Music journalists are a cynical crowd at the best of times, always looking for the great marketing scheme behind the latest sensation.
The Feeling would seem to be prime targets for such conspiracy theories, a bunch of 20-somethings who've tapped into a guilty-pleasure vogue for 70s soft rock with an album chock full of lush melodies and harmonies. According to bassist Richard Jones, the truth is a lot less sinister.
“It came from not trying to do anything,” he says. “When we started making the record it was just for fun, based on songs that Dan (Gillespie Sells) had been writing. We went down to Kevin and Ciaran's (Jerimiah, guitar and keyboards) parents’ shed and started to record things. It’s what we naturally liked. We’ve been told that we sound like ELO and Supertramp and all that, and we do like those bands, but it wasn’t a conscious thing.”
Nor does Richard buy into the whole notion of irony and kitsch.
“It’s a bit different for our generation,” he points out. “I don’t have that guilty pleasures thing, to me there’s no guilt involved. They were great songs with a great sound – where’s the problem? I love the Sex Pistols as well and you can do that, you can like whatever you like. Stuff like The Carpenters was incredible music.”
Part of The Feeling’s unique history included a spell as a covers band playing Alpine ski resorts.
“That was something we did five years ago,” Richard recalls. “We’d all been friends for ten years but that was the first time we’d played together as a five-piece. We saw an ad in the paper and auditioned and got the gig. We went out there to earn money because it was better than a day job.”
For The Feeling, epic and pop are not mutually exclusive.
“There are a lot of oxymorons in art,” ventures Richard. “We’re just referring to bands we love, like Queen, who had albums that went from simple pop to ludicrous prog, sometimes all in the same song. That’s really inspirational for us.
“The best thing to do is what feels natural. If we’d tried to do heavy metal or punk it would've been rubbish and people would've seen right through it. To us, pop is what we love, and when we come together that’s what’s happens. If you want to reference something, you have to really know and love it”.