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Interview with The Stereophonics
by Beth Malloy
I had a long chat with the Stereophonics when they
blasted through Chicago July 4th. They cancelled an Australian gig, flew
from Melbourne Friday to do Live 8 in London Saturday, jetted through a
four song set and hopped a plane to Chicago. The interview was scheduled
to last fifteen minutes but lasted over an hour and the conversation
ranged from their current hits to US radio and the ideals behind Live 8.
The band had developed an anti-press reputation in the UK and certainly
enhanced that image with the slam song Mr. Writer, therefore I entered
expecting some combativeness, and was pleasantly surprised. Kelly Jones
and Richard Jones had been ragged on in the UK press due to a personnel
snafu. They hooked up with power-pounder Javier Weyler in a Buenos Aries
jail cell and he has since become a permanent member.
The band has a long history of charitable work, specifically with cancer
fund raisers. At Live 8 they pulled off a tight set that helped to boost
the sale of their latest release “Language. Sex. Violence. Other?” over
30%, in large part because they were there to do their “bit,” whereas
other “people did so much talking and we did what we know to do best,
which is just play.” The band is cognizant that Live 8 was a vehicle to
raise awareness, specifically ahead of the G8 meetings, and therefore
its focus on celebrity and not solely music was warranted.
Here are some excerpts:
The Stereophonics have sold over 7 million albums and their worldwide
following led to a four song set on a bill with the biggest bands in the
business at the event of the millennium...and yet, the band has only
begun to hit in the US.
The two Jones, guitarist Kelly, bassist Richard, and the Argentine
drummer Javier Weyler, have complete confidence in their talent sans the
rock and roll cockiness huge success often breeds.
The Jones’ have had some issues with the UK musical press (Mr. Writer
being a biting example of that animosity) and did some time in the
tabloids when there was a botch of a break-up with original drummer and
childhood pal Stuart Cable.
Kelly has come to the point, after some years in the spotlight, that he
can laugh when he says, “Sure you can get caught up in it, yeah, and you
try to fight back, but then you realize that there is no way you are
ever going to win, because they [press] get the last word and that’s
what the game is. If you want to play it then cool, but you live by the
sword you fucking die by it.”
Coverage of Live 8 in the British press consisted of tiny pictures of
the bands and more of “Gwenyth Paltrow and her fucking baby,” to which
Kelly says, “she’s a big star [and the idea was to get people’s
attention]…and yeah, it’s cool it’s a celeb-fest.” The band was not
onstage during the classic “Hey Jude,” finale because “there were more
actors on the stage than musicians.”
B: So, Javier, do you ever bitch at these guys in Spanish and they don’t
know what you’re talking about?
J: No! Not against them…
B: Not when you get frustrated or…
R: He probably does when he is speaking to his family, [annoyed] “oh,
hellohellohello,” [all laugh]
K: [deeper, more agitated] “hellohellohello.”
J: [laughing] Bastardos!
B: So, you guys hooked up in a jail cell in Buenos Aries…
K: Something like that.
B: You care to expand on that at all, please?
J: At the beginning, initially, [they met] in London, because I was
working in London already, and we met in the studio. Then I was visiting
my family in Argentina and the guys were just doing a stop over on a
promotion trip…and they had a couple of days off to transfer, I think it
was to Australia…or the states?
K: That is correct.
J: And we hooked up together, and end up in this kind of, party-brothel
sort of place…
B: Party brothel?
J: [laughs] Yeah, almost… [all laugh]. It just a party, but…
B: Don’t know Argentina…
K: The guy having the party had strippers and stuff.
J: You had to know the people to get in; you had to knock on the door
[with a special knock].
R: There was extra, extra, entertainment.
K: Basically they had ATM machines without a license. So the police
closed it down.
J: So the police kind of raided…because of that, and obviously, they
took all the tourists with them because, it obviously for them, it’s
easier to score more money or whatever. So, they took all of us. We
played our way out with words, because I was the only one who could
speak Spanish. The guys, they had just photocopies of their passports…
B: No actual passports? Not a good way to go to jail.
J: The thing is in Latin America they recommend not to have the actual
thing.
K: We don’t have ID cards in the UK, so it was the only ID we had.
