First-ever double album as Feeder play Bexhill date

Black / Red comes out on April 5 on Big Teeth Music via Townsend Music/Absolute Label Services – by which time they will have played the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on March 3 and Portsmouth Guildhall on March 5.

Lead singer and guitarist Grant Nicholas said: “A double album! That shows our age! But I've always wanted to do a double album. And I remember the old albums I used to listen to, the double albums, some of the prog rock stuff. We've been a band for more than 30 years and we've always tried to do something different. I'm always writing loads of songs and actually Torpedo was supposed to be a double album but actually I wasn't quite sure. So I just thought ‘I want the next album be the double album’, but the album is actually very connected to Torpedo. There is a lot of new stuff on there but if you like Torpedo, you will like this as well.

“I really wanted the album to be split in two parts for the listener, CD1 and CD2, black and red rather than be one long player, almost like a musical production with an interval. Making it was a very creative time for me as a writer and a real labour of love. Making the Black / Red album for me personally was a musical pilgrimage and I feel the end result is undeniable Feeder.

“You can listen to the albums as two separate albums or you can listen to them together. I just had a good sequence in my mind. The sequencing was not that difficult. I was thinking of things like Tommy by The Who or The Song Remains The Same. That does not necessarily mean it's a concept album. It's actually more of a journey. There are some songs that connect but as I say the ordering is really important. I drive people mad thinking about the ordering. You might have four heavy songs and then some quieter songs. It's hard to get the right balance with the heavier stuff and the more melodic stuff. You want a mix. I love the heavier stuff but you just don't want to hear it all the time.”

Grant is delighted with the ordering which emerged: “It's real album. I'm hearing it now and it has got what I was trying to do. It's got lots of little snippets of other records but it is really new. We're always experimenting. There's a lot of keyboards and we spent ages on the string arrangements. There's so much that has gone into it.

“The band has been going for more than 30 years. I met Jon on the circuit. I grew up just outside Chepstow and we ended up in a couple of bands together.

"I moved to London and I got him to move down as well. He was a big Police fan and I used to love The Police. So I think the idea of me and Jon goes back to 92-93 doing stuff together. It has been a while but I'm so lucky. I've always seemed to enjoy it and I still love writing. I've still got that spark. I'm lucky enough to still be inspired. You think about the changes in my life over the last 30 years but I think we've worked hard and we haven't followed the trends. We've always been about the songs.

"We've always been a band that has had different dynamics. Obviously we are Feeder and people know us but we know that we can experiment within that.”

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