Idlewild tries for Scottish Invasion

Anthony Bromberg
Published: Sunday, April 20, 2003

The band’s name is an oxymoron: Idlewild. As hackneyed and inexpressive as most band names are, this one seems to mean something.

Idlewild has punk roots and a lead singer who is heavily into literature. It’s a Scottish band with American influences that is much more popular in Scotland. So, maybe the band isn’t really a walking paradox, but it is an indie rock critical darling. Acclaimed for the lyrical rock of its last two albums, including the recently released “The Remote Part,” Idlewild is set to play this weekend’s Coachella. The band will share the bill with some of the American groups who influenced its members.

“I had a sort of musical epiphany when I was 13 or 14 (and living in South Carolina), discovering all these bands, Sonic Youth, Black Flag, the Minutemen, I just didn’t understand it so I liked it,” said Roddy Woomble, Idlewild’s lead singer. “I moved back to Scotland with all these records that no one had heard of, because there were no record shops in the town I grew up in. So I had all these bands and I discovered a lot of other stuff, because when you get into bands one thing leads to another, and eventually you’re obsessed with it.”

The thing that has set Idlewild apart from other across the pond purveyors of post-grunge and helped the band find a fanbase is Woomble’s interest in literature and his maturing songwriting skills.

“I’ve been interested in the written word for years now,” Woomble said. “Poetry and novels and letters and stuff like that. It’s not like I claim to be any kind of academic or not that I seek divine inspiration from certain types of people, it’s just that if something inspires me, be it a film or a record or a live gig or a poem, I take something from it. It’s like a mixture of all the things I’ve taken from in the past year make up ‘The Remote Part,’ plus of course my own opinions and thoughts and stuff.”

In addition to Coachella, Idlewild is opening Pearl Jam’s upcoming tour that starts at the end of May. “The Remote Part” is garnering the boys of Idlewild more good press, and Woomble thinks their plan to win over the United States is more organized than past efforts. It’s more gradual and paced out than previous tours, and the new record is better.

Idlewild continues to move forward because Woomble subscribes to a similar formula for success as Ed Burns in his new movie.

“I think I’m just more confident really, as boring as it sounds I think that’s pretty much it,” Woomble said. “It took me a long time to accept the role that I had of being the singer and the lyricist. I still have days when I wonder why I do it and some days when I don’t, and I guess with ‘The Remote Part’ I just felt more comfortable with what I was doing and I think that comes across in the songs. Because they make more sense, really. I’m not slagging off what we did in the past, but I think things we’ve done before were slightly more oblique. These songs are straightforward, but in the best possible way.”

With reports by Andrew Lee, Daily Bruin Senior Staff.