What do you get when you combine Stereophonics’ Kelly Jones with Patty Lynn and Dwight Baker from The Wind and The Wave?
The answer is Far From Saints – a blend of country, rock, folk, soul and Americana, who’ve been winning over audiences with their singles ‘Let’s Turn This Back Around’, ‘Take It Through The Night’ and ‘Screaming Hallelujah’. With backing from the likes of Jo Whiley and Bob Harris, now they’re gearing up to release their self-titled debut EP this Friday.
I recently caught up with the band to talk about the record, the process of working together, playing live, plans for the future and much more besides.
Can you tell us more about how you first began working together as Far From Saints?
Kelly: Well, I guess the short answer is, I was doing a solo tour. And I’ve met the guys previously, about seven, eight years before we did an American tour together. And when we did the solo tour, we kind of jammed a Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks song. And then we started to think about maybe this could work as a little songwriting thing, so we started knocking some songs together in dressing rooms and hotels and things like that. And then one thing led to another, and we thought maybe we should record some of it. And then we recorded it. And it turned into a record very quickly, really. So that’s kind of the the nuts and bolts of how it happened, I think.
Your debut album is coming out on Friday – can you tell us about that and what the influences on it have been?
Kelly: Well, it’s kind of like, you know, The Wind and the Wave have got their sound and Stereophonics have got their sound. And somehow we’ve merged in the middle and reformed Far From Saints, so it doesn’t feel like some sort of side project or anything like that. It’s its own band and its own thing, I suppose. There’s the main focus on there for our listeners’ standpoint, I suppose is the two voices coming through for Patty and myself, and some great songs that we’ve all written together, which I guess is in a style of… there’s elements of country, folk, Americana kind of stuff. But it’s a beautiful record that I think takes you through many different feelings and emotions, and hopefully comes out the other side feeling quite hopeful. You know, and it’s got a lot of great melodies on it.
Patty, I know you’ve mentioned previously that the structure of this record is quite important – that it’s something to listen to the whole way through. Was that something you were conscious of in the process of making the album at all?
Patty: Definitely not. Yeah, that wasn’t a thought at all. It wasn’t until we kind of had all of the songs that we could even just put our finger on what the feeling was, what the kind of thread throughout [was]. And it wasn’t really like a thematic thread, it was more of a feeling, more of a vibe, something that just kind of hit you. And in fact, there were a few other songs that didn’t make the cut for this record, not because they weren’t good, but because they took you out of a feeling that you just wanted to sit in a little longer. So yeah, no, it wasn’t a thought at all, but it kind of just made itself known once we could stand back and look at what we had. It was kind of a clear arc. And I think you did a good job, Kelly, of putting that together with a kind of with just a live show in mind. Right?
Kelly: Yeah, sequencing wise, I’ve always, I guess, [it’s] kind of old fashioned but I’ve always looked at records as two sides in the beginning. You know, start with a big song and track six has to be a big song as well, because that’s the first song on side two.
With the writing for this album, were there any songs that were particularly easy or particularly challenging?
Kelly: I think that because the writing was split between all three of us, it was very kind of organic. I didn’t I don’t remember one being more difficult than another to finish. None of them felt like homework, you know?
Dwight: Yeah, the whole record didn’t feel like work. Sometimes records do feel like hard work, and you leave struggling through, trying to get some songs there. This one just felt like it was a good batch of songs that they sang really quickly. And then suddenly there was a record. Didn’t it kind of feel like that?
Patty: I mean, in some ways, I do feel like it felt like homework but like homework you really wanted to do. I was looking forward to it. It was like a fun puzzle almost, you know?
Dwight: Yeah. I will say it was unique to be on tour, because I was sitting in dressing rooms most days while Patty, Kelly and them were having to do tonnes of promo and I could just work on the tunes, and then hand them off and let them go in the evenings. So actually in a weird way, it was nice to have something like a task to do on tour. I’m so type A that it’s really nice to be like, “hey, Dwight, work on these tunes, and then we’ll get on ’em tonight on the lyrics”. And it’s like, “that’s okay, I can do that”. [chuckles]
Patty: I think I also felt like, a bit of pressure, but just a touch, just a healthy amount of pressure to encourage me to do the work. Because it is work, you have to do it. But I felt encouraged, I felt inspired. And in some ways too I felt validated that someone like Kelly with such a long, great career thinks I have something to offer. And so now, I think in the moment that helped me, kind of like, “Okay, I gotta do it. You know, I got to show up and be my best self.”
I also wanted to ask you about the recording process for this album – was there anything you learned from that which you’ll take forward into other projects in future?
Dwight: Yeah, start small. Start small and let a song be small, like ‘No Fool’, if it’s supposed to be, and let a song go big like ‘Take It Through The Night’ if it’s supposed to. But starting small enough to where you love the song in its most naked form and letting that inform everything else is something that I’ll take forward, really probably in every record I make from now on.
