last section was incredibly quick. We wrote, and we recorded, and we mixed, and we got the record out and we were on the road again - quicker than most people manage it.

So just how close to the edge were you before Chris left? How close were you to creative breaking point?

ED - I think we were at breaking point because something massive had to give. It wasn't an easy decision to get rid of a founding member of the band, someone we've spent 10 years plus with, he was one of our best friends. I can't explain to you how difficult it was.

How've you adjusted to being a 5 piece? Do you think it's changed your sound much?

ED - I think they [Justin and Elliott] add their musical perspectives to the band. They play very differently to any of us had done before. It's kinda more exciting. Rehearsals are very strange periods, some days nothing works at all and you need one person to just communicate and say let's move on to something else or let's work on this that I've been working on.

When we were a 4 piece, we sort of lost that communication and we weren't talking to each other enough. If something was going wrong we'd just f*** off home but now we all think, right, we're in Birmingham and most of us are away from our homes so what's the point in coming to work if we're not gonna get something done. So all the ego and all the b******* has just disappeared. You know it's a case of 'is everybody enjoying this - no - let's stop, talk about it and have a cup of tea'.

Realistically, aside from it being an incredibly difficult time, things may have turned out for the better then in the long run?

ED - In the long run, for The Editors, certainly because we're a band and I don't think we would still be a band if we'd carried on. We would've just sulked and got nothing done. So yeah of course. Obviously we will always look back at that time with very split opinions. The sadness of losing a mate on one hand and an incredible guitarist who's sound is all over the first 3 records, but joy because we're still working and we've made a record that's right up there with all the best work we've ever done and we're back on tour and having a good time.

The new album is ace. It peaked at 6th in the charts over here but you've had number 1s in the past - were you disappointed?

ED - It did, but that was in the UK and we've had a far better response across Europe than we've ever had on any other record. We've got better chart positions pretty much everywhere in Europe apart from the UK.
JUSTIN - You've gotta take the rough with the smooth. If you're just looking at the UK you're f***** - it's one geographical place. Just a drop in the ocean.

'A Ton of Love' was a brilliant track to comeback to. Did you write it with that in mind?

JUSTIN - It was just the way it turned out. It's an up-tempo little number.
ED - It was like Munich which was written in 40 minutes but it was just so easy to piece together. Tom [Smith] will come in and be like 'I've got this demo' and everybody knows exactly what to do with it. Everybody's on the same page. We didn't write it to be the first single but we all knew that it was gonna be. It was just so immediate when we were rehearsing. You don't need record companies to tell you what you need to put out as your first single when you've got a song like that.

The latest single 'Honesty' is out at the end of the month. What're your hopes for it?

ED - Just to keep us in the front of everyones minds. That's the idea of a single.
JUSTIN - I think the age of trying to put 12 singles on a record is over. It's a little bit old fashioned now.

And I guess for you guys to compete for the top spots in the UK charts, you'd have to be compete with the likes of One Direction…

JUSTIN - Yeah that's it. I think with a track like Honesty, you know, when we played it at festivals in the summer the response was awesome and we know that when we go back it'll just be a massive tune by then. It's a massive joy to play live as well.

So with the tour out the way, what's next?

JUSTIN - Christmas.
ED - Yeah. Nobody's really too worried at the moment. We'll definitely be getting back out on the road sort of February time. I don't know where. We're talking about trying to get some interesting places rolling. Some places in Europe we haven't touched too much. We haven't even spoken about America yet and we recorded the record over there.

You guys have always done pretty well across the pond…

ED - Yeah we've done some big shows. But we've put the work in, we've done the long hauls and the big tours. It's a funny market. We've definitely got a lot of people that like us over there but there's new places we haven't been. We haven't been to South America.

It's probably a good time to go to Brazil next year…

JUSTIN - That's not actually a bad idea.
ED - That's been spoken about.

Last question from me whilst we're on the subject of Christmas - if you had to cover a Christmas song, what would it be?

JUSTIN - Happy Christmas the war is over.
ED - Driving home for Christmas is a pretty good song. When Tom did the Christmas album with Andy Burrows there was a lot of talk about different Christmas songs. We were asked to do a Christmas cover and we were like 'yeah, let's do driving home for Christmas' it'll be so easy. No. It's got the most complicated chord structure. Tom just couldn't get his head round it. It sounds so simple but he just couldn't do it.
JUSTIN - It's jazz that's why.

How about you release it then and we'll have the exclusive?

ED - No we can't play it though.
JUSTIN - It's physically impossible. Only Chris Rea can play that song.