DAN GILLESPIE SELLS: The writing of the album began at first with some songs that I’d written. “Fill My Little World,” “Strange,” “Kettle’s On,” and “Sewn” were the first four that the band started to work around. We were all session musicians, and we’d worked together in original bands since we were kids. We’ve all worked together for 10 years on various different projects and got all our ego stuff sorted out a long time ago, so making Twelve Stops and Home was more about just making sure that what we did was best for the song at every stage. When the guys had heard my demos, we all just said, “Why don’t we get together again and just do a proper recording?”
EJ: The album really sounds like everyone brought their own ideas to the table. All the parts really fit together so well–which I think is a sign of a true band. And, of course, it’s a very retro-sounding album–there’s a bit of Supertramp, a bit of Queen. But I think it also sounds very modern. I’ve read quotes from you saying that you were inspired by listening to a lot of records from the ’70s because, though they were very simple, it sounded like a band was playing on them. Is that what you wanted to go for on this record?
DGS: A bit, but without it being ambitious. There was a point in the late ’70s or early ’80s, before everything went digital, when studio recordings got very hi-fi. They got really elaborate. I like that big sound, but sometimes that comes from a few elements, as opposed to it being huge amounts of stuff. It is the craftsmanship that went into making records back then that attracts us.
EJ: When it comes to British artists coming to the American market, some people are ambivalent and say, “Well, we’d be happy just to be successful in England.” But I can’t really think of any musician who doesn’t want to make it in the States. How is it for you?
DGS: There is something exciting about the idea. And we are ambitious people–artistically ambitious–but being successful in the States would allow us to work with some of the greatest artists that we’ve ever wanted to work with. That brings you to a level where you get to be really artistic and imaginative, do incredible things, and work with who you want.
EJ: You have to be ambitious in exactly the right ways–wanting to make better records and play to bigger audiences. The members of the band have all known each other for a long time, right?
DGS: Yeah. Paul [Stewart, the Feeling’s drummer] met the brothers [Kevin and Ciaran Jeremiah, the group’s guitarist and keyboardist, respectively] at secondary school, and then I met Rich [Jones, the group’s bassist] when I was 16, at music college. The rest of the boys came along a year later, so we were 17 when we met. That was 10 years ago. After having worked together for about four or five years, we actually got our first record deal years ago with Sony. We had this black, female lead singer at the time.