News

The catch-up #82

23rd Feb 2009

We called up Kevin for a chat about siblings, Robocop, playing the Baftas and army vehicles. Thanks to Kev for sending through pictures from the birthday party of Owen (the band's tech man). Leave your comments below. And if you have a question for Ciaran next time, email it to feedback@thefeeling.com.

Hi Kev, how are you?
I'm well, thank you very much.

Have you chaps been busy with the album, or has Richard's new arrival interrupted that somewhat?
It has a little, yeah. We have still been working on recording, but we've been fairly relaxed about it this time anyway. With Join With Us, we came straight back off tour in America and had just under two weeks off before we started recording again. This time, we've decided to take it a bit slower. Last time was great, but I think it was the right thing to do this time. We're just trying to get as many songs together as possible and make sure that we're really happy with what we've got.

But you're already making progress?
Yes. That isn't to say that some of the recording sessions don't end up being 50% mothers' meetings and then we get round to some recording, but our work ethic is quite good. Dan obviously needs time, being the main writer; you can't just churn out lyrics and melodies on demand. So it's about giving him time to do that and making it feel like it's more of a hobby again. It is what we most like doing in our spare time. If it feels like something you're doing for pleasure, then I think that shows in the music.

What have you come up with so far?
I think Richard mentioned in his last catch-up that we had 10 or 11 songs in various stages of readiness and they're now getting very close to being finished demos. We had said we'd take it slow and do it at our leisure, but in a couple of months we've managed to pretty much record 11 songs. So it's been ticking along quite quickly. It's more that the approach has been psychologically very different this time.

What happens once you've finished the demos?
Um, we try and do another 10 or 11, I suppose. We want to get as many done as possible.

Are you particularly excited about any of the songs?
Probably the one that Richard referred to as sounding like the Robocop soundtrack. It's a lovely song. It doesn't sound that much like the Robocop soundtrack, it's just a beautiful melody that Dan has come up with. We haven't tried to push anything in any direction, we've just let each song go wherever feels right. But it works really, really well on that track.

Are there classic Feeling-sounding tracks on there too?
Well, who's to say that The Feeling sound won't become the sound of the Robocop soundtrack? To be honest, it's hard for us to say what a classic Feeling sound is. Some of these songs we're recording now were written prior to the release of Twelve Stops And Home. I think it'll be a wide spectrum of sounds, as it always has been.

Paul goes crackers at Owen's party

What sort of new sounds are you throwing in?
Instrumentation-wise, there's nothing crazy which we've not had in there before. Last time we did some quite lavish arrangements, whereas I think this time it might be more of a stripped-back five-piece band again. Anything could happen really, but that's the way it's sounding at the moment. Well, apart from the Robocop-sounding one.

According to Wikipedia, the Robocop soundtrack uses "both synthesised and orchestral music" and "alternates brass-heavy material with more introverted pieces for strings". Does that sound like your Robocop song?
Ha ha! No.

Have you been recording it around London?
Yeah, we've been approaching it more as a writing session rather than recording. So we've been round at Dan's, we've been in the Moon, round at Richard's and I've been doing some stuff at my place. What we're making is sounding really good, but we're really just trying to get the ideas down so that we can step back and look at what we've got.

With no deadline at all?
No, not really. With the last album we were looking at artwork ideas and talking about the first single before we'd even got going. So this time we're not doing it that way. We're just saying it'll be ready when it's ready.

Happily, it doesn't sound like that'll be five years away.
No, I don't think it'll be that long. It's just nice not to be feeling an external pressure to get something out.

So, have you met Richard and Sophie's new child?
I haven't yet, actually. I was going to, but then there was some kind of poo-poo disease going around the hospital so only parents of children were allowed to visit.

But Kit's doing well?
Yeah, he's doing really well, no complications beyond what could be expected of a baby born that early. He'll hopefully be home within the next few weeks.

Sinead demonstrates her ghetto blaster for the noughties...

What have you been doing in your free time?
I went to a gig last night, actually. There's a chap called Iain Hornal who was the singer in Genius, the band which Ciaran and Paul once played in. He was doing a gig last night at an Open Mic night in a pub in Archway. Ciaran and Paul went along to back him on a couple of numbers, while Dan and I went along to watch. It was lovely, actually. We were massive fans of Genius and it was nice to hear the songs in the context of an acoustic night. The Genius stuff was very rich and ELO-influenced, so it was really nice to hear them with just a guitar and a keyboard.

