STEREOPHONICS INTERVIEW

Phil:                 Well let?s start with the single then.

Kelly Jones:     Go on then.

Phil:                 If you can take me back where it first came from and how it?s mutated and become what it is.

Kelly Jones:     The song Dakota was first written in Paris. I was doing a promo trip for You Got to Go There to Come Back. It was snowing and the hotel room was really cold and boring and for some reason I just had a go of the guitar and the song came pretty quick. I kind of knew it was a strong melody and really strong hook. I put it away and finished the lyrics on an America tour a month and a half later in Vermillion, and it was one of those kind of songs that was very reflective, kind of dreamy and nostalgic but quite uplifting at the same time. The words sounded very much like the music so it was a pretty fast song really in the sense of how it kind of became what it became. It came together very quickly.

Phil:                 And Javier, for you, I presume it?s going to be a very important song in retrospect because it will be the first song that you have been involved in.

Javier:             Well yeah, for me it?s quite important. It?s the first one so I suppose it is going to be good. Ha, ha, ha.

Phil:                 Good to drum?

Javier:             Yeah, it?s one of the best ones actually to drum to. I mean the album does vary drumming wise but it?s one of the most fun to play live actually.

Phil:                 So while we?re at it let?s get the million dollar question out of the way. Tell us how you became involved with this motley crew?

Javier:             Well that?s complicated man. I was working in a recording studio and I happened to work with them a couple of times so we?ve known each other for over three years now. Actually the moment we thought about working together was when Kelly came down last time to do the demos for this album and they worked on Dakota and Superman. Just a drum machine kind of approach and then from that point on Kelly and Jim were a little bit stuck with the programming [of the drum machine] and I happened to have my drum kit there, quite conveniently, and basically I just played the drums for him [Kelly] to have an idea of the songs and all of that. Just to give proper ideas and we just clicked. We did fifteen songs in eight days and they went off to finish touring the States and all of that, and when it was time to actually do the album they called me. Up until that point we never discussed me being part of the project or me being part of the band, or anything like that. That came up later when the album was being mixed at the end of the year. We never really thought about it too much. We just felt it was right to play together and then when we saw the results of it and also evaluated the vibe between us, it was just right.

Phil:                 Agree Rich?

Richard:           Yes [laughs] definitely, the whole process from start to finish with Javier just felt really natural.  From when Kelly did the demos, when we went back on tour Kelly was saying how good Javier?s feel is and how energetic it is to play with somebody like that. It just felt like we were teenagers again and I was just really excited to get back in the studio again and start recording with Javier and then just take it from there. We did our first live shows last month and that was a really good laugh. Playing all the old stuff, Loads of energy, sweaty rooms? Yeah it was cool.

Phil:                 At the time that there was very much a gang mentality around that tour. Did you feel that it was back to basics in a whole number of ways?

Richard:           Yeah, Just the whole feel of it. Being a three piece [band]. Doing three piece gigs. The whole attitude and the attitude of everybody towards us as well? It feels a lot more youthful as in that?s how we used to feel when we started doing it professionally. I think has gone back to that which is really good.

Phil:                 So when you took these songs out for the first time, Javier, tell me about the club tour from your own experience. How will you write that in your own mind?

Javier:             It was probably the most natural, possible way I could think of. Kelly had ideas about the riffs and stuff and obviously he hadn?t even thought about doing the drum parts. So some songs he recommended something he had in his head or some songs he just said go along with it and then we?ll take it from there and see how it pans out. So it was actually more like jamming to the songs rather than anything else and depending upon the result we were kind of shaping things up. Yeah it was really quite an organic way to do it. Just like any other band would probably do it, when you?re like fifteen or something and you jam with your mates on some songs. It was the same kind of feeling.

Phil:                 So Rich, how do you feel now at this stage, a couple of days away from the release of the album? Where does this fit in from your own perspective in the catalogue of work that you have produced to date?

Richard:           The album I think we?re all really, really pleased with the outcome, the recording and the whole process. The feedback we?ve had so far has been really, really positive and we haven?t had that for a while. It?s just really encouraging when you see people and it feels as if they are actually genuine about what they are saying and it is all good stuff that they are saying. So with the release of the album being a couple of days away, I don?t really tend to think about it up until about five days before. That?s when it is really intense, all the work leading up to the album launch. The day of the release, it is like a big relief, it?s like. That?s it; you can?t do anymore for it now. Everybody else has got to just make a decision, make their own minds up and the following week, the Sunday, that?s when you start biting your nails when you wake up. Ha, ha, ha

Phil:                 Do you feel a sense of pressure around these? Especially given the success of the earlier albums, if not, all of the albums. They?ve all sold a healthy number.