R: And we keep on losing them if we are drunk as well, so we just take
photocopies… [all laugh]
J: We went through this police report thing and we were just there for a
couple of hours…
B: Oh. So, it wasn’t like overnight…
K: No, just a couple hours.
J: No, no, so it was quite late already anyway [laughs]. It was a couple
of hours in, so we just went out and went for breakfast and stuff and
then ended up jamming.
B: Great way to get a new drummer…and from what I gather you also picked
up a little fresh, a little something new?
K: Well, no it’s kind of strange for us, to kind of...In many ways the
approach to the record was exactly the same as every other record. It
was, you try to find a new sound, the last record was very influenced by
soul music and blues music, so it was going to be a completely different
approach, than the J.E.E.P album and before that…But our approach was
[basically] the same, but this album was more of a classic rock and roll
album.
It was pretty much the same, we haven’t gone away anywhere. We’ve
carried on with the same enthusiasm as we had back in 96. There is a
perception, from people outside, because we changed musicians and
there’s a new line-up, we sound different so [the perception is] it’s
like, oh, we kind of woke-up, kind of thing. But I am proud of all the
records in-between, they are all just different sounds. I wouldn’t
change anything with any of them.
B: I saw the live feed from Live 8.
All: Oh yeah?
B: It was phenomenal, it was great, but I couldn’t tell where you were
in the line-up…
K: We asked to go on as soon as we could, to get the fuck out of there
[laughing]. It was
U2, then Coldplay, then Elton John, Dido, and then we went on, and after
that is a blur, I don’t really know [all laugh].
B: Well I didn’t see you at the end…
K: We were there, but we weren’t on the stage
B: You didn’t do “Hey Jude?”
All: Nah
K: There were so many celebrities…there were more actors on the stage
than musicians…
B: That’s kind of sad…
K: Well, it kind of is what it is [at these events].
J: It was great just being there, just doing our set, we did our part
and that was it for us.
B: You did just the four songs.
All: Yeah.
K: We did the most songs of the day I think, actually.
J: You know, people did so much talking and we did what we know to do
best, which is just play [all laugh].
B: What is it going to take to break you over here; certainly you have
broken in a sense…
K: V2 spending some money, that always helps [laughs].
B: Have you met Sir Richard [Branson]?
K: A few times, yeah. But he needs to put his hand in his pocket a bit
more.
B: It’s not like he is poor…
K: No. It’s not like he’s poor.
B: Considering your background, music, you are wide open here…
R: We made great albums, in our opinion, over the years and they’ve
appealed to people worldwide in different times and in different radio
climates…
K: We can’t really do much more from our perspective, we deliver
records, we come on tour…
B: You deliver the shows.
R: We deliver the shows; you know it costs a lot of money for a record
company to break an act these days. That’s kind of the downfall of being
on an independent [they were the first band signed to Branson’s record
label]. The upside is you get a personal touch, but if you don’t have
the money to throw at an act than you kind of go by the wayside a
little, you know? And that is the reality of it. You can blame, or come
up with as many excuses as you want, but the reality is for a band to
get played 10 – 15 times a day on the radio, you need to spend a lot of
money.
B: Well, here in the US they are right now investigating payola, again.
R: They mask it, regarding, well, ‘we’re not going to pay you to play
songs. We pay you for advertising,’ or backing up some songs. That’s
where they mask it.
K: It’s just dressed-up.
B: Kind of bullshit…
All: Yeah, definitely.
K: We have radio programmers come into our shows saying ‘I love your
band, if only I could play you on the radio…’ I am like, well, it’s your
fucking station, well, then play it if you like it.
It’s not even about program directors liking your music anymore, its’
all about, if you change something they risk sponsorship. And
everybody’s afraid to take a risk cause everybody’s afraid of getting
fired, and that’s how sad it’s got. Which from a bands’ perspective, we
can’t fucking worry about it, if we do we’ll just stop making music or
creating anything.
R: The good thing about this day and age is there so many different
media happening as well. People, they can just log online and listen to
a radio station in the UK if they want. Or have a pod-cast, the new
thing, which bands and record companies can use to just send out their
own music and people can pick-up whatever they want. It’s wide open now.
