Album Focus: Stereophonics

Following the huge success of their eighth studio LP Graffiti On The Train, Stereophonics had a bucket-load of recorded material and no plans to leave any behind. With extra songs being written, the idea of a trilogy album became more and more of a possibility until a late decision to put the music first changed plans.

“The trilogy came about when we recorded songs during the Graffiti On The Train session,” Jones reveals. “We recorded about 30 songs and we felt strongly about them. We wanted to try and release them as soon as possible but in today’s markets with downloads and streams and people picking their favourite songs we thought a lot of the songs would be overlooked so it was probably the right decision.”

Keep The Village Alive will be the groups ninth studio album with vocalist Kelly Jones and Richard Jones performing and writing on all of them. Their longevity together hasn’t altered the group’s writing style however with song developments maintaining their individual influences.

“It’s always been the same,” Jones explains. “James writes all the lyrics and the melodies. Our influence is our own personal instrumentation. Usually it comes together out of respect for the song. The song is always the boss of what we do and whatever is needed on that song it dictates what’s needed. Sometimes it might not necessarily need the bass guitar or electric guitar; we don’t muscle away on every song. You have to be diplomatic when it comes to doing best for the songs.”

Their newest album will be the first to fully feature the group’s new drummer, Jamie Morrison, who joined the group during the production of Graffiti on the Train.

“Jamie’s such a versatile drummer, I think he’s inspired us to do whatever we need to do when it comes to writing songs. If you feel a certain way about the atmosphere or path, having musicians around you that can d all types of sounds it doesn’t hold you back in any way shape or form and Jamie’s good at doing that.”

Despite selling millions of albums and performing at many of UK’s and Ireland’s top music festivals, the group has shown no signs of slowing down with the impressive honour of being the eighth group to achieve five consecutive UK number one albums alongside The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, ABBA, Oasis and U2.

“Those are the bands that inspired us when we were kids and to be mentioned in the same sentence is an honour, it’s very humbling. They worked their nuts off and we’re doing that as well, it’s good company to be in.”

“We got into a band to write music for the love of music, we never got into it for monetary rewards or stardom. We always loved bands like Bob Dylan and David Bowie and Rolling Stones, those were the kind of people that inspired us, they were always changing their styles and trying to push themselves as much as they can. That’s what we try and do, we write music for everyday situations so if people are feeling down hopefully one of our songs can get them through one of those times.

Keep The Village Alive is out Friday, September 11, through Stylus/Ignition Records and will hopefully encourage the group to appear down under next year.

“We’re going to be in Australia in the early part or second part of next year. Late summer for you we’ll be coming over.”

Originally published in X-Press Magazine.