Musical Feast

Grant Nicholas, Feeder guitarist and vocalist is celebrating his birthday in Dublin with his showbiz mates the Stereophonics. Not to be flash, you understand, it’s just that Feeder are supporting the Stereophonics on tour, so he and bassist Taka Hirose as well as drummer Jon Lee are sitting in the dressing room at the Point between soundchecks, eagerly waiting for the post-gig celebrations to kick off in style.

The singer sports a bandaged right hand, but is unwilling to comment. “I broke my knuckle on tour in Germany. It was an incident with a door. That’s all I’m saying,” explains Grant ruefully. Drummer Jon helpfully elaborates: “Have you seen the film Ordinary Decent Criminal with Kevin Spacey? There’s a scene where he closes this guy’s hand in a car door and then hoists the car up in the air on a crane. Well, it wasn’t anything like that. Good movie though.” Ahem.

Feeder have played Ireland four times previously, once with Reef, twice at Witnness and an MTV gig in the Tivoli last year. Grant and Jon hail from Wales and formed a band in the early ’90s before heading for London, where they hooked up with Japanese native Taka in ’95. A mini-album Swim materialised in 1996, and the three-piece built up a fanbase by taking their melodic hyper-driven rock songs on the road. Subsequent albums Polythene and Yesterday Went Too Soon spawned a respectable number of Top 40 hits, with the second album entering the UK Top Ten. Their Echo Park album, released last year, has now achieved gold status, with the single ‘Buck Rogers’ peaking at No.5.

Oddly, one of their biggest followings is in South Africa. “We shot a video in South Africa and were curious to see what would happen if we released our records out there,” Grant says. “We found an interested label and now we’ve had two number ones and headlined a huge radio station festival. Actually the Smashing Pumpkins played the same spot the year before. But the UK is still our biggest region. We did quite well in America on the first album, but we haven’t toured there that much since, so we’ll have to follow it up,” Grant says.

Jon adds, “We’ve really broken into Europe this year, playing festivals and touring with the Stereophonics. And ‘Buck Rogers’ did okay, but it’s more about selling albums in Europe.”

Given that that they’re fellow countrymen, are Feeder and the Stereophonics old mates, out on tour as a load of Welsh lads on the rampage? Jon disagrees:

“No, we’ve known them a while, but just through being in the same industry, rather than the Welsh thing. They were looking for a lively support band, with a bit of profile. We get on well with them, and they’re a nice bunch.”

Like the Stereophonics, Feeder flesh out the live sound with keyboards and samples, but have no intention of officially expanding their ranks. “There’s something about the energy of a three piece band that we missed when we had a guitarist with us for a while,” says Grant. “The keyboardist is just there to add a few interesting sounds without losing the essential three-piece dynamic.”

Feeder have long been noted for the exuberance of their live performances. “We’re known for being a festival band,” explains Jon, “it’s difficult touring as a support act, playing massive arenas when its not your own show, but we do pride ourselves on getting as many members of the audience on our side as possible. Some of our best gigs have been big outdoor festivals like V97.”

The band are also tagged with having a very American sound. “Maybe it’s we don’t sound very Welsh - we’ve moved away from Wales years ago, and of course, Taka’s Japanese. We’re a rock band and it’s perceived that rock is a very American thing, ‘cause there’s a huge U.S. market, so rock has always had that branding, especially since the ’80s,” Grant explains. “God, I hated the ’80s – I listened to some very dodgy shit, but it was metal bands like Whitesnake that gave rock a bad name. But we’re influenced by anything from Sex Pistols to U2 to the Pixies – that’s a mixture of English, Irish and American stuff. We don’t really think about it. Also bands like Black Sabbath, Queen and Cheap Trick were big when I was young. I grew up in a small town, so I don’t know if what I was listening to was particularly cool, but we thought it was. And that’s the point. If you think ‘cool’, you’ll be ‘cool’.”

They don’t feel their sound fits any particular flavour-of-the-month genre. “It’s been very hard work,” says Jon, “because when we started, the whole Brit-pop thing was in full flow and it was unusual to be a British rock band. There was Skunk Anansie and Placebo and that’s probably it, so I think, without meaning to sound big headed, we were probably a bit ahead of our time. But rock is a bit more acceptable now and our fan base kept us going. We do have a metal element, but I don’t feel we have any link with Limp Bizkit or Slipknot or any of the nu-metal bands. Not to say that what they do isn’t good. It just doesn’t excite us.”

Feeder’s new single ‘Just A Day’ is due before the end of the year, after a few regrettable delays to do with record company and airplay issues. Being big gaming fans, the band feel privileged to have their songs included in computer games soundtracks like Gran Turismo 3. “Playstation is huge, so it gets us heard by a lot of people,” says Grant. “Our songs do fit with the driving games. We’ve had a lot of stuff used in TV programmes like This Life. ‘Buck Rogers’ was also used on Premiership matches and the British Grand Prix, which we were quite honoured about.”

One last thing, I was told by the girls in the office to inquire if any of you have seen Stereophonics heart throb Kelly Jones naked. “Oh yeah, I have,” the normally silent Taka pipes up. Details please. “ Oh, he was wearing a tiny little towel that barely covered his…um,” he chuckles. “He was gorgeous! We can get photos if you pay us a lot of money.”

OK, guys. I’ll just organise a whip round and get back to you.