It’s been 20 years since Welsh rockers Stereophonics released their breakthrough debut album, Word Gets Around. After nine albums – six of which were number ones – the group are back with their tenth, Scream Above the Sounds, due for release this November ahead of a February and March 2018 tour.
“For the last two records, we haven’t really been making albums as such,” frontman Kelly Jones tells me, at the end of a long day of publicity surrounding the new album. “We’ve got our own little studio and we come to work and make songs every day, then we try to figure out which ones work together as a collection. It’s been a really nice way of working actually, a lot freer, and you haven’t got to box yourself in.”
Rather than making albums around a concept, the band have chosen to make albums more instinctively, grouping the music together around a theme once one emerges. The band have compiled an album every two years since their formation – “a good run,” Jones tells me, with the last three seeing Jones developing a more personal songwriting style. Their latest is the most reflective to date, looking back not just over the last twenty years but all the way back to Jones’ childhood in Wales. Jones tells me this reflective style wasn’t initially planned, but something that happened almost by osmosis as he ventured back and forth to Wales; the reflection became the theme that helped to group the songs together.
“I think it turned out quite reflective but I didn’t realise it until it was all compiled really,” Jones tells me, taking his time to tell me in detail about the stories behind some of the album’s key songs. “Some of the songs are very reflective like ‘What’s All the Fuss About’ and ‘Caught by the Wind’ and I think that was because I was going back and forth to Wales quite a bit – especially over the last two years. Having three daughters and showing them where I grew up and stuff like that, it makes you think. I suppose it kind of comes through in the writing.”
For Jones, post 2016 politics both here and abroad have fed into the album, particularly the contrast between the world he grew up in and the one he finds himself in now. Scream Above the Sounds is also about escaping from the current political situation, even though in reality that can prove almost impossible.
“I grew up in a very tiny little town – one road in, one road out. It was surrounded by mountains and you felt very safe and very protected. Very safe and very innocent. And then there’s the life we’re travelling around in now – it’s completely overwrought with 24-hour news, people feeding you nonsense over the top of it all.”
“I think Scream Above the Sounds is more of an escape from the political than the political itself, I guess. We’ve been travelling around for many years and we’ve experienced quite a lot of disruptions. We were in New York during the 9/11 attacks, touring with U2 at Madison Square Garden and we saw all of that. It was quite mad. I wrote ‘Caught by the Wind’ after the events of the Bataclan and having played there, you start thinking about that stuff and the anxiety it brings.”
With many in the band having young families, it’s clear the events of the last few years have weighed heavy as they look to the future. Their ultimate message, however, is one of defiance – to celebrate life in the midst of commotion. “Caught by the Wind starts off quite dark but by the time it gets to the chorus it’s actually telling you to go out and celebrate life, because you’ve got no control over this stuff, really.”
“It’s a record that becomes a lot more hopeful on that front. There’s a lot of disruption, you know, there’s a lot of interference and there’s a lot of people being constantly consumed with stuff. I think sometimes it’s good to have the innocence of having an empty head, and being bold and finding ideas that come that way.”
Two of the songs on the album, ‘Before Anyone Knew Our Name’ and ‘Boy on a Bike’ epitomise the innocence of the childhood Jones talks of, the former a tribute to the band’s late drummer Stuart Cable, who tragically died in 2010. Many of the songs on the new album are anecdotal, being much more autobiographical and sentimental in tone. Talking about both songs, Jones remembers his childhood fondly, Cable growing up just a few doors away from Jones.
“I guess those songs are childhood contrasted with adulthood and memories and stuff like that. And the disappointments, figuring stuff out. Those are very vulnerable kind of songs, especially ‘Before Anyone Knew Our Name.’ Everyone was like ‘you have to put that on the record.’ It’s very true and very honest.”
“And ‘Boy on a Bike’ is a song, a little memory I had which I kind of go to when everything gets a bit intense, because it’s a very peaceful, innocent memory of just riding to my grandmother’s house on a Christmas morning. It was very quiet in the snow and peaceful. It’s good imagery and a very simple song really…years have gone by and I suppose that has dripped through onto the vinyl.”
As well as reflection, the latest album feels like an opportunity for the band to celebrate. Jones talks enthusiastically about how much the band still enjoy what they do even though they’re now over twenty years into their career. They are driven, he tells me, by constantly looking forward and their fans – both old and new.
“As a band, we’re best mates and we still have a good feeling doing what we are doing. The bit that’s making us celebrate the most is the fact we’ve got records all over the radio and we’re still making music that is competing alongside bands on their debut album. We’re not harping on about the past, we’re still going forward.”
“It’s something we all still get a buzz out of,” Jones continues. “It’s not really a feeling of ‘oh let’s stop and look what we did’ – the celebration we get out of it is still being able to do it and finding new people and new places to play really.”
As well as their loyal fan base, the band still manage to attract more new fans with each passing year – something certainly rarer for a band entering their third decade together. Earlier this year, Bob Dylan said the Stereophonics were one of his favourite bands.
