More than 20 years after their debut album, the Welsh rock stalwarts sat down with Buzz for a chat on times past, as well as their future plans.
Are there any gigs over the years that really stand out to you, and are there any funny road stories that you can tell us?
Kelly Jones (singer/guitarist): I remember playing Clwb Ifor Bach, when we started off because I think that was the first day I took the lyrics for Traffic into the soundcheck. I showed the boys and we played it that night for the first time, so I’ve got a lot of memories about that. Word gets around in that club. The funny stories we have could go on forever… we used to travel around in the back of a van for three years. We only played for 45 minutes each night, so the pub was definitely still open at the end of the gig. Now you play for two and a half hours, so the pub is closed.
Do you still have fond memories of Tragic Love Company, the band who became Stereophonics?
KJ: Yeah, I remember phoning up Howard in Market Tavern, Ebbw Vale for a gig, and I said, “It’s Kelly from Tragic Love Company.” He said, “Who? Terry from the chartered oil company?” I said, “I think we’ve got to change our name boys,” so Stuart [Cable, former drummer who died in 2010] came up with Stereophonics quite quickly after that.
It’s more than 20 years since debut album Word Gets Around was released. How do you reflect on that time in your life now?
KJ: It was a very exciting time. A lot of songs were coming quite thick and fast. Living in a small town meant we’d never been anywhere, so I look back with fond memories. I used to write a lot of the words and show them to Stuart. He was the big fan of lyrics – he was almost the judge in the band in that way. And the energy of the band live! I look back at the footage of us now, just seeing three of us on stage with no light show or anything. It was coming from the heart in a major way, so I’m very proud of it.
Richard Jones (bassist): We did a gig in London a couple of months ago and we played everything from Word Gets Around, all the b-sides, and just had fun playing that. It was a small invited audience so there were about 800 people there. We had a good time doing that, we challenged ourselves trying to remember all these old songs.
Adam Zindani (guitar): My amp blew up for about 12 songs, so it was kind of like a three-piece again, like Stu’s days… we went ‘Right that’s it, we don’t need another guitar we’ll just have a three-piece.’
You came into the music scene when there were a lot of great guitar bands around. How do you think coming up in that time affected the band, and how do you think the band would have come up in the modern music climate?
RJ: We’re just massive fans of music. When we were kids we loved so many different genres of music. It wasn’t necessarily guitar bands; we had older brothers listening to different types of music. Kelly’s father was a singer in pubs and clubs so he was listening to a lot of soul music. And that reflects on what you play and how you play. I think if we were kids doing music now we would probably still have guitars in our hands.
Kelly, do you and your dad still sing together?
KJ: Last time we sang together was at my wedding, that was four years ago. We sang a few Gershwin songs in the pub the day after, after a few pints of Guinness. My kids were throwing flipflops at him [laughs].
Scream Above The Sounds is the band’s 10th studio album. What mindset did you guys have going into the album and how did you finetune the recording process?
RJ: We’ve got our own little recording studio in west London, so we’ve been going in there when we’re not on the road to just continue writing, without an album in mind. Usually after about six or seven songs it starts forming into the shape of an album. With this one, Caught By The Wind and All In One Night led the way with the sound and feel of the album, so we took it down that route.
Sonically, this album has a big, polished sound. How important is it for you to keep progressing and moving forward, and not getting hung up on the expectations which people project onto the band?
RJ: First and foremost, you’re writing for yourself. You keep trying to do the best for the song and you make that song the best it can possibly be; it’s only when it’s released and when everyone else gets to hear it. I think we’re our own worst critics: we put all the expectation on ourselves and we don’t want to be going over old ground. We don’t want to be relying on sounds of the past, so we try and push ourselves in different directions and challenge ourselves.
Why do you think young people are still connecting to your music 20 years on?
RJ: I think we’ve been really lucky with finding those new sounds on each album. You just draw a new audience in with songs like C’est La Vie, Dakota on Language. Sex. Violence. Other, and Indian Summer on Graffiti On The Train. It just keeps the momentum of gaining new, young fans. It’s brilliant when you do a concert and the first half of the audience is just young kids going crazy for the new songs.
You come back here, to your home town, quite regularly. How have you seen it change over the years compared to when you grew up? Are there any pubs you wish were still open?
RJ: Yeah, we were just talking about this as we were driving from [Cardiff] university; it’s had a massive injection of cash over the last 10-15 years. When we were doing the pubs in Cardiff it was Sam’s Bar, and we did Clwb Ifor Bach a couple of times. We used to play down in Barry as well.
But you can’t stop progress. As long as there are still music venues for bands, DJs and artists to perform in then it’ll keep that entertainment. It’s a big university town – students like going out and seeing things and doing things.
Is there anything you want to tell us the stadium gig you’ve announced for this summer?
RJ: Yeah, it will be great, I think it’s our third time playing the stadium. The previous times have been brilliant; we’ve had fantastic bands playing with us and we’re really looking forward to another great day. Hopefully the weather holds off, and we’ll see what we can pull out of the hat.
Stereophonics, Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Tue 6 + Wed 7 Mar. Tickets: from £44.50 (sold out – check box-office for returns). Info: 029 2022 4488 / www.motorpointarenacardiff.co.uk. Also at Cardiff City Stadium, Sat 9 June. Tickets: from £43. Info: www.myticket.co.uk