Editors make a return visit to Washington, DC at the 930 Club on Tuesday, January 15 with odd bedfellows, the Hot Hot Heat and Louis XIV (after-party alert! http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/events/louis-xiv-hot-hot-heat-after-party-dc9/). The Editors first came to our attention when the NME listed an incredibly energetic demo of 2005 near-hit “Bullets” on the “what’s on the NME stereo.” Eleven singles (including three reissues) and two albums later, they’re still just as exciting. We caught up with the band’s drummer, Ed Lay, as he was walking around in a morning-after daze at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

BYT: Hi, Ed, how are you doing?
ED:I’m doing very well, but I’m sorry if you can hear Phil Collins in the background. I’m walking around Disney, unfortunately, and they insist on playing the most awful shite.

BYT: So, you’re not a fan of “Sussudio,” then?
ED:No, it’s horrible!

BYT: Do you ever go all Phil Collins-ish and play air-drums to your own songs?
ED:NEVER. I would never do anything like that. Ever. Nor guitar.

BYT: What about karaoke? Have you ever done karaoke to one of your own songs?
ED:No, but I am pretty mean at karaoke, so I might be tempted to give it a go. I’ve never actually seen our songs on a karaoke machine.

BYT: What’s your karaoke specialty?
ED:Billy Joel, “Piano Man.” I really get into that. My parents used to play it constantly when we were driving, every single day, so the lyrics are ingrained in me. That’s good, though, because it allow me to concentrate on my performance.

BYT: Do you ever go to karaoke as a band?
ED:Once, when we were in Japan. It was awesome. We were taken to a great karaoke bar by our Japanese label. I highly recommend it. It was amazing.

BYT: Is there any band that you would like to tour with that you haven’t yet?
ED:I would like to tour with REM. Supporting them would be fantastic. We’ve only done one support tour in our entire career, so it would be nice. Being a support act is really easy work, as well! You show up, play a few songs, and then spend the rest of the night just hanging out.

BYT: Do you ever hang out with your fans?
ED:Actually we do a bit in America. The fans there just seem more gregarious, so we’ve been hanging out with our American fans quite a bit.

BYT: Have you met any celebrities at any of your gigs?
ED:I haven’t yet, no. I’ve been aware that we’ve had some at our gigs, but we’re not really into that, and besides, they wouldn’t really want to hang out with us because they’d probably think we’re boring…

BYT: Still, it would be nice to spot Brian Eno in your audience, wouldn’t it?
ED:That would be brilliant. I’m well into that. If Brian Eno wants to show up at any of our gigs, I will make sure there’s a ticket for him, anytime.

BYT: Do you enjoy DJing after your gigs?
ED:Actually I do. The last time we played DC we had a chance to DJ at DC9, and it was a real good laugh! The problem is, before our gig in DC, we’re flying back to England for one day for some media rubbish, and then we’re flying back the day of our DC gig, so I’m afraid we’re going to be, well, fucked.

BYT: What are you listening to these days?
ED:For some reason, I’ve been listening to quite a bit of Sufjian Stevens.

BYT: That’s excellent. The Cale will be pleased. How’s the tour going?
ED:Very, very well. We’re already two dates into it and we’ve been delighted by the amount of people who have come out for our shows. We played in a great place last night in Fort Lauderdale and the crowd was just wonderful. The bill we have with Hot Hot Heat and Louis XIV is incredible, really. We’re really happy at the moment and looking forward to the rest of the shows. We’re still in Florida so there are a lot of people sunning themselves before the gigs and it’s been, well, fantastic.

BYT: It seems a bit like a lighter bill than you’re used to – particularly your European tour where you brought along the Boxer Rebellion. Seems more of a party tour this time around.
ED:The Boxer Rebellion were really cool – we’re really good friends with them. They’ve got that real emotional drive to them. This time, for America, we wanted a tour that would grab people’s attention here. Hot Hot Heat – I loved their first album, and Louis XIV have a really good vibe about them. We wanted to change things up a bit and have some heavyweight bands without being too heavy.

