Hard as it is to believe, it’s been over two decades since The Proclaimers arrived on the pop music scene. The duo of Craig and Charlie Reid debuted in 1987 with their first album, This is the Story. From day one, it was hard to forget The Reids once you saw them. First of all, they were identical twins with thick Scottish accents. Second of all, they wrote really good songs. Highlights from This is the Story ranged from “Throw the ‘R’ Away’ – in which the brothers essentially made fun of their own accents – to the more serious “Letter from America,” an early version of which was produced by the great Gerry Rafferty.

The Proclaimers returned a year later with their sophomore outing, Sunshine on Leith (the title track was a reference to a section of Edinburgh). Sunshine on Leith was a critically acclaimed album that seemed to confirm people’s impressions of The Proclaimers as a Scottish, post-punk Everly Brothers. But though the disc was fairly popular from the start, the coup wouldn’t come for another five years. In 1993, “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” – the opening song from Sunshine – was included in the Johnny Depp film Benny & Joon. Although it didn’t sound like anything else that was on the charts at the time, it became a fluke hit – and a big one.The song sent The Proclaimers into the Top 10, in America and around the world.

The group returned in 1994 with their third studio album, Hit the Highway, but surprisingly, it failed to capitalize on their success. Losing their major label deal and suffering from writer’s block, the Reids sat out the remainder of the decade and basically tended to their respective families.

The new millennium, however, has seen The Proclaimers revitalized. Though they haven’t scored another massive hit single, the duo did hit number-one on the U.K. singles chart last year for the third time with a new version of “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).” And they’ve been far more prolific recently, releasing four new albums since 2001. Their latest, Life With You, arrived on these shores earlier this year. The title track is a pledge of domestic fidelity. Elsewhere on the album, The Reids tackle such subjects as misogynistic musicians (“Here it Comes Again”) the war in Iraq (“The Long Haul”), and even God (“If There’s a God”). Often, the songs on Life With You are so catchy that it’s easy to overlook the depth, and at times even the darkness, of their lyrics. For good measure, there is also a cover of the witty Wreckless Eric chestnut “Whole Wide World” on the album.

I caught up with The Proclaimers recently on the day of their gig at B.B. King’s in Manhattan. Although understanding their accents was a bit challenging at first, they were in fact the perfect interview. Craig and Charlie Reid are very nice people, artsy but unpretentious – the kind of guys you could talk to for hours over a beer, about everything from soccer to the meaning of life. What follows are excerpts from our conversation.


Beyond Race: I wanna start out by asking you about Life With You, the new CD, which just came out in America. You recorded it at Rockville Studios in Wales, which is a pretty renowned [place]. What was that like?

Charlie: It was great. I mean, we've never worked there before. Neither had the producer, Steve Evans, but he wanted to work there for years and it had never been the right project [or] whatever... It was just a good feeling. It's, I guess, a mile, mile and a half, out of a little town in Wales called Monmouth and it’s very, very small. So, there’s like a few pubs, few shops, couple restaurants and that’s it. There’s no other distractions, which is a good thing. When you record in London, you turn up, go back to the hotel, turn up at the studio, record, come away, you know. A place like [Monmouth], you’re livin’ on sight. It was great and really good people that run it.

BR: Could I ask you about a couple of the specific songs on the album? These are just some of the ones that jumped out at me. “Here it Comes Again” - I’m curious to get your take on that.

Craig: This song’s really about – it’s not just about misogyny in rap music, its about misogyny in general. You know, I think there’s always been a certain amount of misogyny in pop music. But, it just seems now that, especially when I’m watching video channels, its like getting hit over the head sometimes, you know? I would never be in favor of censorship of any kind, but it does seem [that] the repetitive use of insulting terms, especially misogynistic ones, they almost cancel out the meaning of the work. People almost become desensitized, and maybe that’s just the way the world’s going and we just have to accept it.

BR: I tend to agree with you actually, and I’m not anti-freedom of speech either. But sometimes I feel [like I’m getting] old… [laughs]

Craig: Oh yeah! Yeah, that’s one of the generational problems.