Kelly: Same as that really. There’s a tendency to make records like you’ve always made records, start with a drum track, put the bass on but it can be very f***ing boring after a while. So to start with the vocals, the sentiment of the song, the the heart of the song, the bit that everybody listens to and cares about, just to start there and make sure that’s right and then kind of go around it was a cool way of doing it.
You’ve got some live dates coming up over the next few weeks. What can people expect from a Far From Saints show?
Kelly: Well, we’re trying to figure that out ourselves. We’ve done one rehearsal with people in a club in Hackney. And then we played the Albert Hall. So it was a good start. It’s been a good start. We should have quit at the end of the Albert Hall and done a Ziggy Stardust and said, “that’s the fucking end. See you later. Good night.”
Dwight: Yeah, retired right there.
Kelly: But no, of course, the booking agents went off and booked loads of dates. No. I guess the show is going to be the album in its entirety, really, for where we have the length of time to do that. And a few cover versions, and getting to know each other as a band. You know, I’ve literally known Shawn, the piano player, for a week. And he’s great. And I wish I’d known him for more weeks. And the guys we’ve never met, you know, we hadn’t met Justin and Owen until the last week, so it’s f***ing… if you think about it, we all knew each other three and a half days and then played the Albert Hall. It’s kind of surreal, really.
Patty: I also feel like I’m very much getting just starting to get to know Richard too. I mean, I met him like a decade ago, but like, yeah, he’s a quiet reserved fellow. So like, yeah, I feel like I’m just getting to know him. [Kelly laughs]
Dwight: Yeah, one of my favourite stories about Richard was whatever cliff Patty and I were sitting on in the north of England. And we were sitting there and just enjoying our day. And Richard came by in all of his workout gear and just stalked by us with his muscular body and he was like, “on my way to the gym”. And we were like, “oh, that’s what Richard does every day”. [laughs]
Kelly: He’s got big thighs.
Dwight: He does. He’s a powerful man.
Kelly: He’s a powerful man. He could push the bus. He may f***ing need to. We’re in a small, small van.
Dwight: That’s true. And in terms of a live show, I want people to come and get lost in it. It’s a quiet show for the most part. There’s a couple of loud moments but it’s the kind of show you have to come and be ready to kind of lose yourself in some solitude and some peace of some of these songs. You know, it’s different than a Stereophonics show or a full band Wind and Wave show. It’s not a big bombastic thing, which is nice. But we’re all figuring out how to do that, too.
Patty: Yeah, and because we’re still kind of like figuring that all out, we’re all very much present and in the moment, and so it’d be nice to have an audience that was also present and really in the moment with us too.
Are there any songs you’re particularly excited about getting to play live?
Kelly: Well i think because it’s very early, the album comes together in its entirety in about 50 minutes. So I kind of like playing the whole thing. But as Dwight just said, it definitely has to kind of reach some sort of hypnotic state really, in unison. So it’d be very interesting to see how that works outdoors, indoors, clubs, you know, stadiums, quite an array of different environments.
What’s the song you wish you’d written?
Kelly: I always say Louis Armstrong, ‘Wonderful World’.
Dwight: Actually, yeah, I’m always trying to write Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Patty: Man. I’m gonna say ‘Wide Open Spaces’ by The Chicks.
Kelly: I thought you were gonna say ‘Wild Thing’ then, by The Troggs. [laughs]
Dwight: That’d be a good one actually. If you can write a song that simple and ubiquitous, that’s a win.
Have you started thinking about what’s next for the band at all?
Kelly: We haven’t really had much chance to talk about any of that stuff. I mean, Patty’s come over a couple of times to do a video and the other time was just to do these shows. So that’s the first time we’ve actually been in each other’s company since 2019. So no, we haven’t done any writing or anything like that. What was the line Dwight just said, you shouldn’t talk about babies on the first date? So I think we’re still working out where this will go. And a it’s very hard thing to recapture. I know that, because what was captured was captured in a way that we didn’t even know we were capturing it. So I think we all kind of feel equally as much that what we want to feel next in the stage of what this is, is how it feels like on a stage in front of an audience. So that’s kind of the next stage, really. I mean, that’s the natural next stage. The record’s got to come out first so we’ll see what people feel about it.
Dwight: Yeah, it is a record that you can’t… I always call it sweat equity. There’s nothing on this record, other than maybe ‘The Ride’, that you can get by with sweat equity, just with loud guitars that blast you in the face. You have to understand and get the songs to get the live show on this. So I think the record coming out will actually be really helpful. Because it’s the kind of record that you have to know the material to really lose yourself in it. You have to listen to it a few times to then be excited to come see the show and lose yourself in the moments that meant something to you.
Far From Saints’ self-titled debut album is out on Friday 16th June on Ignition Records.
See Far From Saints Live in the UK this summer:
12 June – Lafayette, London
16 June – Black Deer Festival, Tunbridge Wells
17 June – Thetford Forest (special guests to Paul Weller)
25 June – Avalon Stage, Glastonbury Festival
22 July – Latitude Festival, Isle of Wight
23 July – Pangbourne, Englefield (special guests to Hozier)
