Feeder talk ahead of Birmingham show

The band, Grant Nicholas and Taka Hirose, also enjoyed the successful release of Feeder – The Best Of, which followed a majestic homecoming show at Chepstow Racecourse last August Bank Holiday weekend.

And they are using that momentum to springboard into 2018 with their biggest tour for 10 years, which features a headline gig at Birmingham’s O2 Academy on Wednesday.

The tour will see the band playing tracks from the new Best Of, spanning an impressive 21 years of releases.

The band got back together following lead singer/guitarist and songwriter Grant Nicholas’s critically acclaimed solo releases.

They released the 2016 hit album All Bright Electric and the Feeder frontman says he feels re-invigorated, and in the best creative space of his life.

“I remember sitting in a classroom at school aged 11 drawing pictures of flying V guitars and dreaming of being in a band, a band that could fill arenas and stadiums. The dream came true and here I am 25 years later with Feeder and still riding the rock and roll train. It’s hard to believe that Swim, the first mini album, was released 21 years ago. It feels like yesterday.”

The band’s recent greatest hits featured such exhilarating, celebratory tracks such as Just The Way I’m Feeling, Buck Rogers, Feeling a Moment and Lost & Found.

Grant adds: “After the success of ‘All Bright Electric’ it felt like the perfect time to release a Best Of, to remind people of our story so far, and the music we have created over the years.”

The first single from The Best Of was Veins – from the new music disc of the album, Arrow.

Veins was classic Feeder, showcasing Nicholas’ innate knack for crafting instantly memorable songs. The song was actually written for Grant’s solo long player, Yorktown Heights, but as Grant says “…was too FEEDER”.

“The songs are written by the same person but come from a different side of my brain. Veins is a song about life, and the importance of democracy and looking to the future: with everything that happening in the world, it feels more relevant now then when I wrote it. We really wanted to include some new songs to give the Best Of something new and fresh amongst the older tracks and to make it feel a bit more special for the fans. It also adds something different to the singles album that we released 11 years ago. The new recordings grew into a body of work which we have named Arrow and includes nine new songs.”

Feeder first shot to fame when their debut EP Swim was released to huge critical acclaim in 1996. Since then, they have released nine studio albums, three compilations, 41 EPs and singles and spent a combined total of 181 weeks on the singles and albums charts.

They’ve accumulated 25 top 75 singles, 20 of them in the top 40, and amassed more than five million record sales, including three platinum and two gold albums.

Grant adds: “The whole tour is just a celebration. We did the singles album almost 12 years ago but we’ve been going for a long time so it was time toupdate.

“We’re not one of those bands relying on what we’ve done. After the success of the last album it felt like now was a good time to remind us and the fans of what we’ve done.

“I’m looking forward to taking the show on the road and am re-learning songs that I wrote 20 years ago. It’ll be a really fun tour. Albright electric will feature too.”

Grant enjoyed doing his solo work and doesn’t rule out a return to that when the time allows.

“The solo thing was great. The acoustic side has been a big part of me. Those tracks used to go on the b-sides, so people know we have that side. Most of the stuff I write is on acoustic, even some of the heavy stuff starts out like that and it becomes more Feeder-esque but I naturally write on acoustic. It was really good to work in a different way and when I came back to Feeder.”

He was surprised by how well the band has done when he compiled the Best Of. He’d not previously had time to reflect on the impressive catalogue of work that had been amassed.