First Australian Tour For Feeder In Fourteen Years…

Feeder delivered two monster albums in a row 2001’s Echo Park and 2002’s Comfort In Sound establishing themselves as one of the UK’s biggest and most loved rock acts. But that was merely the beginning. While most of their peers faded away, Feeder cemented their place as one of the most enduring acts in modern rock with over 20 million albums sold, multiple number 1 albums in the UK charts, and a legacy of unforgettable live performances.

Always masters of marrying the light and the dark, illuminating the shadowy corners of their world to uncover something poignant and uplifting, their anthemic alt-rock songs packed with emotional depth and intensity have earned a devoted fanbase around the globe. Equipped with an unrelenting barrage of rock anthems such as Buck Rogers, Feeling a Moment, Just a Day, Just the Way I’m Feeling, Come Back Around and High Australian fans are set for an incredible treat when the Feeder juggernaut rolls across the country in April. Grant Nicholas talks to Hi Fi Way about returning to Australia.

Great news for Feeder fans with your first Australian tour in fourteen years?
Yeah, I know it is taken a while to get back!

Has it been like trying to get all the planets to align to make it and then throw in a global pandemic?
I think it’s a combination of that and obviously it’s a long way to come. So, there has to be a reason for us to come. We’ve been trying to get back to Australia and we had a great time there last time we were there and really enjoyed it. I’m always asking our agent, hey, any Australian tours going? But I really pushed this one quite hard and then I think they got a hold of the promoter there and there was somebody that was keen to get us back over. It’s all come together really well.

Is this tour more about reconnecting with the Australian fans more so this time?
I think with the way the world is now with internet and Spotify and everything, hopefully any fans that were into the band, that a few of them have stuck with us and they have seen what we’ve done and heard our new albums and stuff like that and seen the videos on YouTube and stuff. But yeah, it’s great to reconnect but we’re a band that appreciate people wanting to hear our catalogue because we’ve got a lot of albums and we’ve released lots of singles. I think we’re making good music as well, so when we come there it’ll be a good mixture of stuff. Obviously, we can be focusing on “Black Red”, but we’d also do some Feeder of classics as well, that’s the plan.

So, there is no particular album you are focusing on?
It makes interesting, I appreciate we haven’t been there for a while, we love playing the Black Red album live and it works really well and we’re still promoting that record because it is a double album. It’s got a lot of songs on it, so we’re working our way through it. I think we’ll do a mixture and we will see how it goes. We can adjust the set as we go along. We’ll definitely do a few classics as well, so anyone you know who’s thinking of coming to the shows, it won’t just be all new stuff, it’ll be a bit of a mixture, maybe we will do some really old school Feeder as well and go back to our first record. I don’t know how long the sets are going to cram in as many as we can and making it feel like a really good show.

Congratulations on Black Red, did it feel like an ambitious undertaking contemplating a double album?
Yeah, it’s a very old school, isn’t it? But we are a pretty old school band. It’s something I’ve always thought about and we were going to do it on the previous album Torpedo. That was going to be a double album because I had a lot of these songs that ended up on Black Red that were done then. But I got cold feet thinking, oh, you know, albums come and go so quickly, maybe I shouldn’t put so many songs on one thing, but I’m always writing and it’s just something I’ve always wanted to do. I bought a lot of double albums when I was growing up and I’m quite lucky because I tend to write a lot of music, so it is not like we’re ever short of material. So, I thought, hey, you know what, let’s go for it. As long as the album’s interesting and it has a good mix of dynamics, then I think it should be good for the listener. It was a lot of work to do that in these tracks and there’s still another ten tracks that were left over, so it could have been a triple album.