BYT: Both bands are somewhat infamous as hard-partying bands on tour as well – do you find it hard to keep up with them?
ED:We’ve got a pretty good reputation for enjoying ourselves on tour as well. Not many people seem to think that for some reason. I think because our music is so heavy people don’t realize that we really enjoy partying. That said, I’m suffering a little bit because last night was our first chance to really meet and enjoy the other bands’ company. They’re all lovely guys and I since it’s such a long tour, I think we’re going to have to pace ourselves. We’ll see how we’re all surviving half-way in. A lot of our crew toured with the Killers and Louis XIV, and we’ve heard stories that have me a little worried – hopefully they won’t lead us astray too far…

BYT: Do you have any surprises in terms of the setlist?
ED:It’s been a while since we’ve played The States, so this is a chance for us to really introduce the new album to American audiences.

BYT: You’ve done some excellent covers on b-sides, “Orange Crush” by REM, “French Disko” by Stereolab and “Road to Nowhere” by Talking Heads. Any plans to play them for the U.S. audiences?
ED:We did “Road to Nowhere” and “Orange Crush” in Holland in December, and that was sort of a cheerio to those songs, so I don’t think we will. It was our last show of the year and we wanted to do something special for our Dutch fans. The support we get over there is incredible; it’s like nothing we’ve ever gotten elsewhere, so we wanted to go out and give them a little bit extra. That included the covers and a few choice items from our back catalog. On this tour, we really want to focus on introducing America to the new album.

BYT: Are you going to play “You Are Fading?”
ED:Oh yeah. Definitely. It’s a staple in our set. It’s such a powerful tune. We love playing it, and anything we love playing, we’re not going to drop.

BYT: What’s your favorite song to play?
ED:I’m a real fan of “When Anger Shows.” When we were writing it, it was very difficult, and we didn’t know what direction it would go until we had worked very hard on it. It was a real labor of love and it turned out in a way that we’re very proud of. It gives me a lot of pleasure to play.

BYT: Do you find that you have a lot of input into the songwriting process?
ED:It always starts with Paul (Smith, the lead singer/guitarist/keyboardist) sitting down when he’s with his parents – or now with his new family – with an acoustic guitar or a piano, and then bringing it to the rest of us. We’re not really good at writing songs while on tour. For the new album, we worked on it a lot when we got to the studio. It was nice having the time and space to work in the studio and flesh out the demos. We all have a lot of input into how the songs sound.

BYT: For the first album, you had been playing those songs, some for two years in front of crowds, before going into the studio to finish them. Do you think the process this time, where you went into the studio with Paul’s demos and fleshed them out with a limited time, made for a more difficult writing process?
ED:When we did our first album, we had lots of time to play them live and change them. The new songs came about by a different process, and I think they’re very strong. There was incredible freedom this time around to be able to go into the studio any time we wanted and work with the engineers and the producer to try out different ideas. That level of spontaneity and producer input helped immeasurably.

BYT: Any producers you want to work with?
ED:I’d like to work with as many people as possible. It would be wonderful to work with Flood, or go all out and ask for Brian Eno of Phil Spektor. I’d like to work with people who have such great experience and so many ideas. We’re not the kind of band to stay with one producer over and over again. I don’t know about the next album, but we want to gain as much as possible from working with producers.

BYT: At what point did you tip over from being a small local band to being a massive, arena-filling super group?
ED:Well, we were always very confident and thought we’d have that chance to bring music into bigger arena. For me it was when we re-released Munich after the first album, the Back Room, had been out for six months. That was when our popularity suddenly seemed to take off and all these different people wanted to work with us – when Garrett Lee came to us and said this album could be the album of year, we thought, if someone of this caliber thinks that and wants to work with us, we knew the album wouldn’t just be a flash in the pan and go away, and we could start playing bigger and bigger shows.

BYT: Was there a point where you were working on your debut where you thought, crikes, these songs are really, really good!
ED:Yeah, it was amazing, the songs were just so easy to write. Some took ages and we worked and worked on them and they never seemed to get to where we wanted them, but songs like Munich and Blood and Bullets – Munich was instantaneous. We wrote it in 20 minutes, and it caught our attention and then we thought it was amazing the first time we played it live.

When you first put out the three limited singles, were you all obsessively pouring through the music magazines, looking for notice of your efforts?
ED:Definitely. And all of our friends and families were pouring through and letting us know any time anyone mentioned us in the press or on the internet. I mean, the first time you hear yourself on Radio 1, on Zane Lowe for instance, it’s an incredible experience. And then when you see people get excited to hear your tunes on the radio, and some of them might start to dance to them, it’s really, really nice. It’s a huge experience. I was in the hairdressers the other day, and one of our songs came on the radio and it just felt ridiculous.

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