‘If you’ve still got the desire and fire to do something, then I don’t see any reason to stop’
Lucy Mapstone
Kelly Jones is adamant there are no plans for Stereophonics to hang up their mics for good. For a band with nearly 30 years behind them and a wealth of number ones under their belt, you might assume the Welsh rockers would be ready for a long rest or even call it a day, especially as Jones said earlier this year that he considered quitting at the end of their tour in 2018.
But there is no end in sight for the group and Jones reckons the Rolling Stones are partly responsible for bands having to continue rocking out well into old age.
“They are to blame for all of us continuing to go and go — they’re the ones that set the benchmark and we’ve got to follow it,” he laughs.
“We’ve all gotta crack on until we get there.
“I’m quite good friends with Ronnie Wood and I don’t think Ronnie imagined when he was 30 that he’d still be doing it now.
“To be honest with you, that guy’s got more energy now than he had when he was 30!”
But in all seriousness, Jones and fellow founding member Richard Jones, as well as bandmates Adam Zindani and Jamie Morrison, have no desire to slow down at all, despite never having taken a hiatus like many of their contemporaries.
“If you’ve still got the desire and the fire to do something, I don’t see any reason to stop doing it if your fans are still getting excited by whatever message you’re putting out there,” says Jones.
The 45-year-old does admit he was keen to take a break last year following the Stereophonics’ latest tour, because “a big part of me was ready to — not quit the music — but I was ready to quit the repetitive cycle of what I was doing”.
However, his own creativity foiled his plot and now the band is set to release an 11th album, Kind.
It’s another classic Stereophonics record which draws on real-life experiences and emotions and escapism, although with a more stripped-back, raw sound. An “honest” album, as Jones calls it.
“I wasn’t really in any way looking to make a new album that quickly,” he says.
“I was going to stop for a while and do nothing for a bit, but around about November some songs started happening, and they were kind of informing how I was feeling or whatever I was going through or whatever I was trying to get out.
“That’s kind of what happens with songs — they channel through you.”
Following a speedy writing process, where the songs “came very thick and very fast” to Jones, the band got into the studio and recorded the full album in just 11 days. be Tomorrow and The Bartender And The Thief — have sold 8.5 million albums in the UK alone, with six number one records and another three in the top 10.
“At the time you make the record you couldn’t care less if anybody likes it,” says Jones.
“But then, stage by stage, more people hear it and it gets to the point where you think ‘Are they going to play it on the radio and in the shops?’ And on it goes and before you know it you’re in that marketing campaign, and if you ignore that then you’re just a bit stupid and ignorant — that’s part of it.
“You didn’t make something for people not to then experience it, so you have to be part of that.
“And then for everybody that’s involved in the record they want it to be successful, so it does become a heightened goal, chart success.”
“I mean, what will be will be,” he adds.
“The band has done well and we’ve never really been that far out of the area of the charts anyway, so if we get a number one that’d be amazing.
“But it’s not the ultimate goal for me. My ultimate goal is that the music lasts and that people get to hear it and people are still listening to it 10 years from now.”
Kind by Stereophonics is out on October 25