Bexhill and Southampton dates for Feeder on back of new album

The band were on a roll. Since launching out of South Wales in 1992, they’ve released ten studio albums and more than 40 EPs, spending 185 weeks in the UK charts and shifting well over two million albums in the UK alone.

Then came Covid. But the response to the new album has brought them back to where they want to be.

Main man Grant Nicholas said: “It has had the best reviews we have ever had. It has been amazing and we’ve just had so much response to it. We were not expecting radio play. We thought it was one for the fans but people have loved it. We started a lot of this stuff before the pandemic. We did 12 tracks though none of them are on the record. They will be on the next record. It was going to be a double album but now the second half will be out sometime next year, we hope. But this new album seems a natural follow-on to our previous album, maybe a bit more rocky, maybe a bit more upbeat. We thought about the double album but when lockdown ended we were not so sure about bringing out all those songs together. We might yet do a double album but really I think this is in two halves and it’s going to be a pretty fast turn-around for the next album which will be the twin sister of this one in some ways.

“I think people have just got a lot of songs after lockdown and the great thing is that there are just no rules anymore. You just put out your music when you do it. Artists don’t have to bring out albums anymore. On the strength of one song that is being streamed you can find yourself filling an arena on the basis of just that one song. But I do love the whole process of an album, making it, everything about it down to the artwork, just the whole process. I’ve always loved that and I’m sure we’ll keep on doing things that are physical.”

As for the lockdown: “Well, I managed to clear my shed out a few times! But it was positive in some ways. I was not in the right headspace in the early days but being a songwriter was the saviour for me in a way. It gave me a focus and a sense of sanity after the first few months when I wasn’t overwhelmingly inspired.

“I think the new album is quite universal in content. The songs will connect with people but I do think everybody has been affected by the pandemic but the great thing is that writing gives you a sense of something else to think about. I was doing a lot of walking around and just coming up with the observational lyrics so in that sense it was positive but basically we are just an old school 90s band and still to be doing this right now is just incredible and we have been overwhelmed by the reaction which has been great.”

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