“It was very surreal,” Jones laughs, when I ask him about their most famous fan. “I had a few glasses of red wine that night! It was quite nice and we celebrated that night,” he tells me, laughing some more. “Everybody that has ever written a lyric has probably been influenced by him at some point. I don’t know what part of our music he was listening to or what he likes but it was incredible to get a namecheck from somebody as established as him and so qualified. I mean, he’s the Shakespeare of rock ‘n’ roll, isn’t he? It was so amazing.”
The latest album digs deep lyrically, Jones telling me that the band have worked especially hard on creating something that progresses significantly from their previous work. “We work quite hard on trying to make records that take us out of our comfort zones. Sometimes, you’ve got to give people a reason to want to buy another Stereophonics record…they may have got two or three in their collection, or you may have fans who know every song on the radio, others who know every song on every album – our hard-core fans!”
“But obviously, streaming has come in and people are discovering music in different ways. There’s probably more kids listening to music now than there ever has been. But it’s challenging for us to want to still be doing new music. It’s never been about the past for us. We want to still be on the radio with our new songs, not songs we wrote in 1999.”
Before The Stereophonics, Jones was studying a filmmaking course at college. In the past few years, this early love of film has crept back into his life, with Jones directing several music videos for the band and working on several screenplays. An opportunity to work on a screenplay with a leading industry scriptwriter was something Jones felt helped his song-writing.
“Song writing has changed as the years go by. I try to always make the records as honest as I can about what I’m going through. I think since Graffiti on the Train, it’s developed more. I was trying to write a screenplay at the time and I was going backwards and forwards to these classes with a BAFTA writer, Kate Leys, and she was making me dig really deep into this script and get beyond the source of what it was. I walked back for an hour and a half every time I did this, through London, just thinking about stuff. And the album unfolded from there.”
“Since that time, I guess lyrically I’ve dug quite deep to get what the idea is really, trying to be very concise on the line. I want to make it very clear but as beautiful as I can to a listener as well. We worked quite hard on the last three albums particularly to try and get that across in a much clearer and a much truer way as well.”
Filmmaking is also something that Jones can see himself going back to in the future. “I enjoyed the writing side of [filmmaking] and the directing thing was fun for a bit too. It’s a lot of work and it’s dependent on a hell of a lot of people coming together at the right time – you need a lot of time to do it. Between tours, it’s really difficult to do.”
“But it’s also something you can probably do at any age so I’d love to come back to try a new project one day for sure. I’ve got a bunch of screenplays in the drawer which one day maybe somebody’ll read and do something with, you never know. It’s a long process and very isolated. It’s good for a bit and then you start losing your fucking marbles,” he tells me, laughing. “That’s where the music comes in.”
Next year The Stereophonics will tour extensively, playing a show that celebrates all facets of the band’s extensive career. “It’s going to be the biggest shows we’ve ever done really,” Jones tells me. “We’re going to do a lot more on production and come out to the people a lot more. We’re going to show off the first 20 years of the catalogue as well as the new stuff. We’re going to do all of it, really. We were touching probably 2 hours 20 minutes on the last tour.”
Now, with many of the band having young families, Jones tells me touring takes a bit more planning than in their early days together.
“It’s a bit more tricky but the actual experience is better – everybody is much more comfortable in their own skin and so everyone has a good balance now. We all like going for a pint, we all like playing the shows.”
“Planning is more difficult because there’s five people’s lives to plan in amongst all of that, we’ve all got kids but it gets done. It’s just a bit of a fucking headache when it starts off. But once we’re up and running, the actual experience of what everybody sees and does is pretty much the same as what it’s always been.”
One of the proudest achievements Jones talks about is the back catalogue of the band, something he and the band clearly enjoy revisiting as much as the fans. “That’s the biggest honour of the whole thing – having that collection of songs. As well as the big ones people know from the radio, there’s a lot of other songs people know which were never on the radio. We’ve got a great fan base and a lot of new [fans] coming in, so I’m very excited about doing the tour and dipping in and out of those albums for them.”
“The back catalogue is like a shield of armour really, because you know you’ve got it in the bank. You’re not depending on one big hit at the end, you’ve got a bunch of songs that people have been loving for a period of time.” It’s your best friend when you get to this stage, you’ve got so much confidence in what you can deliver. For a long time, we were like ‘are they really here for us’ – I mean obviously they are as they bought the fucking ticket but you don’t really fully appreciate that for years to come.”
After playing Kendal Calling for the first time this year, a festival he and the band loved playing – “it was brilliant – it’s got a really good, young audience and was amazing” – the band are again looking forward to next summer, hoping to play new venues as well as old. Twenty years in, it’s evident the band have lost none of the determination or drive that characterised their early career. With the new album one of their strongest and most personal for years, it’s clear the band will be adding more to their extensive armour soon.
Stereophonics are on tour. Check here for tickets
FEBRUARY
23rd – Aberdeen, AECC
24th – Glasgow, The SSE Hydro
26th – Nottingham, Motorpoint Arena
27th – Brighton, Centre
MARCH
1st – Birmingham, Genting Arena
2nd /3rd – London, The SSE Arena, Wembley
5th – Bournemouth, BIC
6th / 7th – Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena
9th – Manchester, Arena
10th – Leeds, First Direct Arena
12th – Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena
15th – Belfast, The SSE Arena
16th – Dublin, 3arena
