Stereophonics

Following the recent performance at the Vodafone Live Awards, midway through an international tour and shortly before the eagerly anticipated release of 'Pull the Pin’, Music News managed to catch up with the Stereophonics in the London office of V2 in Chelsea.

MN: How did you find the Vodafone Live Awards ceremony?

Kelly: It’s alright, I thought the performance was good actually; saw it on the box over the weekend. Lot of fucking hanging around.

Javier: Yeah, lots of waiting around, but our performance was fine.

MN: And afterwards?

Kelly: Er, It was, er, It was just one of those nights where you go to an after show party that you don’t want to go to, but you get coaxed along anyway. We had a gig the next day so everybody was going to go for a pint in a pub somewhere quite mellow, but we ended up going there and we sensed the vibe as soon as we got in there – there were a lot of weird Polish security guards who obviously have steroids for breakfast. There were a few instances where they wouldn’t let people back in after a cigarette or they wouldn’t let you go to the bar. Fucking pushing people about. In the end I just said I’m going to get out of here because you could tell something was going to kick off. So I was about to walk out and gave somebody a shout in one of the toilets saying that I was going to phone a cab and I’ll be back down in five minutes. The geezer went fucking nuts and grabbed hold of me and my mate James. Big fight at the bottom of the stairs – he put us in a headlock, grabbed our hands and our feet and carted us up the stairs off our feet like Superman, and threw us out onto the street. When we got to the top, I noticed there was lots of blood everywhere and the rest is self-explanatory really.

MN: No lasting damage though?

Kelly: I don’t really know until next week. I go back on Wednesday. They were quite optimistic with how the operation went. There are two muscles – the one that controls wrist movement was 40% damaged and the one that does my tendons was 20% damaged. They’ve been stitched up and then hopefully when I go back on Wednesday all that should be good. I was able to hold the hairdryer, kind of, this morning so it’s looking good!

MN: 'Pull the Pin’ is out soon – would you describe it as another progression?

Kelly: It’s out on the 15th, it got moved. Our record company got bought by Universal and they moved it, the big-fucking-wigs. Anyway, it’s all good, looking forward to it being released.

Richard: We’ve had it all done and dusted for about a year now and we’ve just been touring for three or four months over the summer, playing some of the new songs off the album. The reception’s been brilliant so we’re looking forward to getting the album out there and then taking it on the road.

MN: Any personal favourites from the album?

Javier: You change over time. I think they are all favourites, we feel strongly about all the songs that are on the record. Depends on the day, sometimes you enjoy playing one more than the other, but I think it comes and goes dependent on how you’re feeling. We do feel quite strong about the twelve songs and all of them are quite strong by themselves, you can pick any one of them.

MN: After six albums where do you draw your inspiration from?

Kelly: It doesn’t really change much. You change as a person. I take my inspiration from everyday stuff - whatever I’m going through, whatever I see people close to me go through or whatever I see socially that’s going on around me and affects me. What it was when I was twenty-two and what it was when I’m thirty-two is quite different, but you take it from the same place, just different stuff. The tools to write stay the same, it’s just the growth of whatever you go through is different. I take it from personal experience – funny stories, sad stories. Whatever moves me really - whatever makes me laugh, makes me want to kick somebody’s head in, whatever affects me. For a feisty punk rock song like 'Bank Holiday Monday’ then you refer back to something that was about drinking or fighting or taking cheap drugs, or whatever became relevant. If it’s about something sincere and nostalgic you take it from somewhere else. It’s different for each song really.

MN: What makes you strive to keep on making music?

Kelly: It’s all I can do really. It’s the only thing that keeps me out of trouble, keeps me busy. Actually, it doesn’t keep me out of trouble (waves bandaged arm), but it keeps me busy.

MN: Do you still enjoy being out on the road?

Kelly: Yeah, definitely. The gigs are the best bit really. It’s a bit of a pisser that we’ve had to stop for a few weeks now, but the gigs that we’ve been doing in Germany, Russia and Holland have been great. We’ve been going back to really shitty, sweaty clubs full of about six hundred people and it’s been brilliant doing that. There’s people falling over your monitors and knocking the mike stand into your teeth and, that’s not brilliant, but it can be brilliant if they miss your teeth. There’s always a casualty around the corner.

MN: Where are you favourite places to play?

Kelly: I do enjoy doing the clubs, but I’m also looking forward to doing the big shows in November because it’s the first time we’ve done it in about two years where we can have the big production, the big light show and all the screens and really put on the proper gig. Having a catalogue of six albums to go back to is going to be good. Not many bands get to the sixth album and have a catalogue that people have been into over a period of ten years and get to play all those songs live. We haven’t even done this before and being able to do this for the first time is great.

