BORN AGAIN PROCLAIMERS
Scotland's 500-mile walkers keep coming back for more

The cover photo concept for the new Proclaimers album, Born Innocent, is simple: rock stars surrounded by women backstage after a concert. Except the “rock stars” are a pair of bespectacled near-identical twins with one particular massive international hit and a dedicated cult following. And the women aren't half-naked supermodels, but a bunch of realistically cute, girl-next-door fans in Proclaimers-style eyewear, innocently hanging out with the band. The photo conveys quite a bit about the group's vibe as rock anti-stars. While the band is still as low on hype and big on working-class profundity as was in the '80s, life's complexities have definitely changed the tone of the music over the years.

“I think it's a timid or pitiful person that doesn't examine his or her own beliefs on a regular basis and try to be open and honest about it, you know?” says Proclaimer Charlie Reid via phone. “You can't pretend you feel the same way you did about things when you were six or 15 or 20 years of age. Because at each stage, you're growing as a person, so it would be strange if you still viewed the world in exactly the same way. That would indicate to me someone who was scared to look inside themselves. To do the job we do, you have to look inside yourself.”

Charlie and Craig Reid have collaborated as the Proclaimers since 1983, with Craig carrying more of the songwriting weight than guitarist Charlie. Starting with their 1987 debut, This Is the Story, they had consistent commercial success and hit singles overseas. In the States, they built a cult following amongst the late-'80s “modern rock” subculture appreciative of the Pogues' brand of traditional Celtic music with a post-punk rock twist. Except the Pogues were Irish rowdies singing about drunken rampages and fostering illegitimate children, while the Proclaimers crooned in thick Scottish accents about working-class life, God, true love and marriage. They were sentimental without being sappy or saccharine, in part due to their incisive, vulnerable, painful honesty, a blue-collar earthiness and an endearing spunkiness. And like the Pogues, they knew how to rock.

Their second album, Sunshine on Leith, delivered a worldwide 1988 hit, “I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles).” In the U.S., its hit status was initially limited to the semi-obscurity of college radio charts until the song was used as the theme for the 1993 movie Benny and Joon. What had been the modern-rock hipsters' pet secret for five years finally leaked into mainstream pop consciousness to become an inescapable American Top 5 hit.

Whether or not the Proclaimers are a household name, most folks recognize their thick-as-molasses Scottish accents bellowing, “And I would walk 500 miles…” over punchy guitars. It was a signature sound that would continue to resurface in mass-market media including Dumb and Dumber, Shrek, and The Drew Carey Show, which commissioned the Proclaimers' cover of the Vogues' “Five O'Clock World” for the sitcom's theme song.

Sustaining a following with gaps of six years before and seven years after 1994's Hit the Highway required unusually loyal fandom. The '90s held multiple family-related difficulties for the duo, including illnesses and the death of their father. Their fourth album, 2001's Persevere, had a correspondingly darker, more mature feel, with more complex reflections on romantic relationships, the human condition and faith in God. Those themes recur on Born Innocent. Songs such as the title track and “Should Have Been Loved” present seemingly contradictory takes on the human condition. Does the blame for conflict rest in society, or is there something wrong with human nature?

“I think it's both,” Reid says. “If you raise a kid in an aggressive, terrible way, you will brutalize a kid and that will go on from generation to generation. In the same way, you would hope enlightenment, tolerance and strength would breed as well. But no matter how educated we are, no matter how free or tolerant we are, we can all do irrational and seemingly dumb, self-destructive things. It's the destructive part of humanity, but it can also be the glorious part of humanity.”

And yet Born Innocent has a much more upbeat sound. The group writes about painful romantic breakups and marital dysfunction, but does so with tongue-in-cheek satire and snappy beats. Even “Blood on Your Hands,” a song about terrorism, is a danceable and hummable tune.

“With terrorism, you can justify whatever you want to do from whatever perspective you've got if you're zealous enough and determined enough to pursue your belief to the point of mass destruction of innocent civilians,” Reid says. “I think ‘Blood on Your Hands' is less about those who do, but more those who send other people out to die [for their own beliefs]. It may not necessarily be terrorism, but the song is obviously pointing towards that.”

Now that Craig's and Charlie's kids are older, it's made touring a little easier, and the brothers are excited to get back on the road with a full band.

“The new album is more of a band or ensemble record than anything else we've done, and that comes across very well on a stage,” Reid says. “People who like the new album should love the live show even more.”

(Originally published in The Cleveland Free Times, March 17, 2004)