With their roots in Newport’s early 90s music scene, upcoming double album Black / Red sees Feeder completing a trilogy of albums connected to 2022’s Torpedo. Preceded by a UK tour which includes a Saturday night date in Cardiff, Feeder frontman Grant Nicholas discusses matters with Emma Way.
When writing your most recent single, Lost In The Wilderness, what drew you to touch on companionship and grief?
Grant Nicholas, Feeder: When you write songs, you don’t necessarily have a gameplan; it’s just what comes naturally that day. I do write a lot of songs about life and relationships, and I think that Lost In The Wilderness is really inspired by that, and the kind of emptiness you feel when you’re not with a certain person, whether it be a family member or whoever it is. Everyone has somebody that they need in their lives.
When did you write it?
Grant Nicholas: Quite a while ago, actually. Although it’s one of the simpler songs, it was one of the hardest to get right on the record. This double album, Black / Red, was a combination of songs written at the same time as the previous album, Torpedo. It was going to be a double album, but I decided to make it a single. There were songs left over from that and then I wrote a lot more, so this is kind of a continuation from Torpedo. It’s become like a trinity, almost: they’re all very much connected. Lost In The Wilderness was written during COVID, but was one of the slightly later songs.
Would you say the pandemic alienated you enough to influence your writing?
Grant Nicholas: Writing songs was really what kept me sane during that time! I wasn’t inspired for the first six weeks of lockdown, but then I suddenly got back into it and the songs were pulled out of me. I was lucky because I could still do that. I think the whole situation, what was going on, how I felt mentally and seeing the news every day and people not seeing their family members, it was a really hard time, but as a songwriter that gave me something different to write about.
I write about situations I’ve seen, or that other people I know have gone through. It can be one little thing that triggers a line, something I’ve read in a magazine or seen on the news. The albums will take on a bit of a thread, or have some songs that share a message or journey through to another song. I’ve always liked doing that.
Have you ever considered writing a concept album?
Grant Nicholas: I approached this one not like a concept album, but more like a journey. I had a kind of rock opera thing in my head at one point – I was referencing Tommy by The Who and The Song Remains The Same by Led Zeppelin. Musically, I had a bit of a concept in my head, but not necessarily one where every song was a lyrical follow-on.
It all happened very naturally. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel as a band soundwise: we’re very into what we do, we have our own sound that people know and I have a way I write. We’re not going to make a jazz fusion record… well, I think it’s highly unlikely. I’m an old school songwriter and that’s where my strength is. Timeless songs are what I love; some songs are connected more than others, but that’s the same really with any artist or band.
As a band that’s been releasing records for nearly 30 years, if you’re sticking to the same kinds of processes, how do you stay innovative?
Grant Nicholas: I think the key is to stay true to yourself as a band, but also try to push boundaries and try new things as well, without losing your way too much. I experiment a lot in the studio; we experiment with a lot of keyboards. There’s loads of keyboards on Feeder tracks – people don’t realise! It’s not just guitar, bass and drums, there’s a lot more that goes into Feeder records, a lot of production, a lot of thought and every record evolves in some way.
I think it’s important to keep your identity as a band. We know what we like about what we are, and hopefully what our fanbase likes. Any good song can come from anywhere, but I like to sit down with a guitar and then go from there. Some end up being stripped-back, some end up being anthemic. It’s kind of in our DNA. We’ve always had that heavy side too – it’s a really big part of Feeder.
When you’re coming to the end of writing an album, does the era of the album finish, for you, when you finish recording it or when you finish touring it?
Grant Nicholas: When you finish a tour, that always feels like a slight ending, but the music still lives on – so it’s hard to answer that. There’s always that fear [after recording] where you’re thinking, “is this good? Am I too close?” You do the best you can in the time you have, and hope you get a body of work that you feel happy with.
I think that when you’re that close to something, it’s very hard to always love what you do, but some of the songs I appreciate more after a period of time; some songs have a longer shelf life than others. I think those are the songs that often give bands their careers.
With direct lyrics, there’s always going to be that personal connection as well. You never quite know, but you always have a feeling. With certain songs, they have that special something – our song High had that; there’s a song on the album, the next single, called Hey You, and I think it’s got that simplicity.
I’m a massive Tom Petty fan and I love the way he tells stories. I’ve always loved that style of songwriting where you hear the song in your head, and you make up a little film to go with it. For me, that’s why I write lyrics. And I hope when people hear our songs, they see their own little films in their heads.
You’re touring the UK this month – can people expect any live debuts?
Grant Nicholas: We’re going to be doing new stuff – everything that’s been released so far – and we’re probably going to drop a few other songs people won’t have heard. So that’s quite special, hearing songs for the first time ever live. It’s gonna be exciting for us, but a little bit scary, making sure we don’t get them wrong. It’s not a ‘best of’ tour, but there will be some old Feeder classics in there as well.
Are you going to do anything to mark the end of the trilogy?
Grant Nicholas: This upcoming tour feels like a nice sort of end, and then it’s on to the next chapter. I’d like the next album to be a bit different – it’s obviously still going to be Feeder, but I really wanted these three albums to really have a thread sonically, like they fitted together. You could take songs from any of them and put them on each and it would still fit.
Feeder, Great Hall, Cardiff University Students Union, Sat 9 Mar.
Tickets: £29.50. Info: here
Black / Red is released on Fri 5 Apr.
words EMMA WAY