Do you have a favourite Iain Hornal song which you can recommend folks listen to on his MySpace?
He played one called You Don't Know Me last night which sounded really nice. Is that up there?

It is indeed.
I wonder if you can get the Genius recordings anywhere?

Yes, it looks like Genius have a MySpace too.
Well, that's worth checking out. Everybody Needs A Helping Hand is a brilliant song.

That one's currently only got 547 plays.
Well, hopefully we can bump that up with Feeling fans' help. It certainly deserves it. We're hoping that Iain's going to record some of his new stuff. Both Dan and I were blown away by it last night.

A little pic of the Iain Hornal show...

Has it been nice having a bit of a normal life over the last couple of months?
Yeah, it's been lovely. Being on the road and doing what bands do is amazing, but then it's nice to be grounded again.

Presumably it makes you look forward to touring again too.
It makes you look forward to all of it. We've definitely enjoyed it over the last four years, but being at home and having some time for a bit more of a life helps the enthusiasm build right back up again. Also, it puts everything in context. So hopefully we'll avoid that thing where every song from the second album onwards is about hotel rooms and tourbuses.

Particularly as tourbus doesn't rhyme with anything.
Walrus?

Sitting on your tourbus, looking at a walrus.
Hmm, not sure that works.

You haven't been entirely gig-free - The Feeling played at the Baftas after-show party recently.
We did. It all happened at the Grosvenor House on Park Lane.

Was it a full live show or acoustic?
Acoustic. But it went really well.

Did you notice any famous faces while you were playing?
I'm sure they were all incredibly famous, but I'm not very good with actors and actresses.

Presumably you'd have noticed if Angelina Jolie was down the front tipping you the wink.
Er, yes, I might've done. But unless they've been uber A-list for the last five years, I don't think I'd know who they were.

Did they get into it?
Very much so. It was a much larger room than we expected, but it went down really well.

You chaps do get some enjoyably random bookings.
Yeah, we do. We're not going to be doing too many gigs this year - again, last time when we were recording, we were going off almost every weekend to do festivals. This time we want to be doing recording and nothing else. But the odd random one like that is quite nice. I think we'll only accept these slightly peculiar bookings this year.

Right, onto readers' questions. Georgina thinks you should make a video using army vehicles. This could be because Georgina's parents own several army vehicles.
Haha! Actually, I've got a friend who owns a Russian missile launcher, so we could use his. We're actually thinking of going to Glastonbury in it this year.

Meanwhile, Abbie thinks that you are "amazing in every single way".
Really?

Yes. And she would like to know how you felt about having to sleep on the floor when the band first went to Meribel.
I don't think I felt anything for about four months! So it wasn't a problem.

You quite literally slept on the floor?
Well, I think there was a mattress. But it was crammed between two sets of bunk-beds.

Were straws drawn, or were you bullied into being on the floor?
I don't remember. I did sometimes have a bed. But I think whoever was the drunkest got the floor, which apparently was usually me.

Natasha would like to know if you have any ideas of a name for the third album?
No. It's normally derived from a song lyric, so we'll have to wait until we have some more of those.

How about Robocops?
Well, that would be a good working title, at least.

Tom from Bedfordshire recently had a Feeling party with his friends.
Is that a party where you feel things? Is Tom old enough for such behaviour?

No, it was a party with lots of Feeling songs, dancing, drinking and Feeling-related chat. Sounds quite fun.
Well, perhaps not as much as a feeling party, with a lower-case 'f'.

Anyway, Tom would like to know if you love or hate Marmite.
Hate. I just don't see the point in it. And furthermore, I don't want to slur Marmite's name, but I believe it contains MSG, which I must avoid at all costs. I don't sleep terribly well at the best of times and MSG makes me not sleep at all for a very long time.

Laura would like to know if you're a Rock Band man or a Guitar Hero man.
What does that mean?

It seems she's talking video games.
Ah! I have played Guitar Hero. It's not really much like playing the guitar. It's more like playing one fingered keyboards. But it is mildly entertaining.

Laura also wonders which Feeling song would work best on the game. Helicopter, perhaps?
Yes, although the guitar part plays the same rhythm for most of the song, so it'd be very easy. I suppose a montage of all of solos from Feeling songs would be best. Of course, that would also be the ultimate Feeling song.

