Kelly Jones discusses new band Far From Saints and teases 'big plans' for Stereophonics

• Kelly Jones, Patty Lynn and Dwight Baker discuss Far From Saints with Mike Griffiths for ITV Wales' arts show 'Backstage'

When you're a legendary rockstar still selling out arenas and stadiums after 25 years, where do you go next?

For Kelly Jones, the answer is simple. Form another band, explore new genres, and have a great time doing it.

Far From Saints is a thrilling partnership with The Wind and the Wave's Patty Lynn (vocals) and Dwight Baker (guitar), the culmination of a friendship that began when they supported Stereophonics on their 2013 tour. Six years later, they picked up where they'd left off.

"I did a solo tour and they came over to open up for me on that and we started writing some songs in the dressing room" he explains.

"We were walking into venues and our production manager would just find us a little room. We'd sit down on the floor, start something and finish something".

"I don't think we even knew what we were writing for, other than just to be creative and because we loved the way that their voices sounded together" adds Dwight Baker.

Recording what became Far From Saints' self-titled debut - which is released on Friday - only took nine days. The pandemic, however, meant its release would have to wait.

"The only pressure was “OK - Kelly Jones wants to write a song with you, so chop chop, let's go!" says Patty Lynn.

"It was very validating for me - as a writer, as a singer, as an artist".

"The three of us just sat in front of mics, me with an acoustic and we tracked every song one or two takes" says Baker.

"You knew the songs were good because they sounded good, just the two of them singing".

The band presented a new creative opportunity for the Stereophonics frontman, collaborating on songwriting and sharing vocal duties.

"I've never written with anybody before" he says.

"It was nice to stand back and be wallpaper for a bit... to have a few lines and then pass it to somebody else to finish it and vice versa."

Far From Saints have a host of festival dates throughout the summer, including Glastonbury and Latitude. They'll also join Sir Tom Jones for two of his Cardiff Castle shows in July.

So is playing a set of new material going to be a challenge?

"I've done interviews with people and they say "are you going to check some Stereophonics songs in?" - and it's not really of any interest to me to do that." says Kelly.

"Trying to win an audience over from from nothing is what I loved in the beginning of the Stereophonics' career!"

"It's about trying to make the guy at the back reading the newspaper turn around and take note. And that's kind of what's cool about it."

"As much as I've try to do as many different things over the course of 12 albums, it's still kind of branded as Stereophonics.

"So the only way you can actually move people's perception is by moving perception."

"Stereophonics is where I come from and I'll always do that. We all love each other as a band and we've got some big plans, probably for 2024 or 2025.

"So it's not like that at the end or anything like that. It's just a continuation of different types of music!".

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