Idlewild‘s Roddy Woomble has spoken to NME about the fine balance of shunning nostalgia while accepting the band’s own past for their new self-titled album.
Released today (Friday October 3), ‘Idlewild’ is the third in a string of consecutive career-high records since the Scottish alt-rock veterans’ reunion over a decade ago.
With a forward motion and ever-wisened vision from Woomble’s vivid and poetic lyrics, the group’s 10th album follows on from 2019’s acclaimed ‘Interview Music’ with flourishes of Idlewild’s renowned anthemic past but without ever leaning on pastiche – with Idlewild still living a world entirely of their own making.
“I’m always coming at something from the perspective of the outsider,” Woomble told NME of his approach to the new album. “That’s what I’ve always felt like throughout my life. Since I was a teenager, I’ve always identified with the character of the outsider in novels and films. That’s probably because I moved around a lot when I was younger and spent a lot of time on my own. I was drawn to art, books and these practices that you do when you’re on your own. I was always looking in, a wee bit. The songs are always from that place.”
He continued: “Obviously they’re anthemic in places; we’re really good at writing melodies and Rod [Jones, guitarist] is really good at writing catchy guitar lines that counter off my melodies. There’s a euphoric feeling to a lot of the tunes. It’s definitely not a negative, inward-looking piece of work, but it always comes from the place of the outsider.
“I don’t think it’s an age thing. Walt Whitman was an outsider in his 80s, Dylan’s still an outsider. That’s not a negative thing. The work is coming from that sort of place. Artistically, you need to remove yourself from who you are.”
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Formed in 1995, Idlewild became a cult concern with their acclaimed early albums ‘Captain’, ‘Hope Is Important’ and ‘100 Broken Windows’. NME famously hailed them as “the sound of a flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs” before their sound matured for the breakthrough albums ‘The Remote Part’ and ‘Warnings/Promises’ in the ’00s. Despite their long journey and various line-up changes, Woomble said that the band’s core DNA remains intact.
“When you’re 18, you’re free and that’s when we formed the band,” he told NME. “I don’t mean this in a cheesy way, but for us, Idlewild is almost like a state of mind. We get into the room and we’re Idlewild. As you get older, it’s weird to have this little gang called Idlewild, but you assume the roles you’ve always had since you were 18.
“The crowd are like that too. It’s a crowd and a band that make a show. There are people at the show who’ve been coming since they were teenagers, and when we play ‘Little Discourage’, they become teenagers again in a great way. Everyone’s shape-shifting in a great way.”
To reflect their comfort in accepting their past without using it as a crutch, the artwork for ‘Idlewild’ is in conversation with that of ‘Hope Is Important’ – with Woomble taking both photos at the same location decades apart.
“I have a film camera and I like double exposure,” he explained. “I wanted to do something vibrant and something not purposefully vague but that had a few things going on in it. Weirdly though, I was visiting my mum and dad in Carnoustie on the east coast of Scotland where the cover for ‘Hope Is Important’ was shot on West Haven Beach when I was younger.
“I was in the exact same spot, but I just turned and faced the other way. The more I thought about it, the more depth it had to that idea. ‘Hope Is Important’ was the start of our musical journey. The cover was of two friends, young and looking at an old and decayed washed-up boat, and it was in sepia tones like an old photograph. The new album is looking the other way in the distance, with the figure looking to somewhere new. That feels like there’s something connecting it all to me.”
Check out our full interview with Woomble below, where he talks about band chemistry, shunning nostalgia, and what the future holds for Idlewild.
NME: Hello Roddy. Tell us about the six-year wait for this album
Roddy Woomble: “The idea for Idlewild is that we were going to follow up ‘Interview Music’ pretty much straight away. We were going to write and record it in 2020, and put it out either in 2021 or 2022. Obviously that plan was made null and void by the pandemic. Subsequently, we ended up not seeing much of each other for two years as none of us live in the same place.
“Those two years felt like they didn’t exist in band time. I made solo records, so kept myself very busy and creative and found a way to work through all that. The band was a different thing because we write songs together and we just couldn’t do it.”
Was there an energy and raft of ideas after ‘Interview Music’ that you bottled up?
“No. That record was pretty well-received, but it fell under the radar somewhat. We were trying new things in the way we were working with songs, and it was much longer than our other records. We were quite inspired by doing more stuff like that. Then the dust settled and when we came to play the anniversary shows for ‘The Remote Part’, that was the start of round two and we started afresh. We didn’t go back to any of those ideas.”
In releasing a book about the band and touring ‘The Remote Part’ again, how does that make you feel about your relationship to the band and what you wanted to do next?
“None of us are massively nostalgic. If we’re going to go on tour, we want the focus to be on new and creative work. When the band started 30 years ago, we never did cover versions – we were always working on our own stuff. At the start, we were very rudimentary and quite bad at times, but there’s always got to be something new to say with each other. That’s not to dismiss any of the music we’ve made or the wonderful records we’ve done together, but sometimes those album or anniversary shows are a catalyst to focus on what’s good about the band. That’s what ‘The Remote Part’ shows reminded us of.
