STEREOPHONICS
Keeping the Village Alive
Rhys Matthews catches up with Stereophonics’ frontman Kelly Jones during their European tour ahead of their December show in Cardiff, and talk about the band’s new album, his love for his hometown and what the band has in store for Cardiff next year to celebrate 20 years in the music industry.
What’s been different about this tour?
This time we’ve actually been making an effort to walk around the cities. After about 18 years of only seeing graffitied dressing rooms and the tour bus, we thought it would be nice to have a look around and see what was actually going on out there.
Your new album is called Keep the Village Alive, where does the name come from?
In Cwmaman, Aberdare, where I’m from, people live for the weekend. If there’s a live band, people get a bit drunk and shout “Keep the Village Alive” at the end of the night. It was kind of phrase that stuck with me, which means, I guess, keep the community spirit up, have a good time; work hard, play hard.
What’s your favourite track from the new record?
We’ve started to play a new track called Sunny live. It’s got three different parts, and it’s got some big vamp out guitar solos which is always a good laugh live. The album was finished a year last July, so revisiting them live has been great because you actually get a real response, which is a nice change from me going insane mixing the thing.
Where have the strangest audiences on tour been?
Japan was quite surreal, because you do a song, they clap, and then they stop. Then there’s complete silence as you change your guitar and you can hear a pin drop, and you’re a little uneased by the situation, having to say: “Talk amongst yourselves, I’m just going to grab another guitar”. But after a while you get used to that and they’re very passionate about music. We played the Paradiso in Amsterdam and that was pretty crazy because there were about ten Brits in the front row that were obviously over there for the weekend and out of their minds, so they were making the whole, normal, laid-back Dutch audience react in a way they probably never have.
Who were the artists who inspired you?
Bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival were an inspiration, and Neil Young and Bob Dylan from the singer-songwriter angle. And my Dad would listen to lots of soul music like Stevie Wonder. Also bands like AC/DC from an energy point of view. So I guess we started out as a narrative, storytelling band that was influenced by blues and country Music, and we dressed it up in a kind of three piece-punk, Nirvana, Jam kind of way.
Are there any artists around now that you’re into?
I liked the last Catfish and The Bottlemen record, there were lots of good songs on there. I think some of George Ezra’s darker stuff is really cool. We’re always buying new stuff. Playing the V Festival this year was really interesting, we’ve been doing this for 19 years and we were on the bill with people on their first and second record.
So you’re going to be performing in Cardiff on 12th December?
Yeah, on a Saturday and Sunday so I imagine there are going to be quite a few rest days on the Monday.
We always love coming back.
We’re really looking forward to the show in December because these people have been supporting us for so long now and to keep having the encouragement we get from them is mind blowing really.
Next year is the 20th anniversary of Stereophonics signing their record deal, what celebrations have you got in store?
Hopefully we’re going to be doing something big in the city next year. We’re going to try and do some shows outdoors in Cardiff, but we’re just trying to figure out which ones are available. But I should imagine it will be announced in the next few weeks, I don’t actually know which ones we’re doing yet. But I do know that we are trying to do something nice in Cardiff, which is why we’ve only done two shows, when we normally do four or five.
You were talking about how community spirit was part of the inspiration behind the album title Keep the Village Alive, and you’ve also been involved in trying to keep the Cwmaman Institute open. Why do you think a place like that is important in encouraging new talent?
We found out about that through the media, we didn’t get any letters or anything asking for support. When we were kids we always used to rehearse in our local youth club which we always try to support and give as much encouragement or the odd bit of equipment.
I think the whole village is suffering, every time I go back there’s a shop or a pub closing. It’s kind of coincidental that title came along and then that happens. There are people who want to keep that community spirit alive and I hope they succeed in doing it.
Without places like that new bands have nowhere to play. We did our first gigs at the Working Men’s club at the end of our street when I was 12 and Stuart was 14 and we pushed the equipment there on a little trolley, because we couldn’t drive obviously. Those places generally said “Yeah, do your show but afterwards you have to sod off because you’re too young to drink”.
Is there anything in your career you’ve yet to achieve?
We always try to push the envelope with what we do. Each record we try to make is a bit different. This album is a bit like a mixed tape, there are all different styles of songs on there. But once it’s done, it’s done for us, we’re already onto the next one, and we were writing stuff yesterday.
What do you think the key is to being relevant, almost 20 years after the band’s inception?
I think it will always come back to the songs. I think ultimately it’s always going to be the songs that keep you relevant, and obviously looking half decent along the way.
How does it feel knowing that songs you wrote over ten years ago are still amongst the most played by new bands in pubs and gigs?
It’s amazing, when we were kids we were learning songs by The Kinks, The Jam and even Oasis. You try to find those songs that people in the pub have a good time listening to. I’m very proud of that, and I think that’s why we work well in a festival because they’re good songs to play to large crowd of people. It’s great and I think some of those tribute bands of ours know our new songs before we’ve even learnt them.
What would you be doing now if you weren’t in the Stereophonics?
Well I went to Art School for years and I did animation and film making, and I’ve got a big interest in storytelling. So I guess I would have tried to get into telling stories, making films or something like that I guess. If that didn’t work I’d probably be designing a logo in some graphic design factory somewhere.
Stereophonics, Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Sat 12+Sun 13 Dec. Tickets: sold out but two available in our competitions page. Info: www.stereophonics.com
words RHYS MATTHEWS
photo TOM OXLEY