Cheeryo Phonics

STEREOPHONICS are hardly known for being a laugh a minute.

But lead singer Kelly Jones is miserable about that image - so he's using their latest album, Keep Calm And Carry On, to lighten it up.

The music is cheerier . . . and so is the band's attitude.

Jones tells Rated: "We've been too guarded and we want to let people in on what we're really like.

"When we released our greatest hits album last year, people were celebrating us and I thought, 'Why have we got such an attitude problem?'"

He recalls: "When we got big, around our second album, I didn't like talking about my personal life. Before I knew it, I was walking into interviews not being myself.

"Our swearing didn't help either! We're a sarcastic bunch who swear a lot but in print that just made us look angry."

So last year, the band's new record company persuaded Kelly, 35, to start appearing on TV shows, so fans could see what he was really like. "I've never been recognised so much in my life!" he laughs.

Punky

"We've been selling out arenas for nine years but you realise a lot of people don't know what you look like unless you do those shows. Most of them are a load of old b*****ks but we had fun with them.

"And this new record is the first one with our faces on the sleeve too."

Musically, Keep Calm And Carry On drops the Phonics' trademark rock sound in favour of a more subtle approach.

But it took a while for Jones, guitarist Adam Zidani, bassist Richard Jones and drummer Javier Weyler to get used to. "It was quite an uncomfortable record for the boys at first," admits Kelly.

"We didn't want to let old habits die hard. Javier would play a big rock drum style like Foo Fighters, and it wasn't what the song wanted.

"We made his drum kit smaller and smaller and smaller!"

But it's the traditionally punky song Trouble that has become an early favourite with people who have heard the album.

Kelly explains it was written as a joke, saying: "U2 and The White Stripes' new singles always fly on to the radio. But when I hear them, they're so simple I think: 'Hang on, those are the riffs we reject in rehearsal.' It was a p***take, really, but everyone who's heard it loves it. Which is great but I think, 'I never knew it was so easy!'"

This is the seventh album - and hopefully the sixth No1 - for the Welsh band, who formed in 1992. But despite being old hands, they're loving some of the new acts on the music scene.

Kelly says: "It's a great time for pop. Lily Allen is great, and Lady GaGa is interesting. I ended up seeing her show four times at festivals this summer. She's very artistic, there's a lot of substance there - and Adam reckons she's got the best a**e he's seen!"

They have got less time though for Radiohead, who let fans pay what they wanted for their last album. Kelly fumes: "They can afford to give their album away. It's not fair to set that example. I'm not talking about us, we're OK, but it's becoming very hard for bands starting out to stay in the industry.

"I worry how bands can develop any more. Our first single only got to No51, and it took us two albums to take off. I don't think we'd be allowed that long any more.

"Even for singers who are doing OK there is no fanbase there, not really. Pixie Lott has had two No1s but are people really fans of her? What size venue can she sell out - where does her future lie?"

Despite his concerns he says he would love his daughters, Bootsy, five, and Misty, two, to become singers.

"I'd be happy if they got into music on one condition - they don't break America. Stereophonics didn't. Imagine that: 'Ha ha, we've done what you couldn't, Dad.'

"I'd be gutted!"

The first single from the new album is Innocent, which will be released on November 9. Keep Calm And Carry On is out on November 16.

This article has 0 comments