Interview with The Feeling :: Wessex Scene Online

Interview with The Feeling

10th June 2006
Stephen Thompson

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May 09 - The Boat that Rocked
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Nov 05 - The Ordinary Boys
Oct 05 - An Evening with John Parish
Aug 05 - Lock up your Sons & Daughters

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The Feeling are one of those bands teetering on the edge of becoming something massive. They have played several headline tours, achieved massive radio airtime and are made out by everyone who is anyone to be genuinely lovely people.

I felt compelled to go along to meet them back stage at the Guildhall, where they were playing support to the Charlatans, to find out what all the fuss was about. I planned to try and uncover some skeletons in their whiter than white closets. Unfortunately I failed in my quest to dig up dirt on this unashamedly self confessed middle of the road band. What I did find however, was a group of honest hard workers, who appeared resolute in their crusade to make a lasting impact on the music industry.

Their first two singles, ‘Sewn’ and ‘Fill My Little World’ got massive backing from both Radio 1 and 2. If the great Houdini was still alive, even he could not escape hearing them on the radio. As a result, Kevin the guitarist insists "Our mums probably listen to more radio than anyone else in the country now". Richard, the bass player chips in, "We were very fortunate. We always thought we made radio music. But we didn’t know until we actually put it out there how it would be received". Little did they know, that not only would their records receive massive airplay, but also sell like hotcakes once released. ‘Sewn’ reached number 7 in the charts, and as Paul the drummer commented, "Having a debut single in the top 10 is pretty amazing. With the airplay it got, if it didn’t go into the top 40 something would have gone very wrong. We would have been happy with top 20, but top 10 was fantastic. Now we hope we can repeat it."

Keeping his stern and assertive manner, Richard said, "If we hadn’t got top 40, we would have accepted we were wrong. We thought people would like us, and clearly the record company did too. If we hadn’t done well, it would have suggested we were wrong, management were wrong, even the radio stations were wrong. Fortunately that didn’t happen". While I was digesting this, Kevin cut in, and pointed out with a wry smile, "Maybe the people who bought it were wrong too…"

Judging by the wide and diverse following The Feeling have attracted over the last few months, this statement was clearly made in jest. Paul explained how "‘Fill My Little World’ was used as the tune for the goal montage on SoccerAM", and what the consequences of this were. "We suddenly got all these football blokes running around singing our songs. That was a group we didn’t think we would appeal to". Richard insists that through their music, they aim to provide "Something for everyone". The success they have achieved so far cannot be attributed to fluke, luck or even by accident. It must be understood these boys from Southern England went through a lot of hard work to get where they are now.

For years they played at ski resorts, entertaining drunk holiday makers with their covers repertoire. Although this would be most sane peoples worst nightmare, Richard tries to view it in a positive light. "For all of us, it was a very important experience. Individually it did us all a lot of good, as we were out there together, and continuously playing music together. At the time we didn’t know what was happening, but having come out the other side, our music is very mainstream now". Paul agrees that they certainly didn’t take the easy road. "It took us years to get where we are now. Our only game plan was that we were all obsessed with playing music and all wanted to do it in this way. We love doing it. We started the band three years ago, then we realised we had something really good and it was worth giving it a proper go".

However, the days of covering other people’s songs have now gone for good. Success is beckoning this talented group with both hands. With an album out in June, and a whole summer of festivals to look forward to, the future looks very bright for The Feeling. Very bright indeed.