Travis recruited Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and The Killers’ Brandon Flowers for their new single ‘Raze The Bar’.
The Scottish rockers are returning with their 10th studio album ‘L.A. Times’ which will be released in July and they have now debuted their second track from the record which laments the closure of the Black and White Bar – a much-loved drinking establishment in New York City – and it features the two special guests.
Frontman Fran Healy revealed the collaboration came about after he played the new album to Chris. Fran told NME: “I called up Chris, I was having a moment of ‘I … don’t know how to order the record’. I’d listened to it too much. I had a running order but I needed some fresh ears so I called Chris and we drove up the Pacific Coast highway and listened to it.
“He had lots and lots of comments to make and he picked out that particular song ‘Raze The Bar’. He was like ‘Oh My God it’s … amazing’.
“So we go back to the house and he goes to the piano and he starts playing it. I was like: ‘You should sing on it’. He was like: ‘Yeah I’ll sing but you should get more people to sing on it as well’.
“So I called up Brandon and he was like ‘sure’. So the both of them came in and sung on it.”
Fran went on to reveal the song was inspired by the closure of the New York bar which was loved by indie rockers. He added: “Everyone went there, because it was near Irving Plaza and all the bands would always go there.
“This bar was a hub for poetry, it was all so positive for artists. Then they had to shut it and the landlord went in one night and ripped every single bit of the bar out and whitewashed it so that nobody could ever have the bar again. So the song is like an imaginary last night in the bar.”