BR: “If There’s a God,” the closing track. I know a lot of people have asked [the questions posed in the song]. I’m curious about where that song came from. Are either of you or both of you traditionally religious?

Craig: If there’s a God, why do all these bad things happen? You know, if there’s a God, how can that be? So that’s kinda asking the same question a lot of people ask.… And traditionally, religious, no, I don’t think either of us [is]. I tend to think there probably isn’t a God but then I have moments of doubt.

BR: Again, I can relate. I sometimes feel like I want to believe more than I do believe.

Charlie: I wouldn’t be agnostic, I would probably be an atheist now. But I’m the same as Craig, I’ve gone through periods in my life when I was convinced that there was [a God], but I keep comin’ back to the same thing, that all of it is an invention. For us to get through the world, we invent these things so as we can focus on something to get us through the tough things goin’ on.

BR: I wanna go back in time. One of your first singles was “Letter from America” and, correct me if I’m wrong, but did you work on that with Gerry Rafferty?

Charlie: We did. The original song was done on the first album, which was an acoustic album called This is the Story, and that was produced by John Williams, the guy who first signed us to Chrysalis. Then we re-recorded the song with Gerry Rafferty and it became a hit.

BR: I thought so. City to City is one of my favorite albums of all time. What was it like working with him?

Charlie: He was a great lad. I think he’s had his troubles over the last few years [with] ill health and stuff. It’s very unusual to hear his name now, but he was a really lovely guy and he did a great job with us.

BR: My next question -- and I wanna ask you individually -- I wanna ask Charlie, what does Craig bring to the group that’s special and I wanna ask [Craig], what Charlie brings to the group that’s special?

Charlie: I think, great songwriting ability, and [Craig is] much more prolific than I am in that way. Making the words, when you sing, making them mean something, because not all singers do that, you know what I mean?

Craig: We couldn’t do what we do if it wasn’t [for] the fact that Charlie could play such good acoustic guitar. I write on the piano but I never play on the stage ‘cause I’d be terrible, you know? So Charlie does that and he’s got the musical base to what we do, I think. [His] harmonies are exceptional. And I think he’s got as much drive as I’ve got. When it’s a duo, you’ve got to a partnership of equals, and you’ve got to be as strong as each other.

BR: On a different note, you came up in the Scotland music scene during the 80’s. What was that like? In America, we really don’t have much of an idea.

Charlie: The music scene, I suppose in Britain, it seemed quite fey to us. A lot of it was about image, a lot of it was about presentation, a lot of it was synthesized. That didn’t appeal to us; we liked songs and that’s that. We didn’t really empathize so much with bands of that time. There was one that [was] extremely successful in Britain, and they had a major success here with one single called “Come on Eileen.” Dexy’s Midnight Runners. We really empathized with them very, very much. But I can’t think of another British band at the time that we did, really.

Craig: I think also, we were born in ’62. When punk happened in Britain in ’76, ’77, we were like 14, 15, and we’d already started playing, so it was ideal for us. We really loved punk. And then, when punk kinda changed into New Wave, and then the ‘80’s came around, as Charlie said, a lot of this stuff was very fey. We liked the kind of drive and the energy that punk had had, and, a lot of bands had really lost it by that time, had lost that kind of ethic.

BR: “500 Miles” got, apparently, a third life, last year in the UK. What is it about that song that’s so special that keeps it [coming back] every few years?

Charlie: I don’t know. It’s an nod back to punk; it’s a nod back to American mid-60’s music. It’s got drive, it’s got energy. It’s got stops, it’s got drama in it. It’s dead simple, it’s guitar based. It hasn’t dated the same way that other songs [that] were made at that time [have]. But I don’t know why it keeps coming back. It’s just one of those songs. People of definite generations like it… I would be surprised if we ever did anything that was [that] successful again. I’d be delighted if we did, but it’s just one of those things. It’s been successful three separate times, in England and then in the USA and then again in England last year. It’s been successful in other parts of the world. People who know nothing else of what we’ve done know the song. It’s been a help. A massive help.

- Dave Steinfeld