I think regarding the chart situation over here as well, I think that
may have to change over time.
B: They do now, like you guys were the number 1 download in the UK
[“Dakota”], and they do now rank things via downloads.
J: All the new media has actually grown so much in the market now, it’s
being taken into consideration in the charts and all that. It’s a great
thing, I mean, a new way of showing your music to other people.
R: Some of it is timing as well; it’s all about timing, it’s like comedy
over here…
B: [Laughing] what do you mean ‘its all about timing?’
R: It’s all about having the right song on the radio, the right time of
year. People’s taste. [Sales of “Language. Violence. Sex Other?”
increased by 35% following Live 8].
You just have to do what you do, and if it happens, it happens. If not,
you can’t go and cry about it. You just got to get on with doing what
you do and get on with it.
K: This is our fifth record and “Dakota” is in the top 40 modern rock
chart.
B: So, this is the record to do it over here?
K: I am not saying that, I think there were songs on our second record
that were capable of doing it all. But, it’s like I said, it’s kind of
out of our hands, we deliver, we come on tour.
We have had some bad luck and good luck; our record company changed over
the years and our staff and shit like that. The people that have
actually worked with the band, in radio and in the label and all,
they’re a lot of great people and they have worked they’re bollocks off
for us.
Sometimes, you know, some younger brat-cat from the world of big acts
walks into the radio station, and says ‘if you play this one than I’ll
throw this one in.’ There are so many games to play, but when you are on
a small label, sometimes you don’t have that. When Moby was happening
and the White Stripes were happening, at that point V2 had a bit of
clout…and it just changes over time. Like Richard said, you can piss and
moan about it or you can just get on with what you do and that’s just
making music.
Like you said, people see us on the world stage, they see who stands
out; see who was a decent band and who wasn’t. We do our bit, and what
happens after that is kind of out of our control. You know we were in
Melbourne on Friday; we were in London Saturday…
B: It’s amazing, I can’t believe you guys are awake [all laugh]. Were
you in town last night?
K: We were in town yeah; it was Javier’s birthday…
B: Oh, happy birthday!
R: We were here…but we weren’t here.[laughs]
K: We were here physically but our minds were halfway across the
Atlantic…somewhere. [laughs]
J: Basically, when we do the record and stuff, the way we were working
on this album… when we were working on “Dakota,” for instance, we knew
it was a special song, but we didn’t know at the time that it was going
to be a [number 1] single, or …
B: Oh, you didn’t plan on “Dakota” being the single? [The song spent 17
weeks on UK charts]
J: Oh, you have a gut feeling about it, that certain songs could be
potential singles and stuff. When you’re actually working on them, like
when recording, you don’t really know until the whole picture is done,
the whole album is finished. So, the fact that “Dakota” was number one
in the UK is great, but we didn’t really plan it, we didn’t really
expect it, and the fact that it happened is great.
You were asking about breaking in the US, and all that, if it happens,
great, but with this album, just believing in whatever we are doing...if
it happens, great. If it doesn’t happen, well, we are just happy to keep
on working and touring.
K: You have to know yourself, know you can share the stage with anybody,
and you are not really intimidated by anybody, because we know what we
can do so… Basically. I guess, what we are trying to say, we know if we
are doing our bit right, and whatever happens within the music industry,
these days, whether there’s downloading or computers, or internet, or
radio or sales, whatever, all that shit will always rotate, go round in
cycles. If you get caught up in it too much and worry about that when
you’re making a record, than you’re not really gonna make a record that
is from your heart or true to yourself. So you don’t really think about
that. You’re making an album, you don’t really care what anybody thinks,
or even what the singles are. You just do what you want to do and than
as it becomes a finished product, and you give the record company
something, and then you get anxious, or excited, or nervous, about what
people think about it.
But at the time you’re making it you’re very true and honest to what you
want to do.
B: You’ve said before, in writing music, you are just trying to follow
your soul, or…
K: You can sit in your room and try to write a hit single…and 9 times
out of 10 come out with a piece of shit, really.
B: You have certainly said you are out there for music not to become a
celebrity…
R: People can see through you as well, you know? You see all those
pop-idol stuff around, but it only lasts for a second.