Di noticed that your keyboard was on an ironing board at the Belfast show. Does she mean Ciaran's keyboard?
No, that was my keyboard. I played the Popcorn bit and also the beginning part of Thought It Was Over.

Did the ironing board act as a stand for the whole tour?
Well, that's actually a very timely question, because last night we found out from a friend of ours who works at a PA hire company in Dublin that a keyboard had been discovered labelled "The Feeling". He got in touch with us and asked if we'd like it back before someone pinched it. So it seems what happened was that our crew left my keyboard and my stand in Dublin, which explains why they had to use a spare one and an ironing board in Belfast. It's quite a coincidence that that question should come up now.

John would like to know how long you've been playing guitar and who you were influenced by, as some of your material is quite heavy.
Well, I suppose I started studying guitar at about 11, but I had been playing before that, because my parents both played acoustic folk guitar. Influences-wise, yeah I suppose Guns N' Roses were a big one, Queen, Metallica and Iron Maiden. So they were initially quite heavy. Fortunately Richard shared the same influences, so I did have someone to back me up if I tried to take things a little in that direction.

The final question is from Maria, who'd like to know what it's like working with your brother and whether you fight often.
It's very nice. We did all our fighting when he was too young to fight back.

He ain't heavy, he's Kev's brother

What's the age gap?
Two and a half years. I have a theory that you develop a proper conscience sometime between 12 and 16, when you go from being a child who doesn't really know what's right or wrong to someone who thinks, "Actually, I probably shouldn't do that to my little brother"! I think our vocals work really well together too; our voices blend in a certain way which blends really well musically. But, aside from that, we get on really well and it's nice to see so much of him.

Comments

Showing 1 to 20 of 26 (next 20)

From	Comment
feelingfan14 22/12/09	Great catch up Kev I didn't know it was you who played the beginning of I Thought It Was Over.
krusty 08/03/09	Brilliant catch up, can't wait for the next album :D I miss the live gigs :S
charley 08/03/09	great catch-up, glad the album's going well.
mbrycka 06/03/09	Really miss the live gigs! xx
mattleeds 05/03/09	Glad to hear everything's going great Kevin! Can't wait to hear new material......just ONE gig this year? PLeeeease?? Come on!! X
mbrycka 05/03/09	Thanks! Great and long catch-up. I like the pics. Hope everything is going well. Can't wait for the new music. Hate marmite!!!
sam2691 02/03/09	Great catch-up! :D
abbie 27/02/09	I am the Abbie that thinks you are amazing in every single way!!!!!!! xxxxxxx
thefeeling.x 27/02/09	haha thanks this made me laugh so much :) argh i wanna get first comment next time ! ! x
laurie 26/02/09	Always a pleasure to hear from Kevin 8and the others 2,of course). I still have to laugh about the "The Feeling" Party age limit... x
bart 26/02/09	thanks for the nice catchups :D PS: 620 plays now ;)
suziewon 24/02/09	great catch up cait wait 4 the new album the pressures on lads the fans gagging 4 the new album lol love susan xx
sinsir13 24/02/09	Great catch up and I cant wait for the third album and to see you all live again =D
aimeeus 24/02/09	Talk about pose Mrs Stewart...! ;o) haha! Ah, Genius...I rather enjoyed their support slot at ULU many moons ago... *wanders off to MySpace* :o)
leaceypie 24/02/09	cool catchup! glad u guys are good and the album is going well! xx
mazzsn 23/02/09	Yay they used my bro question-I always fight with mine and would b so annoyed if I had 2 work with him everyday!!! Fab catch up, cant wait 2 hear some new stuff!!!
lilitu 23/02/09	Great catch up! It is true that their voices blend really well. But poor Ciaran!! :)
theoldjoanna 23/02/09	good catch-up but you never answer my questions! :( oh well...i enjoyed it nonetheless. has anyone else who went to one of the gary go-supported feeling gigs in november heard his new single? i remember singing along to it from the gig!! yayy :)
-sandi- 23/02/09	It's so good to have these catch-ups, especially now that there isn't a lot of other news about TF. Thank you for another exciting edition! And good inspiration (or whatever you wish to a band recording an album)! xxxxx
xoxjessiexox 23/02/09	Thanks for the catch up, Cant wait to here the new album when it comes out and glad to hear you are getting on well with it at your own pace :D XOX

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