Interviewed by: Jenny Francois
Date Published: 04.24.07

The Feeling were the most played band on the radio in the U.K in 2006 and having one of the biggest hit single with the song “Sewn” didn’t hurt either. The quintet has enjoyed their quick rising success with their lush pop sound and sweet melodies. Their debut of “Twelve Stops And Home” has since gone double platinum. As The Feeling were winding down their spring U.S. tour, we caught up with bassist Richard Jones and chatted about their U.K. success, upcoming gig at Coachella with Rage Against The Machine, and writing songs for their second album.

 

Aeki Tuesday: Hello Richard. Thank you for taking the time to chat with me.

Richard: You’re very quiet by the way.

[Clear up sound issues]

I have just a few questions for you today. How did The Feeling get started? Could you give me a bit of a background story?

Sure. We originally met in high school, the equivalent of high school in England, and kind of worked together in different bands for several years since then - It’s about three and a half years ago that The Feeling finally sort of formed. The right band I suppose.

You talked about being in various bands, were you all session musicians?

That’s one of thing we all did. Over the years, trying to make in an original band, one of the things we all did together was we went to the French Alps as a covers band. That was actually the first time we played as a five piece in the lineup. The lineup, which became fairly ten shows a week, 2 hours per show, snowboarding all day, and driving around and all that. After we did that it kind of got us very good at learning songs quickly; doing sessions work which what a lot of us did for the next few years as a living.

Who where your influences growing up?

Collectively we have some sort of crossover, we all really listened to Queen when we were kids. Obviously big influences in the Beatles harmonies and the melodies of the Beach Boys - other bands like Fleetwood Mac, The Kinks, Pink Floyd and things like that.

I know that The Feeling made a lot of waves in the UK last year, landing on best of lists and receiving accolades, how was 2006 for you?

It was amazing. It was one of the best years we’ve ever had really. We spent the whole year working hard; touring the UK and Europe, promoting our album and it all went pretty well. Starting out playing in little bars with four or five people and at the end playing for thousands of people. It was quite incredible.

Were you a bit surprised by the quick success of the album?

Yeah, I guess. We always had confidence that it would always happen. Otherwise we wouldn’t have signed a major record deal. When it does happen, you try to remind yourself there are other bands that didn’t get the chance to get anywhere.

You even landed on a video game Fifa 07. That’s got to be exciting!

Yeah, it’s really cool. There’s lots of cool things like that. Over the year we keep find out that we were like played on Eastenders, which is a really popular show on the UK. We were used on the Vicar of Dibley. They used our song on the final episode, which was played over the Christmas holiday. Nobody knew it was happening. The amount of text messages we got - a million people watched that show.

You’ve recently played two shows at Webster Hall in New York, how do you find the reception in the U.S.?

Whenever we play live the reception has been great. Over here we’ve had very little airplay. Most people at the shows we’re playing may have heard one song from 1. Other than that most of them actually don’t know who we are and have come to see the headliner. It’s incredible to play in front of a room of people who don’t know who you are and sort of have a good experience.

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You’ve toured last year with The Fray and are now on the VH1 You Oughta Know Tour with Matt Kearny and Rocco DeLuca? That’s pretty exciting I would bet.

It’s a great opportunity. We would have been playing in little bars were nobody would see us. It’s brilliant to be actually playing for an audience to see a reaction, that we are actually making headway. We’re very privileged to be over here so we’re enjoying it.

So you’re on the last leg of the VH1 tour?

Yeah. We’ve got two shows left.

Do you head back to the U.K.? Oh, no. I believe you are playing Coachella.

Yeah. We are there in a week. I cannot wait for that — a perfect way to end the tour really.

That’s a big massive festival. That should be fun.

A lot of band - English Bands there. The day we’re playing — it’s headlined by Rage Against The Machines — a massive band when we were kids. So we’re going to get in the moshpit.

That would be fantastic. Do you like playing these festivals? Does it give you a chance to catch up with other bands your town?

We barely get to go out because we’re always on the road. Over the festivals last summer, we met a lot of other bands and we get to hang out and get to watch them play. So it’s going to be really great to catch up with people and the music.

What do you have planned after Coachella?

We fly back to the U.K. We’re doing a few weeks writing at a place in the countryside and then we’re possibly coming back to the states in June or July.

So you’re already writing songs for a second album?

Our first album, we’ve been touring it for now for a year and a half. We’ve been writing songs all along really. Whenever we get a little moment in time to stop and probably working on it, we go in and we’ve been doing it for the last few months. Taking the off week here and there recording. It’s kind of what we love to do. It’s what we used to do in our free time when we had day jobs as musicians. It’s what we do now in our free time but it’s our job.

What were the most memorable places you’ve played at that stood out in 2006 or 2007?

I think some of the best experiences we’ve had certainly, some of them has been in the states, San Francisco is amazing - such a great city. New York is always good whenever we’ve been there. We always have fun in LA. Going to Japan was incredible. Tokyo is outgoing.

What sort of music are you getting into right now?

I’m listening to a mix of old and new. I recently got a collection of The Who’s record, which I know most of but some reason didn’t have, the new Arcade Fire album. We saw them play; I guess it was over a month ago before we came out here. It was really great. I think they actually made a classic album.

I have one last question for you. If you weren’t making music right now, what would you be doing?

I always wanted to be a helicopter pilot. I don’t know if I’d be good at it though.

More On The Feeling

Official site: www.thefeeling.co.uk
MySpace: www.myspace.com/thefeeling