MN: Are there any places you still want to play?

Javier: We want to go to new countries. Two months ago we went to places like Moscow and Latvia for the first time and if we can grow the number of territories that we normally go, the better for us. We want to play music as much as possible really. But for me, I am dying to go to South America.

Richard: It’s just because he’s fucking lazy and wants to sit on the beach!

Javier: Exactly! So that’s on the agenda, hopefully.

MN: Following 'Mama Told Me Not to Come’ and 'Sexy Thing’, are there any other covers that appeal to you?

Kelly: Urgh, two of our worst ones!

Richard: We’ve done loads of covers for our B-sides and we’ve done collaborations with Tom Jones and others with people we wouldn’t like to mention. We’ve probably done the covers thing though. We do most of them for other people. We do them for events or for charity.

Kelly: It’s tongue-in-cheek, but I quite like them. I was listening to the Hot Chocolate one this morning on Radio One this morning and it went down really well, they all got quite into it. Quite surprised really. It was good fun – we did it in two takes and we did it with smiles on our faces. Some people take that Radio One thing quite seriously.

Javier: For us it was a bit of a joke between recording other stuff. We just came in and had a crack at it.

Following your collaboration with Tom Jones, is there anyone else you want to work with?

Kelly: We’ve done some stuff with Ronnie Woods from the Stones and a track with (Paul) Weller. We’ve done gigs with Noel (Gallagher) and (Roger) Daltry. We’ll do it for a cause or a reason to try to raise cash for somebody. It’s a bit different from the sixties, when everybody was collaborating with everybody. I think it can be good if it’s relevant and if it’s what you want to say, but at the moment we want to concentrate on the new record. When it comes up have a bit of fun with it, don’t take it too seriously – people fuss is it cool to do that? Is it cool to do that? At the end of the day it’s just fucking music.

Richard: Yesterday, I saw on YouTube when we did 'Summertime’ with Tom Jones in Finland.

Kelly: Did we?

Richard: Yeah, it was good. Check it out!

MN: Who would you say are your biggest influences?

Kelly: I think Richard’s would be Jack Daniels and mine would be Bombay Sapphire!

MN: How did it feel to be the first artists signed to V2?

Kelly: It was good. It was an interesting time. At times we felt we were the flagship for the company and at other times we felt like a guinea pig. Sometimes it was very hard, but very rewarding when it went right because we had full control over everything we were doing and in the UK we had all the support any band could ever want. They loved us as people and they loved us as artists. They trusted us and we delivered everything ourselves. We were never forced or asked to change anything. Frustrations followed outside of the UK where companies kept changing hands and getting sold and the lack of funds. So we never had what a lot of other bands had, like on Capital or Universal or Sony where they had a constant level of success, or help and backing from their label, whilst V2 was a tiny independent label. That was a bit frustrating for years, but now hopefully things can change a little bit.

Richard: As people the label have been brilliant. They’re really passionate about music. Peoplewise it’s a brilliant company.

MN: Following critical acclaim, hoardes of fans and with another surefire hit on the way, what’s left for you to achieve?

Kelly: It’s just what we do. We didn’t set out with a certain ambition or a goal. The only ambition or goal we ever had as kids was to get a record deal and then once we got that just a stage to play on. If the records are successful then it’s fucking brilliant. I’m happy to still be making records if people still think they are relevant and buying them, but if it all went away tomorrow I don’t think I would stop writing songs or stop playing gigs because that’s what’s in my blood, that’s what I’ve been doing since I was twelve years old. I don’t look at it like we have to achieve this and have to achieve this. I just want to keep proving shit to myself that I can still do this in a different way to how I did it before and write songs that move people. If people keep buying them, then fucking great – it means I can keep buying nice cars and houses.

MN: Finally, do you have a message for your fans?

Kelly: Thank you for all this love and affection that you have been supplying us with for the last ten long years. The long cold winter nights would not have flown by without you. We hope you like the new album, because we think it’s a belter and the show’s going to be brilliant. See you somewhere soon on the road hopefully.

Javier: Hope to see you there.

Richard: And for those of you out there that are sick of us after ten years, fuck you all! We’re going to be around for another ten.

Kelly: I’m sorry to disappoint you, but you better get some fucking earplugs you bunch of cunts!

So much more to be expected from the Stereophonics – hopefully not too many people are bored just yet!