Travis Frontman Fran Healy Ready to Debut Solo Material

After 15-plus years as the frontman of Scottish rockers Travis, Fran Healy is making his solo debut with 'Wreckorder,' due out in North America October 5. While it's nerve-wracking for many artists to step out on their own, Healy is very calm about having his name alone on the marquees. "This album, compared to all the other albums, I must be honest, is exactly the same," he tells Spinner. "All the Travis albums are my songs, so each album is just a collection of songs. The songs with me are always so personal I always looked at it like that."

Every time a band member goes solo, there are the requisite questions about the group potentially breaking up or bandmates not being happy with the move. Well, Travis fans can relax -- Healy actually got permission from the rest of the band to step out on his own. "We came to the end of our tour last year and everyone was kind of burnt out and wanted a break, but I didn't really want to stop," he says. "So, I then asked everyone if I could do a record."

For him, the move to go temporarily solo was a very organic one. "When you play in a band for 16 years, you get kind of institutionalized a little bit. You're like, 'Oh, this is fine in here cause you've got a great bass player, a brilliant guitarist, a great drummer,'" he says. "But creatively, there comes a point where it naturally will occur to the main creative person in a band, 'Hey, I would like to try and work with maybe another musician. I want to try and do a duet with them or I want to do my own thing,' so for me it was just a very logical step."

As relaxed as he is about 'Wreckorder,' Healy admits this is a different experience after six albums with Travis. "Being a solo person, I don't know what to expect yet. I have no idea," he says. Still, he doesn't think it will end up being all that different than any of his other works. "When you put your album out, whether it's for Travis or myself, some people will like it, some people will hate it, some people will think it's alright."

For any fans eager to hear Healy's new material, he's kicking off a tour with Keane on Tuesday, July 20, in Oakland. More info can be found here.