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Almost 20 years after storming the charts with Fill My Little World, The Feeling don’t miss the ‘glory’ days of super stardom.
Numerous 00s artists are enjoying a huge revival but the band’s frontman Dan Gillespie Sells isn’t eyeing up world domination off the back of this nostalgia wave.
Their 2006 debut album Twelve Stops and Home featured hit song after hit song but chart success seemed to slip away after this moment in the ‘glory light’.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk, Dan revealed he’s ‘not mourning’ the chance at ‘mega fame’ which had been within their grasp in the mid noughties.
‘We have had our moment in the absolute glory light,’ he shared. ‘We’ve been around mega success and mega fame and been around it enough to know the positives and the negatives.’
The Feeling hasn’t been idle by any means though, they’ve consistently been releasing music over the last two decades and are set for a Glastonbury turn in June.
The Feeling are still going strong after 20 years (Picture: Joanne Davidson/REX/Shutterstock)
‘I’m just grateful to be selling any records and playing to anyone on the tour,’ joked Dan, brushing off idyllic notions of fame.
The 45-year-old is also gearing up to head on their UK Greatest Hits tour in May, having just released brand new album, San Vito.
A week after release, The Feeling’s seventh studio album is fairing better than the previous records as it landed at third place in the Independent Album Charts.
Continuous mainstream feats have alluded the band but Dan points out that is by their own design as he said: ‘The financial security of that kind of level of success and the free stuff is nice. You know, it’s good for the ego.
‘I think chasing success too much would have come at a cost. However, we find success in our own ways, for us sustaining a proper, comfortable, lovely music career was all the success we ever asked for.’
Dan Gillespie Sells didn’t want to chase fame(Picture: James Mccauley/REX/Shutterstock)
The band had been together for multiple years at the time of their debut, which the Strange hitmaker believes helped prepare them for success.
They were ‘aware’ of how ‘rare’ their big break was but Dan now laments the disappearance of smaller venues and the ability for artists to discover themselves.
‘Mid level artists don’t make a living,’ he said. ‘You’ve got to be massive, you’ve got to have your moment where you’re huge and then it’s like, what you’ve got to make sure you buy property or something?
‘It’s not sustainable if you just want to be an artist at a normal human, same level. How do you survive? Everyone wants to be a global mega star. We just want to be musicians and live.’
He’s ‘grateful’ for all the continued support from dedicated fans (Picture: Oliver Dixon/REX/Shutterstock)
That’s not to say the band isn’t utterly thrilled to have any place on people’s playlists, even if it’s just hit song Sewn on a throwback mix.
He continued: ‘Nostalgia is a great power. Looking back is something that we do as humans naturally so happens in culture a lot.
‘The 90s was back for a bit and now everyone’s done the 90s so we’re like okay, where to look – mid 00s. That makes sense for young people who have it somewhere in the distant memory.
‘It reminds them of pictures of them when they were like three years old and they’re going; “That’s fun.”‘
However, telling the thrilled record label they weren’t aiming for super stardom didn’t impress executives as Dan laughed: ‘They were quite dismayed when we said we just want to survive and be happy and make our own choices.’
They landed chart success with their first album(Picture: REX/Shutterstock)
Over the years, each band member has dipped into other projects such as Dan’s composing of the iconic Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and other musicals.
The Never Be Lonely hitmaker described their separate projects as a holiday that is ‘great’ but their reunions over the years is where he feels at ‘home’.
Humble despite their success, Dan added: ‘It’s a family thing. It’s lovely that we sold two million copies of [Twelves Stops and Home] and they’re still all over the place in people’s car boots.
‘They’re probably in junkyards all over the country but it’s nice that that was the kind of album that all families all agree on, maybe?’
Fans can get tickets for The Feeling’s Greatest Hits Tour on their website or catch them at Glastonbury on June 30.
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