Combat Rock
While other bands sip Fair Trade skinny lattes in Primrose Hill, Feeder have been championing the War Child cause in the conflict-ravaged Congo.
Ed Power, 17 Sep 2008
Some bands dream of making the world a better place by sporting Fair Trade t-shirts or giving mid-set shout-outs to Al Gore. Spiky haired Britrockers Feeder have gone one better: the Welsh threesome spent a week dodging bullets in the poverty-wracked Congo, where more than two million people have died in a long running internecine war.
“It was pretty ropey out there,” grimaces frontman Grant Nicholas. “Apparently another band [Canadian emo moppets Sum 41] had been out a week before we got there and had to be airlifted to safety. Of course we only found that out when we actually flew to Africa!”
As it happens,
Congo was eerily becalmed – elections had been called and local warlords were waiting to see if the uneasy peace would last.
“It was still incredibly dangerous. We were told that under no circumstance should we leave the compound,” Nicholas resumes. “We couldn’t go anywhere without an escort. And they weren’t even armed. If it had all kicked off, we’d have been in real trouble.”
Feeder’s experiences in central Africa informed the band’s latest album, a heartfelt salvo of power-punk entitled Silent Cry.
“All these things affect your songwriting,” says Nicholas. “They all go into the pot. I don’t think it’s a situation that’s ever going to be better, unfortunately but it’s something that you feel you have to address in some shape or form. We met some former boy-soldiers who were really really traumatised by what they’d been through. Stuff like that stays with you.”
Some of us were surprised Feeder actually got around to recording a new album at all. When they released a 24-track greatest hits LP in 2007 it was widely assumed to be a final sign-off (speculation that the band were on the brink of implosion went into overdrive when a rookie interviewer reported wrongly that Nicholas had decided to call it quits).
“Everyone was saying ‘That’s it, Feeder are going to call it a day," he recalls. "You know, that was absolutely the last thing on our minds. Two of the songs on the new album were written before the singles collection even came out. We knew there would be a lot of talk about us splitting up if we did a singles record. But our management and the label were very keen on it.”
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