Fran Healy

Travis’s lead singer on living in Los Angeles — the inspiration behind the band’s forthcoming album L.A. Times — streetfights with strangers and the unifying power of music

- NICK REILLY

This album, L.A. Times, is about your experiences of being based in LA. How's it been navigating life there as a British person with an outside perspective?

LA is like the coal miner's canary of the world. It's like a pressure point. If America was someone's body, it would be where the physiotherapist would go, "Does that hurt?" because you've got everything going on there. A homeless crisis that you would never believe in a million years. Why can't the richest country in the world not spend all their money on defences and help the people?

The racism is crazy too, and so is climate change. I've got footage of the road where I'd take my son to school, it's the 405 Freeway, and the whole place was on fire a few years ago! It looked like a Hieronymus Bosch painting. It's a very interesting place to be if you're a sensitive person like me because, for music, all of those things are like little tea leaves, and then, you know, you pour your hot water in, and it comes out as a cup of tea - and in this case it's this album.

And a place where sausage dogs can almost bite your hand off, as you found out...