YOU need to focus hard to pick out the members of Travis on the cover artwork of The Invisible Band. The distant figures of Fran Healy, Andy Dunlop, Dougie Payne and Neil Primrose are barely visible. They appear on the album sleeve carefully camouflaged by foliage and trees in a dense forest.

“People still come up to me now and say: ‘What … you’re ON the cover?’ They still haven’t noticed us after all these years,” said singer Fran.

The album was well titled. In 2001, the Glasgow band made a conscious decision to step out of the spotlight. But their timing appeared at odds with the level of success they’d achieved.

Two years previously, Travis had released The Man Who, now regarded by many fans as their defining record. It spent 11 weeks at No.1 and sold 3.5 million copies. The record also produced four hit singles – Writing To Reach You, Driftwood, Turn and Why Does It Always Rain On Me? – the latter becoming their signature song.

“Off the back of The Man Who, it seemed everybody knew Travis,” recalled Fran. “But that was just a story that developed over time. I said in an interview more people knew our songs than they did the individual members of the band. One day I said to myself, all this music that I love is by bands that no longer exist. They’re invisible to me. Not in my face like The Band, Bob Dylan or David Bowie. They were all in the past and I could choose to listen to them when I wanted to, without being stuck in front of the publicity horn. So the best band is the invisible band. That chimed a little bit with where our heads were at.

“Even though The Man Who was massive we could walk down the street and people were still catching up with it. So we did feel invisible. It was pretty ironic that by the time The Invisible Band came out it had almost caught up with us. We WERE household names by that point.”

The cover shot was taken by US photographer Stefan Ruiz, whose portfolio includes sessions with Bill Clinton, Martin Scorsese and Keith Richards. His work has graced the covers of Vogue and The New Yorker.

“Stefan also did the pictures for The Man Who in Aviemore. He’s a brilliant photographer,” revealed Fran.

“He took us to a location in Santa Cruz, California and said – the sound of the album is a bit leafy and autumnal, so I’ll put you in this setting. We just stood there. When we saw the final pictures, it worked perfectly.”

The album was recorded at Ocean Way Studios in Hollywood with Nigel Godrich, who’d produced songs on The Man Who.

Godrich, best known for his more experimental work with Radiohead, seemed a real left-field choice. “On paper it definitely was an odd match. We were more melodic, traditional and almost like a Beatles-esque band. The classic four piece,” admitted Fran. “Then you’ve got Radiohead who are doing stuff that’s a bit more out there. Essentially, I think both bands at their very best wrote great, melodic songs. But Radiohead are where they are because they did just that for a few albums and were established as songwriters … then allowed themselves to get a bit avant-garde. And Nigel was at the helm of that.”

The success of The Man Who meant Travis belatedly got a foothold in the US.

“We were gunning to break America. That had been kinda elusive on that album,” admitted Fran. “Our US record company wouldn’t even release it until it got successful. They put it out 12 months later and we had to go back and tour there all over again. So the momentum was America.”

The band booked into Ocean Way in October 2000 and spent the next five months creating The Invisible Band.

“We were feeling pretty bullish. We had a few good songs in our back pocket which is always a confidence builder,” said Fran. “We had Sing, Side and Flowers In The Window all ready to go. They ended up being the singles. So we were fortunate in that way.”

Healy, the band’s main songwriter, had total confidence in his new material.

“As always with songs there are two stages to it. There’s the mining stage where you’re looking for that little diamond or nugget,” revealed Fran.

“Once you find that, things move on during the recording. Sing came when I was watching a TV programme about swing beat with the sound turned down. I was doodling with the guitar and started singing … ‘swing, swing, swing’.

“Midway through recording the demo I accidentally sung ‘sing’. The band were quite happy with that because I didn’t realise what swing actually meant.”

Healy describes Side as “tricky” and more problematic to capture on tape.

“The earliest version was built around a rap track, but that was quickly abandoned,” he revealed. “I had it in my head to try to rap over a riff. I started to talk about how everyone is on a different side … there’s the east and west side, up and down side, right and left side. I had this idea that while everyone thinks they’re on a different side, actually we’re all standing on the same one.

“It was rubbish. I don’t know if there are any great Glaswegian rappers, but I don’t think there were any in Travis for sure. So I ended up taking the riff and chorus and wrote a verse over the top of it.”

But when work began in Ocean Way – in the room where Frank Sinatra recorded many of his greatest albums and USA for Africa made the superstar-studded charity single, We Are The World – the band’s confidence took a hit.

Godrich appeared unimpressed by what he was being asked to work on.

“In the very first week there was a moment when Dougie and I were sitting outside the studio, really down in the dumps, thinking … what’s wrong with Nigel? He thinks we’re s***,” revealed Fran.

“We felt he was going to abandon the project. But he’d come straight out of recording Kid A with Radiohead. He was frazzled. Totally fatigued.

“It had been quite an intense session because of the expectations on them after OK Computer. So there was a lot of pressure. But weirdly the pressure on us wasn’t as palpable. We like to have a bit of a laugh. By the second week, Nigel began to acclimatise to the bombardment of bad jokes and slagging while he was trying to work.”

They soon realised they were crafting a worthy successor to The Man Who. Lead single Sing was one of the first tracks to be completed.

“We knew early on we had the making of a very special record,” recalled Fran.

“When we recorded Sing there was a heated, but peaceful, grown-up discussion between me and Andy MacDonald from our record company.

“He wanted Side to be the first single. But everyone else wanted Sing … it was such an obvious song for Travis. While we were recording Nigel turned the tape back-to-front and played it at twice the speed. Andy was in the live room playing tubular bells at certain points … somehow he knew when to hit these things. Nigel then manipulated the sound coming from the bells and flipped the tape over. When we heard it we knew we had our BIG song on the record.”

After the sessions were completed the band returned to the UK. They recorded Pipe Dreams at AIR, London to complete the album. The Invisible Band was released on June 11 and spent four weeks at No. 1. Side, Sing and Flowers In The Window were all chart hits. Travis will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the album when they hit the road in 2022 after an enforced pandemic lay-off.

They play Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on May 22, Dundee Fat Sam’s on May 23, Hampden Park on July 17 (supporting Gerry Cinnamon) and Princes St. Gardens in Edinburgh on August 14.

“Twenty years since The Invisible Band! It’s kinda freaking me out … it only feels like 10,” said Fran.

“I’m happy to say the record has stood up pretty well. We’re still here … still breathing.”