I caught up with Grant Nicholas, the lead singer of Feeder, as he was waking up in London… we chatted about the new record, the next one to come, their upcoming tour of Australia for Soundwave, Buck Rogers and plenty more. Read on!
What’s the morning wake up ritual for the lead singer of Feeder?
Usually about 10 cups of coffee *laughs*… I was recording quite late last night doing some vocals, so apologies if I’m sounding a little croaky this morning.
You’re a hard working man that’s how you should sound!
*laughs*
So you’re at home at the moment?
Yeah, I’m at home in London. I’m from Wales originally, but I’ve been living in London for many years, really since the band started. My parents still live in Wales, and I go back and see them but I’m based here.
When you go back to Wales, do crowds still treat you like the hometown band?
Yeah… and obviously you’ve a lot of cities near where I grew up in South Wales, which is near the border – you’ve got Newport, Cardiff, and Bristol, which is obviously in England but is very near where I grew up, and they are quite strong areas for us. And I still have a lot of friends who live there, so it is a bit nerve wracking when we play there, because you know too many people in the crowd… people you went to school with and all that!
And of course you’re touring the new album Renegades around the UK at the moment, and I understand it’s been selling ridiculously well!
Yeah, it’s gone really well. It’s just been really good fun – we’ve been getting back to our roots in some ways and shaking things up a bit. Because the album before was called Silent Cry and we’re really proud of that album, but it was a bit more ‘epic’ – there were a lot of parts and we were doing it as a five piece live. But Feeder at its heart is a three piece, and with Renegades we’ve stripped it back down to that. And we’re releasing another album next year – we decided to release two pretty close together. We’re finishing it off now.
Is that what you were working on last night?
Yeah, I’ve written a lot more stuff so I’ve kind of made it harder on myself. It’s still a rock album but it’s got a bit more of an indie edge to it. It’s probably – I don’t want to say commercial as that’s the kiss of death, but it’s definitely a bit catchier than Renegades, which is a real rock album. A bit more dancey, a bit more upbeat…
So maybe it’s sitting somewhere in between Pushing The Senses and Renegades?
Yeah… although I’d even suggest our second album and tracks like “Insomnia”, which is still guitar based but is pretty catchy. And a lot of our fans love that sort of stuff, so hopefully we please them!
And you’re coming down the Australia for the first time in a very long time…
Yeah! It’s taken us so long to get back down there. It’s been frustrating for us. We came out there with Muse years back – and then I came down on my own for a bit of a promo tour – I don’t remember for what album though. It was either Comfort in Sound or Pushing The Senses, and I haven’t been back since, and we always try to make plans to make it down, but it never happens. Quite frustrating for us!
Well we’re looking forward to seeing you down here. And speaking of rock and roll, you don’t get much more rock than a festival likes Soundwave – what with Iron Maiden at the top of the list!
*laughs* Yeah I know!
I was almost surprised to see you guys on the lineup, but then I heard the new record and it made sense…
Yeah I think we’ll be focusing on the new record. It’ll just be the three of us, so we won’t have the keys with us, or the little things we need for the bigger shows over here. It’s how we started things over here so we thought it would be nice to come over and build things back up in Australia by doing the same. To show them what the band really is… bass, drums, guitar – the flashy power trio. We’ll throw a couple of older songs in there as well, but if things go well we’ll save that stuff for when we come back and do a proper tour of our own.
With a new album around the corner already, it sounds like two tours would definitely be worthwhile! You have a lot of time to make up for after all…
Definitely, and obviously when we do the full on shows with the long sets we’re able to do a lot of the tracks that were the big singles over here – which we think people might know down there too! For this tour, we’re just going to strip it back, get it done and hope that people like it!
Speaking of old singles, I caught “Buck Rogers” on the TV the other day – that was a bit of a blast from the past
My god that’s an old one. That song is incredible… it’s the most simple poppy song I’ve written in my life. You play it at any festival in the UK and it just goes off. It’s absolutely bizarre. We played recently at the Sonisphere Festival over here, which is a rock festival that sounds pretty similar to what we’re doing in Australia (Soundwave). It had people like Metallica, some pretty heavy stuff… then it had a couple of melodic bands too, like us and I think Placebo was there. But it worked really well, because I think even though we’re not hard rock like those other bands, we are a lot more rockier live than people might think. And so hopefully the crowds agree in Australia, too! One thing that could work in our favour, too: maybe they’ll think we’re a new band!
And I understand your new drummer, Karl Brazil, used to play with Natalie Imbruglia, so you have a bit of an Australian connection there.
Yeah! He’s done a lot of the pop stuff, so people were very surprised he was working with us. But I got together with him in a room, and we jammed, and he can really rock – plus he has great chemistry with the band. We have another touring drummer though who’s actually from Australia. So it will be either of those two guys.
Will you be doing any sideshows while you’re down here?
Yeah I think we’re going to be doing a couple of shows in between, but we’re not sure yet. Some little club somewhere when we’ve got a day or two off.
Speaking of smaller venues, I understand in between albums you formed the Renegades as a side project, as a way to perform the new material live to unsuspecting crowds!
Yeah that’s right. We literally went back to the start in every way. We thought if we were going to do this, we should do it properly and not do it as a publicity stunt – let’s do it for ourselves. So we went around in a tiny van with the band and two crew. Really old school, we had to leave guitars behind because we couldn’t fit them in the van. It was like going back to the start, no tour bus, no fancy hotels… we put our egos aside and just had fun with it. And it created a great vibe, we really bonded through it.
I imagine this gave you the opportunity to develop the songs in quite a different way than the earlier records, too – providing new perspective.
Absolutely. Even when we’re playing tracks like “Buck Rogers”, I know those songs are all commercial songs, they still work even amongst the heavier stuff. We’ve always had a heavy side, that’s where we come from. We emerged from that 90s so-called Grunge scene. We were pushed into that – but we were always into melodies mixed into the heaviness, and that’s what we’ve always done. There’s the mellow side of it too – we like to keep it interesting and diverse. People either love it or don’t get it.
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Don’t miss Feeder when the Soundwave Festival tours around Australia next year!
