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“Being criticised when you’ve spent so long on something - it hurts. It’s fucking tough.” Grant Nicholas has taken his fair share of stick from the critics over the years. However, after turning 40 last year, the Feeder frontman admits he’s learnt to deal with the disparaging comments. “You put a lot of passion and hard work in music. It’s not just rock ‘n’ roll debauchery lifestyle all the time. It can be, but you’ve still got to write the tunes as well. You can’t please everybody,” he adds. Sat alongside him in a studio in London is drummer Mark Richardson. Gigwise went along to meet the guys from Feeder as they prepare to release their sixth studio album ‘Silent Cry’ later this month. With over a decade in the music business under their belts it seems an ideal time to learn more about one of Britain’s best underdog bands.
Flashback to around a third of his age for instance and Nicholas reveals that the self-assured rockstar that he has become was once an unlikely existence. “When I was at school I was quite a shy person I mean I wasn’t this sort of outrageous extrovert. I’d have been too scared to go onstage and sing at one point in my life but then I suddenly realised that’s what I wanted to do.” Interesting to discover when you consider his band picked up the Kerrang! gong for Best Live Act in 2001. Overcoming his fear he may have done, however his new-found confidence did not make it any easier to find success.
Wales did not hold the type of opportunities required for the Newport born Nicholas at the time, so he decided to head for the capital. He admits he knew very little of the area he was entering: “I suppose I was a bit of a redneck really. I didn’t know much and who was a cool band or whatever, I’d be listening to AC/DC or something I didn’t care.” He found his feet and went ahead playing anywhere and everywhere he could. “We did the sort of Camden scene, played every toilet you could think and then we use to go back to Wales to rehearse because it was too expensive in London. We use to rehearse in this cow barn (laughs) and it was the fucking coldest place in the world.” Eventually the line-up at the time found part-time jobs, recruited Taka Hirose, did some busking on the side, changed their name to Feeder and got signed. “I mean it took a long time because we were this alternative rock band and the nearest thing to us was probably the whole grunge scene and we didn’t really fit in at all here”, adds Nicholas.
Being set apart from the crowd and difficult to pigeonhole is something Nicholas acknowledges and favours. He says: “I think it’s cooler and I think it’s timeless.” Richardson explains: “The trouble with being part of a scene is you kind of live and die with it.” Nicholas nods in agreement before adding: “You can get up the ladder a lot quicker if you’re part of it, especially if you’re the leader of that pack but how many bands are going from the Britpop scene now?”
Their own longevity in the music industry culminated in 2006’s ‘Singles’ compilation and in 2008 they are set to release their most ambitious record to date. Since the passing of original drummer Jon Lee in 2002, the band revealed a softer side to their music. Even though success followed, many fans chose to ostracise themselves from the new sound. Luckily, those cynics can march straight back with their tail between their legs because ‘Silent Cry’ is a forceful nod back to the heavier sound of their early releases. Violent strident stomping tracks such as ‘Miss You’ and the punk rock melodies of ‘Into The Blue’ are joined by some of Nicholas’s most daring lyrical endeavours. Sitting forward with childlike enthusiasm he describes one of his proudest moments on the record. “There’s this song called ‘Fires’ which is about a young girl who basically lights fires on mountains to try and get noticed. There’s a lot of quite introverted people and I based it on that period, which everyone goes through, where they feel quite alone. It’s quite a surreal little story that I had in mind. Maybe it’s reading too many fairytales to my daughter,” he laughs.
Surrealism is a common theme creeping from Nicholas’s reflections on some of the more peculiar memories of his time in Feeder. He speaks of a gig for a group of gaming fanatics, a beer and oyster festival and playing in front of the Welsh National rugby team as some of the strangest. Of the latter, Nicholas explains his honour before I ask him if he’s proud to be Welsh. “Yeh! Too right I am especially with the Welsh Rugby team they’re bloody great at the minute. It’s good and there’s some good Welsh bands around as well.”
The pride of his homeland is not the only thing Nicholas speaks of with great fondness. He and Richardson have both welcomed new additions to their families over the years. Nicholas admits he’s still learning about fatherhood and is encouraged by his daughter’s enthusiasm for music. “She’s only three but she’s always playing my guitar and she’s got a little keyboard and she sings, she’s actually quite musical she can hit good notes.” Richardson says of his own son: “I’d be just as happy if he wanted to be a doctor,” to which Nicholas laughs: “That’s quite a good job.”
Becoming a family man has enabled Richardson to celebrate a more disciplined side to his life. He has stopped drinking and appreciates the ways in which he has grown up. He states: “I think you’ve always got to be learning and growing in whatever area, be that educational, spiritual, just making yourself a better person. It’s not something I find easy but it’s something I want to do and am willing to do.” Richardson sums up his career and the reason he has found respect within himself by saying: “I’d say it’s about progress not perfection, live each day as it comes and be kind. Not very rock ‘n’ roll but hey”. A fitting end to the conversation as Nicholas jokes “its all gone very serious.” What should be taken serious though is Feeder are back and they are ready to explode again just like they did ten years ago.