“There’s a Scottish disposition to be a wee bit self-deprecating, to not really celebrate yourself. Those kinds of shows force you to do that because you see the joy on people’s faces. You realise you’ve done something really good. We came away from those shows thinking, ‘Let’s make a new record and try to capture a bit of that feel that ‘The Remote Part’ or ‘100 Broken Windows’ has – these records that people really respond to. It’s not like we’re not looking forward. It’s more, ‘Let’s do it now, let’s make our version of Idlewild and maybe reference ourselves a little bit’. It feels like a mix of a lot of good things about the band.”
What brings on the need to get Idlewild back into a room?
“We don’t view it like that, really. It’s still exactly like it was when we first started: a slightly unprofessional non-careerist attitude that Idlewild have always had! That’s perhaps why we never became massively popular like Coldplay, Snow Patrol or these other bands that started around the same time or just after us. One, we’re friends, and two, it’s about what we’re going to make together. There’s a simplicity to it, always. We approach every record like we’ve never made a record before, and that keeps it fresh. If you allow yourself to still be surprised by things, it’s always going to sound fresh – even if you’re 48 rather than 18.”
What were those surprises while making this record?
“If you take a break from something – whether it’s writing, music, painting, whatever – when you come back to it, you realise how fun it is. Sometimes you can get really overwhelmed with anxieties and worries about your creative worth or what you’re actually doing. You take a step away from that for a few years, and they’re gone. You just focus on the positive things about it. Everyone’s got their own ideas from doing their own records, so it was a very creative period.”
How does it feel to be here now, among this wave of ‘90s nostalgia in the wake of the Oasis reunion, but focusing on something new?
“We are a ‘90s band, but I suppose we’re more associated with the early ‘00s because that’s when we had the records that most people know. ‘The Remote Part’ and ‘Warnings/Promises’ came out in 2002 and 2005. That was the period where we were busiest, playing our biggest shows and going to America. We formed in the mid-90s, released albums, and our music taste was informed by American bands from the early ‘90s. You had Suede and all these Britpop bands, but we were after that. It was like a no-man’s land until all the American indie bands came along in 2001. It was a strange period before that – it wasn’t Britpop, grunge had gone, we were waiting for something new, and Idlewild were in the middle of that.
“We weren’t part of that Coldplay thing either, but we did get a bit of a backlash. ‘Warnings/Promises’ came out, which included acoustic guitars like we’d never had before. It seems absurd now but people were accusing us of trying to get a bit of that. That was never our intention. We were four records into our career and trying to do something we’d never done before.”
And back then there was an expectation for bands to just continue to get massive. You probably got as big as Idlewild could comfortably be?
“We did. We couldn’t pull it off at that point. With ‘Warnings/Promises’ and our line-up changing, everything had got a bit more professional. We had lights and stuff like that. We were a really good band that could play on big stages. If we’d just been that band around ‘The Remote Part’, it might have been different. That was our biggest-selling record but Bob [Fairfoull, former bassist] was still falling over on stage and things were always breaking. Coldplay and all these other bands were always so professional, but we weren’t professional quick enough!”
Do you have that same feeling as after ‘Interview Music’ with the itch to make another Idlewild album soon?
“We need to get back into playing gigs. We’ve not spent that much time together since we recorded the record. We need to get on tour and start hanging out, and something will hopefully naturally come from that.”
Your solo records have been great. Are we going to get more music from you soon?
“Thanks. Well, I’m always doing stuff. I’m actually writing a novel, which I’ve been trying to do for years. The last few solo records came with 25,000-word journals with drawing and photography, so I’m trying to do a book form of that. That’s my creative project at the moment, but I’ll definitely be making other solo records. It’s a brilliant creative outlet for me.”
Can you express differently as a solo artist in ways you can’t with Idlewild?
“I guess so, subconsciously. With Idlewild, I’m trying to simplify it a little bit. I’m trying to make it as catchy as possible, so the melodies are as economic and lean as they can be so they can be remembered. Solo, I feel like I’m not being judged by anyone, so I can really splurge with the words and try different styles of music. I’ve electronic and folky records as well as ones that were more ambient and spoken word. I can be more creative, but they’re also more low-key. They come out either on tiny labels or no label at all. I’m not down on my solo records; they just exist for a different reason.”
Is there any ground Idlewild haven’t covered that you’d like them to?
“That’s not up to me. That’s why I started making solo records. Not that there was conflict, but a degree of creative conflict is healthy and makes the music good. I wouldn’t even suggest things like that, because I don’t think it would go down very well!”
‘Idlewild’ is out now via V2 Records. See the band’s upcoming tour dates below and visit here for tickets and more information.
OCTOBER 2025
03 – Circuit, Kingston
04 – The Dome, London
05 – Cavern Club, Liverpool
07 – St Luke’s, Glasgow
08 – Liquid Room, Edinburgh
10 – Boilershop, Newcastle
11 – Project House, Leeds
12 – Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
14 – The Junction, Cambridge
15 – O2 Academy, Bristol
17 – Koko, London
18 – New Century Hall, Manchester
DECEMBER 2025
05 – Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen
06 – LiveHouse, Dundee
07 – Barrowland, Glasgow
JANUARY 2026
02-05 – Rockaway Beach, Bognor Regis
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