Kelly:               Yes. I?m very honest when I say that when I?m in the studio making the records I don?t feel any pressure at all. I don?t feel ever as free really about what we do for a living. I don?t care what anybody thinks about it. I?m really just having a good time making music and you don?t really care about how it?ll sell because at the moment your doing it you?re so passionate about it that you think, we?ll what I?m doing is as good as I can possibly do and I?m giving all I?ve got so I don?t really care. And like you said, all the records have sold over a million records and the last few have gone to number one so we are kind of due for a fall really. I think that fall has been a gradual fall over the last couple of records. From a perspective point of view you get most of the attention from your first two records anyway. That?s when they put you on the front cover. That?s when they try to hail you and that?s when they try to break you. Then after that you?ve just got to keep your head down and keep going forward really. You?re going to gain fans and loose fans along the way by just being true to what you do musically. That?s just the way it is. I don?t think I feel a major amount of pressure. I?m probably more excited than anything. We?ve had such a good, positive reaction so far, critically and industry wise, which we haven?t had for a while so I?m hoping this time that we could get both the critics and the fans like it as well. I?d fucking hate it if the industry and the critics like it and the fans don?t. Ha, ha, ha 

Phil:                 So Javier, at a moment like this. What do you look forward to now? You?re about to embark on quite a large adventure I would think?

Javier:             Yeah, definitely. The bit I look forward to the most really is the touring. Doing all the songs live. Not only the songs from this album but from the previous albums as well. That?s the fun part.

Phil:                 So Richard how are we going to balance this new life that
                        everyone has?

Richard:           I think it?s going to be really good. With the attitude that everybody has the new things happening around us and all the people that have come on board, it?s just got a really strong positive feeling and if everyone can keep that up it?s going to move in the right direction. Whatever, whenever and whoever wants us, that?s where we?re going to be.

Phil:                 In terms of travel, what lies ahead? What springs to mind that you are looking forward to?

Kelly:               I?m looking forward to touring. The main thing we?re trying to do is shows in every country, around like a radio or T.V thing. So everything we do, everything we hit, we try to get the most out of and that?s up until June. So that?s almost like doing promo gigs. Like what we did in the UK with The Garage and King Tuts and stuff. To me that?s the best part because it means we can actually play three piece shows up until July and I love the simplicity of doing a three piece gig because there?s no room for anything else to get in the way and complicate things. It?s very straight forward. The three of us have a job to do and if one of us goes down then it goes down, as you?ve seen in Manchester. So that?s what?s great about it, that?s what is edgy about it. That?s what?s exciting about it and then when we come back to the big arena shows, then we?ll introduce the five piece band. We?re still trying to incorporate how edgy the show has become within that. As you know, it can quite easily get to a ?greatest hits? set round about this time in a bands career. I think we are very well aware of that and we don?t really want to do that. We want to show people how good our catalogue of music is but we still want to make it exciting, edgy and unpredictable. That?s the challenge to us. To keep it relevant to what?s going on today.

Phil:                 Just explain to me, for those people who wouldn?t know what happened in Manchester, what went on and tell me have you now got a back catalogue of gags lined up just in case?

Richard:           It wasn?t what went on, it was more fucking went off that
                        was the case. Ha, ha, ha

Kelly:               I?m just glad it was free because I could have used that line for the whole tour ?It?s a good job you haven?t paid really?. I walked on; it was Javier?s first gig. We were really into it in the dressing room. We had on some old albums we hadn?t heard for ages. We had a couple of bottles of corona, a little vodka. Everybody is in a good frame of mind. A bunch of Man United players in the balcony bar, just a proper club gig? Sweaty. It was going to be great. We walk on and do the guitar ready for ?it looks like Chaplin? , hit the wah wah pedal and the whole thing goes down. I?m thinking carry on, the whole thing will come back, Simon will fix it. We get to the chorus and it still isn?t fixed. I say ?stop the song?. Have a laugh with the crowd, a bit of banter. It happened four times. We went off, came back on it did it again. We went off, came back on, it did it again. We started having a bit of a stand off with the crowd and we think we?re alright and Javier goes ?shall we just fuck off the first song and go straight to the second one?? That works, so we did that. We changed every lead in our whole system and to this day we still don?t really know why it did it. Simon?s holding his hand up going ?my fault? but we did have two new leads sent to us that day by somebody and they didn?t have any protective covering over the solder. So we think wires were touching and faulting. That was it really, but it didn?t make it any easier for me on the night.

Phil:                 Well listen I know you?ve go to run off to the airport so one very final question. Equally, if not more, terrifying walking out on to the stage at the millennium stadium alone?

Kelly:               Well that was scary. I?m glad the guitar didn?t go down then. The first time I had seen that was yesterday. The Millennium Stadium thing was for the Tsunami concert. It was a thing that I think every band in the country would have liked to be a part of at the time that it happened. The show got organised very quickly and we couldn?t do it as a full band. We were on tour in Europe and it was one of those things I agreed to over the phone. Saying ?Alright I?ll do a few songs and I?ll just do it on my own with a guitar but I won?t do acoustic, I?ll do electric? and I walked on. Before I walked on my arse was going big time because I looked out and there was 60,000 mad  welsh people and I didn?t really think I could pull it off. So I had a little vodka and cranberry and watched Goldie Looking Chain which made me laugh and on I went. And I watched it yesterday and I was quite pleased with it. It was good.

Richard:           The best of the day.

Kelly:               I looked like the loneliest man in the world with just one amp and a guitar on there.

Richard:           I know I?m probably being biased but I thought he was the best of the day to be honest, brutally frank.

Kelly:               I have to agree. Ha, ha, ha

Phil:                On that note, good on you guys

Kelly:               Thank you Phil.

interviewed by Phil Storey.