Stereophonics: the tambourine men

Ahead of Stereophonics' headlining slot at Sandance on Friday, their bassist Richard Jones sheds light on their forthcoming new album and describes how the group have come to terms with the death of their former drummer Stuart Cable.

Stereophonics perform at the BT London Live Opening Ceremony Celebration Concert in Hyde Park in London in July during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Miguel Medina / AFP

It is not the most different that we have ever been but the emotion and the vibe you get from it is a new part of the Stereophonics. It has a very dramatic and darker feel to it but with a light touch as well. I am looking forward to getting out there and seeing what the people think.

I don’t think you ever lose that drive. We have got this new material and we want many people to hear it and absorb it. Then we just want to go out and play to as many people as we can. That is the kind of band that we are. We come from a live background so we have to keep on performing to get that buzz.

In the studio that is another buzz and again we try to be the best band that we can be inside that studio setting. We have Kelly Jones, our singer, and he is probably one of the best songwriters of his generation and we are fortunate to support what Kelly writes and we make the best music around those lyrics.

In regards to musicality, they have to know how to perform a lot of different styles. The most important thing after that is how we get on. We will spend a lot of time together on the road, in and out of venues and hotels. You end up in close quarters with the same people for 18 months. So we spend a lot of time to see who will fit in the band and Jamie came along in the auditions and it just felt really comfortable. He can play his heart out as well, which is so refreshing.

We have such fond memories being in the band with Stuart. He had this massive character and the way he played on certain tracks did form a big part of who we are. A couple of the tracks on the new release do have a few of these emotions because we were at the studio at the time it happened. You can’t help but play how you feel.

? the line-up

The Stereophonics are joined by an eclectic list of artists on the Sandance bill. We take a look at some of them