Stereophonics: Wir brauchen keine Elefanten!

Hello, how are you doing?
Thanks, we’re doing great. It’s good to be back on the road. We’ve been in the studio for a long time and we released the record in November 2009 in the UK so it’s good to finally go out and play the new songs live. We try to vary a lot, more than in previous years. We want to keep the set fresh. We have seven albums worth of songs. The new songs sound great as well, especially „Uppercut“, „She’s Alright“ and „Trouble“.

What do you think about your new record?
Well, we like it a lot. We think it’s really good. We had a different process this time, it was a lot different to the past. We worked with a new producer, with a new photographer and with a new designer.

Q Magazine compared some of the new lyrics to Hallmark greeting cards.
Q Magazine? Who reads that? (Kelly Jones lacht) Well, we don’t really care. In the end, it’s the fans that matter. We’re still selling a lot of records and tickets and the fans are coming to the shows. After all, it’s only one bad review among lots of positive reviews. We’ve had some very positive reviews for this record, maybe the most positive ones so far. Sometimes, the reviewers have a bad day or try to write something entertaining. Yes, or they don’t like the Stereophonics at all, maybe from our previous stuff. But hey, Hallmark is a big company.

Is it hard to come up with great ideas for lyrics after such a long time? I’ve been in a band for seven years now and sometimes I’m afraid that I’m coming to a point where I don’t know what to write anymore.
Not really. I think I’ve written some of the strongest lyrics for the new record. It doesn’t always have to be a tragedy. I write about what I feel. You just have to follow your instinct and there’s so much to write about. Look at Neil Young or Bob Dylan, they’re still writing new songs. I think „Beerbottle“ on our new record is quite an interesting song. And also 100 MPH.

Aren’t you getting tired of the record-tour-record-tour-cycle?
It’s not really a cycle for us. It’s what we do. When we’re on tour for ten or twelve months, we gather a lot of ideas and write a lot of songs. Everything comes naturally. After touring, we take a short break and then we head back to the studio to work on some new stuff. It’s a quite chilled procedure. And when we think that our songs are ready, we release them. There’s no pressure. But yeah, when you look at the release dates, it might look like a cycle with records released every two years.

What do you think about musicians doing charity work?
We think it’s great. Some charities need to have a face. We’re doing lots of charity, we did the Teenage Cancer Trust, Javier ran a marathon for cancer research. Bono, for example, is a great person. He really believes in it since the old days.

And what about high ticket prices?
It always depends on the amount of production. We don’t need costume changes, hundreds of buses or elephants on stage. Madonna is expensive, for example, but we don’t need a huge production. We have some lights and we hope that we deliver a great show because of our music. That’s why our ticket prices are not so high. Besides, it’s important for us that anybody can attend our shows.

What are your plans for this year?
We’ll be touring until October. In two weeks, we’re travelling to Vancouver to play a show at the Olympics, then we’re heading back to the UK before we go to Asia and Australia. Then, we’ll maybe tour in the USA and do some festivals in Europe. Maybe, we’ll also coming back to Switzerland. We’ll see.

Thanks a lot, have a great show tonight.
Thank you. And good luck with your band and say hello to everyone.

"Keep Calm And Carry On " erschien am 22.01.2010 bei Universal Music. Die Band spielt heute Abend im X-Tra Limmathaus Zürich.

Weitere Infos:
Stereophonics
Universal Music
X-Tra Limmathaus Zürich