K: I don’t know if you’ve seen the British tabloids…the day after Live
8, we are a picture like this big, [as were pictures of other bands] and
of everybody else, there were more pictures of Gwenyth Paltrow and her
fucking baby…
B: Yeah. They even did that on the streaming stuff.
K: Well, that’s fair, she’s a big star [and the idea was to get people’s
attention] and your Scarlett Johansson or Brittany… Murphy, and all
these people there, and yeah, it’s cool it’s a celeb-fest and all
that…and we’re not gonna come in going, ‘where’s our coverage.’ I don’t
give a fuck anyway, I know who can do what, they all know who is doing
what and who is not doing what. What’s the point of worrying about it? I
know what we can do. I am writing songs and I am playing and I’m not
really concerned what anyone else thinks of us. We used to give a shit,
and you know, since we stopped, the music has become a lot better and
our attitude’s become a lot better and we’ve focused on what we’re
doing.
B: You don’t get caught up in all the tabloid stuff.
K: Sure, you can get caught up in it, yeah, and you try to fight back.
But then you realize that there is no way you are ever going to win,
because they get the last word and that’s what the game is. If you want
to play it, then cool, but you live by the sword you fucking die by it
[laughs]
B: So, Jones and Jones? You guys sit next to each other in class, or…?
K: and R: Yeah. Yeah.
K: [smirks] There was a busy milkman… [all laugh]
R: It was a small, small village.
B: I can’t even pronounce the name of that town.
R: It is called…Cwannaman
J: You can actually pronounce it easier; you should try and write it
[laughs]
K: Yeah, the “w” thing really throws people [laughs].
R: It is just a really small community, I think when we were growing up
there was maybe 1000, 2000 people there.
K: And 1500 were Joneses… [all laugh]
B: So you were telling the truth about the milkman, weren’t you?
K: Yeah, he was a very busy man,
R: And probably about half the population is called Jones…
K: Yeah Jones, Smith, Evans, Davies; however you pronounce it over here.
Everybody’s got Rich and my name. Well, not everybody.
R: There’s a lot of them in the phonebook [all laugh]
B: Basically the Jones phonebook.
K: Yeah, it is a lot of J.
R: It’s all keeping up with the Jones, isn’t it… [all laugh]
K: We had been in the same school from about three.
B: So you did sit next to each other.
K: We’ve known each other forever. I started playing music when I was
about 12; my father was a singer, so I was always into it. And Richard
started playing about 17 or 18, and we ended up in the same band
together.
B: The band with the unfortunate name…
R: We had a few unfortunate names…
K: There were quite a few actually. Tragic Love Company. There was
Zephyr
R: Apple Jacks.
K: Oh, fuck, that was for about a day.
J: [Mumbles] Still Born [unintelligible] Latin [all laugh]
R: No, fuck that, [mumbles another name, laughing]
B: What?
K: No, no, no don’t worry about that [laughs]
R: Silent runner, was another,
B: All these names came from…
K: I don’t know… they came from just young and stupid
J: That is a good name! I like Young and Stupid… [All laugh] For a band
its better than any of them... [all laugh].
B: Really, actually, YnS!
R: Cedrick Marlmaduke and the folding deck chairs…
B: Huh?
K and R: [in unison] Cedrick Marlmaduke and the folding deck chairs…
R: It used to be a pain in the ass when we used to call up for gigs and
we’d say we were from Tragic Love Company, and they would be like,
“Charter Oil Company?” [laughs] So, it was obviously not very catchy…
B: The name was a combination of …
R: We just picked part of the names of our favorite bands,
K: We were Misery Loves Company first, and then Stuart was a big fan of
Tragically Hip, so it became Tragic…then it became tragic… [laughs]
B: How long were you running around with that name…?
R: Couple, three years.
K: Three years. We became quite popular. But then everybody that really
got interested in us, who were with the proper industry, would say “you
gotta change your fuckin name.” We’re like [putting on a schizophrenic
act] “ah, nah fuck you,” “well, fuck you...” “Ah…fuck you, ya
fucking...” And then all of a sudden, we decided they were right,
actually, and then they were calling us TLC.
R: But…Cause there was a band in the UK called TLC, or was that over
here?
