ICONIC Scottish indie-rock band Travis has released their second track from their upcoming studio album.

Raze The Bar is the second offering from the Glaswegian's tenth studio album, L.A. Times, which was released Friday, May 10.

The new track, which is a throwback to their much-loved sound from The Man Who, includes additional vocals from Coldplay’s Chris Martin and The Killers' frontman Brandon Flowers.

Fran Healy, the lead singer of Travis, said when he called Martin to play him some of the new song, his fellow musician and friend exclaimed it was “the best thing you’ve ever written”.

READ MORE: Scottish band Travis release new single as band announces 10th album

Raze The Bar is an ode to an old haunt of the bands, which didn’t survive the Covid pandemic and shut suddenly, and is an imagining of what a final night would have sounded like.

Speaking about the inspiration behind the recent release Healy said: “There was a great bar in New York City.

“It didn’t have a name, but everyone called it Black and White on account of the black and white striped awning that hung over the entrance.

The National: Artwork for the single Raze The Bar

“They had poetry nights, great DJs, open mic nights.

“If you played a show at Irving Plaza or Webster Hall, chances are you ended up at Black and White till the wee small hours.

“One of the owners, Johnny T, looked after so many artists and bands over the years. If that bar could talk, what a story it would tell.

“During the pandemic, their landlord refused to negotiate a reduced rent and they had to close.

“So, in the middle of the night, they turned up with a truck and removed every single trace and fixture of the bar. Then they white washed the whole space so it could never be repeated.

“Raze the Bar is a song about a fictional last night in the bar.

“Johnny is in there, Jack, Richard and Johnny’s brother and bar co-owner Chris. The cameos were almost an afterthought!

“I just called Chris Martin in a bit of a panic because I couldn’t figure out what the track sequence should be.

“When Chris heard it, he was like, ‘That song is the best thing you’ve ever written!’ And because he and Brandon Flowers both live quite near…”

The band's tenth studio album, L.A. Times, will be released on July 12 and will mark 25 years since Travis’s classic second studio album The Man Who.

Healy has hailed the upcoming album as his most personal yet as he says the “tectonic plates” in his life have shifted and there was a lot he wanted to express.

The 50-year-old musician recorded the new album in Los Angeles, America, which is the city he has also called home for the last decade with his bandmates.

Travis has remained an unbroken line-up since their formation at the Glasgow School of Art in the 1990s and the imminent release of their latest album marks the journey the band has taken together over the decades together.

Speaking about the new album Healy said: “L.A. Times is our most personal album since The Man Who.

“There was a lot of big stuff to write about back then, the tectonic plates had shifted in my life.

“I was 22 when I was writing those songs. They were my therapy.

“Over 20 years later and the plates have shifted again. There’s a lot to talk about.”

The band will also begin a huge live tour this summer with The Killers as they play 16 dates across the UK to celebrate their new album launch.

It will be the first Travis’s first headline European tour since 2016 and includes three dates in Glasgow at the Hydro in June.