Their iconic songs helped to provide the soundtrack to the 1990s and early 2000s and remain as popular as ever with their loyal following and a growing band of new fans. Now Feeder is making a return visit to the island, appearing at the Villa later this month. We have an exclusive interview with front man Grant Nicholas.

It’s well known that Grant hails from Newport so the first surprise is that he doesn’t sound Welsh.

’I’ve been in London too long. I moved there 30 years ago. I’m a Welsh cockney now,’ he laughs, adding, ’but the Welsh accent comes back after a drink or two.’

The band is currently promoting their latest album, Feeder: The Best of, a compilation of 20 of their best known tracks that includes the iconic Just a Day and Buck Rogers. I ask Grant what it was like, trawling through their back catalogue to choose the tracks.

’It was a real education going back and seeing how many singles we’d released. It was amazing to look back and realise we’d released over 50 singles. We don’t want to forget the older singles and that made us what we are now,’ he says.

I wonder if his own favourites are necessarily the same as those the public loves.

’Yes and no,’ he tells me, ’as a songwriter I’ve written other songs that I’m really proud of that didn’t become singles.

’But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love seeing the audience reaction to some of our popular songs - you can’t beat seeing people getting enjoyment from big singles like Just a Day and Buck Rogers.’

Just a Day has some especially fond memories for Grant. He originally wrote the song as lead track for an album in US but it never got released so it was used instead as part of the soundtrack for one of the early Gran Turismo video games.

Grant recalls: ’It was a massive, massive success and that made the track almost a cult. It was just a fun little track and the video with the fans [also played a part].’

He’s talking about the the track’s promotional video which has become something of a cult classic, made up of selfie films of fans interpretating the song in their own way.

Grant explains: ’The idea came from a director when we were on tour with REM and it was going to be difficult to get back to film a video ourseves so the fans were invited to send their own videos. Basically the brief was "if you want to be on a Feeder video let us have your videos". Even now it’s still quite good to watch - it’s timeless.’

Part of any reflection on Feeder’s past has to include thoughts about drummer Jon Lee who comitted suicide in his Miami home in 2002. Grant recalls: ’At the time it was very hard for us to know what was going on because Jon was in America. I met Jon in Wales and I got him to move to London. I started the band with him and we just got on really well.

’It is different nowadays you have big profile artists talking about mental health, not just musicians. There’s a lot of pressure on artists and a lot of insecurities as well - I’ve felt it myself. You couldn’t talk about it before. It’s a completely different world now.

’When we started and, really for the first ten years we were playing, there was no social media and you didn’t really know much about these people like Jim Morrison who were big then. The not knowing too much made them more mysterious - no one really knew what they were like.

’Now you’re almost pressurised to use it: everybody seems to want to know everything. Some bands are all over social media. Sometimes I like it but sometimes I don’t but [mental health] is definitely much more talked about now.’

I ask Grant whether the band still enjoys playing live and he says: ’I think I’m enjoying it more now than I did in the early days. We have more songs to pick from now so we can hold the stage for a lot longer. When you’re a young band you just rely on that energy.

’We have a massive catalogue of music now so we can experiment a bit with sets.

’We’re in a pretty good headpsace just now - we’ve been playing for 25 years and we’re still enjoying it. And it’s not just the older fans, we’ve got kids of 11 coming to us. We have a whole new generation of fans now.’

Feeder’s appearance at the Villa comes in the middle of playing festivals all around the UK, as Grant explains: ’It’s a one-off gig in the which is quite nice really. I’m looking forward to it - it should be fun.’

â?¢ Feeder will be at the Villa on Friday, August 24.

www.villagaiety.com.

by Julie Blackburn

Twitter:@iomnewspapers