Old 97's Break Out of 'Zombiehood' on New Album

Sometimes inspiration just needs a change of scenery. Old 97's frontman Rhett Miller has populated much of the band's new album, 'The Grand Theatre Volume One,' with songs that came from a writing jag inspired by his month-long solo tour of England, Ireland and Scandinavia last fall.

"I haven't traveled through Europe very much, and there's something about all this strangeness, being a stranger in a strange land, that's such fodder for writing," Miller tells Spinner. "It shook me out of my blasé zombiehood, which is probably the first time anyone has ever used that particular phrase."

In spite of the differences he encountered overseas -- the way people dress, talk and interact -- Miller was just as struck by the out-of-context similarities.

"What I liked about it was that I was seeing these things that were ostensibly different, but in reality, the fundamentals of it were the same: someone trudging through a rainy Birmingham [England] morning on the way to work is not fundamentally different from someone driving their 30-minute commute to their crappy job in Albany," he says. "It's the same story that could take place in Dallas or L.A. or anywhere."

So where was Miller doing all that songwriting?

"Dude, everywhere," he says. "In trains, airplanes, backstage in these crazy old theaters."

Appending 'Volume One' to the title of the new album, out now on New West, isn't mere affectation, either: Miller came home with nearly two dozen songs, and 'Volume Two' is due next spring.