Kelly Jones has been a familiar face and name in the British rock scene for the last couple of decades. But, this year, he’d like to reintroduce himself. Under his new guise, part of new bluesy outfit Far From Saints, he spoke to Elliot Oakley about the exciting prospect of pastures new, ahead of the trio’s debut record.
After eight number one albums, a Glastonbury headline slot, and millions of records sold worldwide, Kelly Jones would be forgiven for spending his days hitting the road, performing over 25 years’ worth of hits to packed crowds and never releasing another album again. But that’s not the cloth from which he is cut. Temporarily laying down his Stereophonics hat for a while, Kelly has re-emerged as one-third of cross-Atlantic blues group Far From Saints, along with Patty Lynn and Dwight Baker of Austin Texas duo The Wind And The Wave.
Far From Saints already looks like yet another home run for the Welshman and his new bandmates: ahead of the trio’s self-titled debut album dropping this month, radio DJs the land over have received their first couple of singles Let’s Turn This Back Around and Take It Through The Night with open arms. “It’s been really encouraging. Especially with Jo (Whiley) and the BBC taking on the first couple of songs as much as they have, it was unexpected,” Kelly tells me, via a Zoom call.
“The first song, Let’s Turn This Back Around, was a tastemaker song, really. It’s quite long, so we didn’t expect that to get play at all on the radio. Then Bob Harris played it first – on a country show as well, which was quite cool and different. And then Jo picked it up. We’re over the moon really. It’s a record we all feel very passionate about.”
Having initially recorded Far From Saints’ 10 songs over nine days in 2019, its release was put on the backburner when the world shut down in 2020. Still, throughout the myriad changes the pandemic brought, one thing that wasn’t altered was Jones’ passion for this unreleased album: “It’s been a long time coming, obviously, so to stand the test of time for ourselves over four years without even the public hearing it is an achievement in itself.”
After touring with The Wind And The Wave for the first time in 2013, when the two-piece opened for Stereophonics on a UK tour, Kelly invited them back in 2019, to support him on some solo dates. Creative sparks flew almost immediately following an impromptu live performance of Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty’s classic hit Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around. “It became quite quick that we felt like we should do something together. We did the Tom Petty cover, but then said – maybe we should write a few songs.”
It was Lynn’s silky vocals that really caught Jones’ attention: “I was really intrigued to hear our two voices together. I was a fan of her voice; it worked instantly, to be honest! The songs came very thick and fast.” Going from being the sole lyric writer for a band – as has steadfastly been the case in the ‘Phonics – to being one of three songwriters for the first time was a strange but welcome scenario for Jones.
“I’d never really written with anybody before, so to sit in a room writing lyrics with somebody, passing lines back and forth, was a very new experience for me. I like growing and I like learning; I like doing new things. I feel like I’m moving forward when I’m doing that – and that’s how we felt when we started to do it.”
In Far From Saints, Jones has the luxury of sharing the creative burden with two exceptional songwriters in their own right in Patty and Dwight. “It was nice to step back from being the kind of responsible creator, if you will. And also to contribute ideas to [Patty and Dwight] and them contribute ideas to me was really… liberating, in some ways.”
So what of the other Stereophonics members – founding bassist Richard Jones, guitarist Adam Zindani and drummer Jamie Morrison? According to Kelly, they couldn’t be more supportive of their bandmate and friend’s new project. “The boys are really supportive. I’ve been really lucky. Really. I have a bunch of friends and bunch of bandmates; I’ve never had any difficulty, you know, trying to find my space and I don’t give them any difficulty doing what they do. I let them contribute to what they want to contribute, and we’ve got a very open band relationship in that way.”
Kelly Jones’ music is ingrained in Wales’ cultural fabric: I’ve lived in Cardiff for almost seven years now, and I wish I had a pound for every time I’ve seen a room full of people, veins sprouting from their necks, belting out A Thousand Trees or Local Boy In The Photograph. Which begs the question of whether Far From Saints might end up serving as a crossover point for fans of both Stereophonics and The Wind And The Wave, or if this cross-Atlantic style would find more favour with existing fans of contemporary Americana and blues. “I don’t know!” Kelly admits. “It’s an interesting question because I don’t think Far From Saints sounds like The Wind And The Wave, and I don’t think it sounds like Stereophonics. There’s definitely a merge of two camps coming together and actually finding a new sound.”
Speaking to Kelly, the sense that he’s accomplished nearly everything there is to accomplish as a musician is given context: the only goal now is personal satisfaction and expanding creative horizons. “Where it [Far From Saints] goes and how it gets received is anyone’s guess. But I’ve sort of got to that point in my life where the where the experience and the process is more enjoyable to me than the actual result of a chart position or the result of selling out this or that. I need this part of this journey to make me feel like I’m moving somewhere and – that’s kind of enough.”
But is there anything left on the Cynon Valley rocker’s career bucket list that remains unchecked? Is there an itch that has yet to be scratched?
“I just came back from this tiny little studio in Norway – I found this place which I really liked the look of, and I had a little collection of songs I’d written on piano. Kind of beautiful songs, but coming from some sort of… I don’t know, slightly deeper place. Maybe a little more spiritual. It was an amazing experience – I basically recorded an eight-track record in five and a half days, just me and an engineer and a backpack.
“That experience to me is just as exciting as Just Enough Education To Perform going to number one twice, or headlining Glastonbury. I hope people get off on whatever I’ve done: you hope you can do something for their journey in life. That’s my job really – to make art from what I believe in and then pass it on.”
Far From Saints’ self-titled debut album is released on Fri 16 June via Ignition Records.
The band are playing live in the UK across June and July, and support Tom Jones at Cardiff Castle on Fri 21 + Mon 24 July (info: here).
words ELLIOT OAKLEY