Even with those ten leftover songs did you feel that you reached the end point for Black Red?
Yeah, I do feel as the Torpedo album and Black Red are connected. It is like a trilogy thing. I think sonically and musically there’s a few different styles on Black Red, but they’re very much similar kind of records in some way and I wanted that. I feel the next record when we decided to make it, whether we use the songs I’ve got left over, there’s a few that are slightly more, I tend to write either heavier stuff, more acoustic anthemic stuff or a bit more bouncy indie rock, and we’re known for all of those things and the fact that we can mix it up. But some of the other material that I haven’t used is a bit more upbeat, I wouldn’t say poppy, but slightly more in that indie rock kind of vibe. So, maybe the next album might be completely different. I may just have a little break from what we’ve done on these past three albums and go a bit more that way, I’m not sure. I do feel as though I’ve not really hit a full stop, but I feel as though that period is done, it feels like it makes sense.

Has the story you were going with in the trilogy has reached the end point on its own volition?
I think it was just the fact that during lockdown I wrote loads of material and there are even songs on “Black Red” that were written during lockdown. I was on a bit of a roll really, when I write I don’t really plan, oh yeah, let’s start a new theatre record. I just start writing on acoustic guitar, usually here in the kitchen, whatever and then it just goes from there and it usually takes a certain direction. Then there’s some songs that go off a bit and maybe it’s not going to fit this record. Maybe I should keep that for something else. I was basically just left here with a whole load of songs.

There was a certain amount of them that really felt like they were on the same journey and should be on the same record because there were so many. It’s ended up being three albums I guess, that’s where the whole trilogy idea came from. This album’s been quite different because it’s been a huge body of work. It’s almost like being one big continual journey that’s coming to an end and then we move on to the next album. Some albums tend to be a bit heavier, some are a bit more anthemic, I don’t really plan it, it’s just what comes naturally.

Have you been really stoked with the fan reaction to Black Red?
It’s had a great reaction. I mean, honestly, like a really good reaction and that’s the nice thing about this record is there’s a lot of songs on there. We’ve been able to tour it a bit longer and there’s a bit more shelf life because it’s almost like you’ve given people two albums in one. What I wanted to do with this record was it to feel like it has like a break in the middle. That’s why I made it two separate CDs because I wanted it to feel like if you just took like one of those CDs, it would be a standalone album in its own right. I think it does work like that. They’re slightly different, the two, but there’s enough rock on both of them to make it work as an album and still keep it undeniably Feeder.

Does it make it harder to reconcile whatever might be next given how much of yourself you’ve put into the trilogy?
Yeah, it is. But it’s always difficult when you’ve been in a band and have your sound. People know you because of that. I think what you’ve got to do now as I’ve got older, I just thought, I just want to make the music that we really like. I don’t want to feel like we’re making music just to keep other people happy. I think you have to make music that you are at least as happy as you can be with it and then put it out there and just hope that your fans and any new people hearing it connect with it. I think otherwise you are compromising your art form a little bit and you end up with something you’re not very happy with.

I’m at the point in my life now, I just want to make music that we really want to play and just hope people love it. That for me is the best way of doing it. It takes a while to get that confidence and to reach a place where I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel with Feeder. We have our sound and we have a lot of different dynamics and we do experiment a lot. It might just sound like rock to a lot of people, but there is a lot that goes into Feeder tracks. There’s load of keyboards, string parts and some odd stuff in there and it’s all part of the process. The songs all start off pretty much on acoustic guitar and I always think that’s the best. That’s always the best way I think because if they work in that simple format it’s normally a good sign.

So what do you look forward to most about returning back to Australia?
I had a great time there. Nice people, good food, and just a bit more relaxed there. I always felt very relaxed when I was there, and we had good weather. Australian people seem to love their rock and roll. I hope that hasn’t changed since we were last there. You’ve got some great bands there yourself, just looking forward to playing somewhere different as well because it’s been a while. I’m pleased t o be coming back, we are not getting any younger. I was like, come on, we got to get back to Australia. We’re over the moon and we can’t wait. We’d love to come back and do more in Australia if this goes well, but we have to come back and build on that, if the shows go well we might get offered a festival and come back and do some more show. We’ll definitely come back if there’s people that want to hear us again.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Feeder at the following shows, tickets from The Phoenix…