B: No, you can’t do that…That was a similar situation with J.E.E.P...[Just
Enough Education to Perform]
K: That was the record company, actually.
R: [Laughing] that was cause then the manager asked for 4 jeeps instead
of 3 [as a gift].
Soon as you mention it to somebody, that’s when you can’t do it. If you
just go ahead and do it…
B: Nah, they would have come after your ass. Although, Chrysler has no
money, so maybe you could have gotten away with it…
R: They probably wouldn’t have known. What’s a record to a car company?
K: It was just an acronym anyway, there were dots between em, and it
was, ‘well they know now,’ and we were, ahhh…
B: Oh, I thought…
K: No, no, it was always J.E.E.P. With dots. But it was always going to
be “Just Enough Education to Perform,” that was the whole thing, and we
would call it J.E.E.P. We always wanted to call it J.E.E.P, like the
Aerosmith Pump.
R: Jeep is just a cool word.
B: Oh, I thought it was the other way around and you had to expand on
it…
K: No, no…Yeah…
B: And then you got clever…
K: Yeah, we did get clever. But we were clever from the start…not from
the start, from the start of that particular situation…not clever from
the start… [Laughing]
B: You guys were pretty clever from the start…
K: Many say.
R: Some people think so… [all laugh]
B: I don’t want to keep you…
K: No, you’re all right.
R: We’re not doing anything.
K: We’re not doing anything, you’re fine…
J: It’s good.
Z: We’re good.
K: So how many songs did you see on the broadcast?
B: All four.
All: Oh yeah?
B: You can get it on AOL, its actually still streaming. Actually, during
the broadcast it was pretty shitty.
R: Madonna was bad, I heard.
B: She did, like, one tune far as I know.
R: Steve Gorman [of Black Crows and Cable’s replacement tour drummer]
emailed me and said he saw a bit of Madonna and it was horrible…
K: In his opinion
R: Oops.
B: The streaming video was really out of synch when you were playing
live, but afterward, when they put it together and synched it up… it
streams really well. In fact you guys should check it out.
R: We will.
K: That’s on where, AOL?
B: Yeah, I think AOL.com/music. It’s good, totally synched-up and they
were showing the crowd…
J: That’s fantastic.
B: What time were you guys playing?
K: In the afternoon?
[All at once and laughing]
R: Maybe 4:45? 3:45?
K: 3:45.
J: 3:25.
R: 3:26.
Z: 3:45? 3:45.
K: We actually went on at 3:43 [all laugh] cause I looked at my watch.
[Still laughing].
K: 3:43. 3:43 I was doing the math throughout the set, 3:43 and 54
seconds.
R: Not many rock bands on the bill really.
J: The Who was one.
B: No. I mean, Philly had a couple, depends on where you were.
R: Seems the Who and Velvet Revolver, that’s it.
J: Velvet Revolver was good.
B: I didn’t see any of Velvet Revolver…
J: I saw them from the front, it was good.
R: I didn’t really know who they were…
J: No, no that’s the thing, but they were good, it was a good show.
K: I’m surprised they did the British one, actually.
Z: Right.
B: What do you mean?
K: Well, I would think they would have gone on better in Philadelphia.
B: Yeah, well, they were probably over there touring.
J: Yeah, that’s why. But I was really impressed with the Who, it was
amazing.
K: Yeah.
J: They were really good; I mean it was one of the best sounds. Well,
obviously, I didn’t hear a lot of bands at the beginning, but it was
just really, really good.
B: I really expected Roger Daltrey not to sound so good, but he sounded
great.
K: No, he sounded great.
J: They sounded really tight.
K: That’s right; I took you over to meet him [to Javier]
J: Yeah [all laugh]
K: Yeah, yeah right.
B: What happened?
J: Yeah, I met him! Right! He was cool.
B: Roger Daltrey or Townsend?
K: I took him to meet Roger Daltrey, cause I’ve done loads of stuff with
King’s Cancer Trust.
B: Really?
K: And Roger is basically the guy that organizes it every year.
R: Patron?
K: Yeah he’s a patron. But I forgot I took you over to introduce you [to
Javier].
B: Have you ever seen Tommy?
