(Picture stolen from John Vanderslice)

Travis Morrison is the lead singer of The Dismemberment Plan who broke up in early 2004. The Dismemberment Plan, a Washington D.C. area band, performed in relative obscurity for a long time before achieving some relative success with their last two albums. They ended their band with a fun farewell tour earlier this year. Now that the band has gone on to do other things, Travis Morrison has been working on some solo material, which he recently finished and has titled Travistan. Before the album has a label and Travis has a band, I figured I would catch up to get some info on the upcoming album and some upcoming shows.

[Craig Lyndall] When do you think we will see the release of Travistan?

[Travis Morrison] I'm hoping for September. But there are always things up in the air.

[Craig] Any leads on labels that might want to put it out?

[travis morrison] Yep. But I can't really go into that. The sauce is still in the skillet, as they say.

[Craig] I know you are doing some solo shows, as in really solo with you and an acoustic guitar. Is this something that is pretty natural for you or will it be something that will take some time for you to get used to?

[travis morrison] No, not really. I was a bandleader. That was my job in the Plan. I wasn't actually the songwriter, per se; I did write the lyrics, but a lot of the actual notes and structures were hammered out in rehearsals by committee. My real area of achievement was that I focussed the energies of four very different people for a long time. That's bandleading. I definitely think I did all right at that in the context of the Plan, especially near the end.

When I played solo shows for the first time, it was mortifyingly bad, and I wondered if I just didn't have the skills to carry a groove with just my voice and an instrument. But then a little while ago I said, naw, fuck that, let's really give it six weeks and work and work on it and see if I can't get something together that speaks a coherent thing. And whaddya know, I think I'm getting all right at it. It's tricky, because if you don't execute it, it doesn't exist. And you sure as shit can't blame anyone else!

[Craig] I also read that you are working on assembling a band. Any ideas on who might join you?

[travis morrison] Sure. But again, it's that damn sauce/skillet thing.

[Craig] Seeing as there was a pretty big following for The Dismemberment Plan, do you find it a relief to know that you have a built-in fan base for the new material or is it more intimidating because you don't want to disappoint them?