J: Yeah, but, I don’t know, just meeting him in person…
K: I did a song with him once, “Substitute,” onstage with him at the
Albert Hall, which was weird. John Entwistle was there as well.
B: Wow, how long ago was that? Like 5 years?
R: It was 2000?
K: Was it 3 years ago?
J: There’s a DVD of it, with Paul Weller and Eddie Vedder.
B: What was this?
R: “The Who Live at the Albert Hall.” About 4 years ago.
K: Yeah, I did “Substitute,” and Eddie Vedder did…I can’t remember,
actually…”I’m One?”
B: Sounds familiar, but I’m getting Tom Jones in the back of my mind,
doing your stuff.
K: No, that was like way, way back like in 97 or something? But it was a
live thing, it was cool. Noel Gallagher did one.
B: You remember what it was called?
K: I think it is just “Who Live at the Albert Hall.” Cause on the front
of the DVD, my amps are on it.
R: It’s for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
B: Oh, ok it was a benefit. It was interesting. They did a couple of
hours from Live 8 on network TV, like the Who and Pink Floyd, which I
had taped, and throughout the show they were showing the faces of G8.
And the network did not show any of that.
R: Yeah, yeah.
B: They showed like a picture of Bush, and Italy… Berlusconi. And that
was it. Then they didn’t show the backdrop at all after that. It was
pretty, well; I mean the whole idea of the show was to raise awareness
for the G8…
J: Well, the whole vibe of the show was really cool. Everyone was really
positive about it. I mean it wasn’t really… like; there wasn’t a lot of
people like, chatting. They were talking about it, but they didn’t get
too sentimental about it, or weren’t…going over the line. I mean, they
put those pictures up but, that was about it. Everyone was really
positive about the whole thing, the vibe and the gig. They were trying
to create this vibe and create more awareness.
R: It was a really, really well organized day. I mean, I think there
were 26 bands in the UK, in Hyde Park.
B: Wow, and what time did they start?
K: Two o’clock.
R: Right two, originally it was going to be from two until eight. It was
really well organized. But it went to later.
B: It was actually kind of last minute, right? When did you guys get
invited in?
J: We were on tour in the states actually and we got a call.
B: The end of May, right?
J: We got a call from our manager and he said ‘there is this gig coming
together’…and obviously, there are so many charity gigs, being put
together all the time and we get calls every time about doing them.
But this one did…kind of seemed, like, more serious, especially since it
involved Bob Geldoff and U2.
B: It was kind of last minute though?
J: Yes it was quite last minute, actually…
K: We were all kind of….
R: It would have been better had they done it all before the elections.
B: Thanks a lot! It’s a little late for that now [all laugh].
R: That would have changed a lot.
B: Oh! Right, duh, the UK elections, I was thinking US…
R: It was right around the same time, with Bush in the UK, and we had
them in May and you had them in…
B: November. Black November [all laugh].
J: So, after we got the call. Things started gelling…
B: Who made the call was it Bono, or Geldoff?
J: They contacted our managers, and they said they have this offer from
the Live 8 people and they were putting together this concert and it
sounded really interesting, and so we said yes.
B: Did you cut short your Aussie tour or…?
All: Yeah, yeah.
B: Did you cancel shows?
R: Yeah. We had two nights in Melbourne booked, so we had to cancel one
in Melbourne and we were originally going to go to New Zealand…We were
gonna do Melbourne and Auckland and then come straight here. We hadn’t
actually put the Auckland one on sale.
So we flew back [to the UK] we got in, like, Friday afternoon. And the
show was Saturday and then we left yesterday [Sunday] morning to come
out here.
B: And you got here last night, and you got some sleep, though?
K: Roughly
B: You all look pretty fresh…I was expecting a sort of straggly…
J: We are starting to enjoy the jet lag now [all laugh].
B: Enjoy the jet lag?
R: It’s quite productive [laughs].
B: How do you do that?
J: I don’t know, because you have so many hours that you can’t sleep,
you start working [laughs].
Z: Four minutes to sound check.
B: What time are you guys playing today?
Z: 3:52 [all laugh].
B: Not 3:43? [all laugh]
K: Not 3:43.
R: It’s very precise, these things.
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