It is more than ten years since the Christchurch lads emerged on New Zealand’s music scene, and with their Best Of taking out the Highest Selling NZ Album of 2008 at the NZ Music Awards, they simply proved they are as loved as they ever were.
The stats are impressive. As well as having all five albums debut at #1, the feelers have combined sales of more than 16x platinum – approaching a quarter of a million album sales in New Zealand alone. They have also bagged an impressive eight NZ Music Awards, including Top Group and Album Of The Year.
Add to that, more than a decade of touring the country year in and year out, delighting fans with new songs and old favourites, and regularly pulling some of the largest crowds, has seen the feelers well and truly earn their stripes. ‘Iconic’ is a word that is frequently overused and always hard won, but the band's ubiquitous presence and ongoing popularity – you only have to witness a feelers’ crowd singing along to any number of their anthems for proof - ensures that the band is indeed worthy of this status.
James Reid and Hamish Gee, the feelers’ founding members, first met at Christchurch’s Avonhead primary school where the two mischief -makers became fast friends. After a couple of short-lived teenage bands, they met Matt Thomas and in 1993 the feelers was formed.
With Hamish on drums, Matt on bass and James on guitar and vocals, the three entertained ever-growing legions of Christchurch fans. In 1997 the band signed a record deal, with their debut album Supersystem released the following year. The album entered the charts at #1 and this was to be repeated with their next four albums; Communicate (2001), Playground Battle (2003), One World (2006) and last year’s, the feelers – The Best Of: 1998-2008.
In 2008 Matt Thomas left the band and Aucklander’s Andy Lynch (lead guitar), ex-Zed and Atlas Crawl, and Matt Short (bass), who also plays for Sola Rosa, joined the feelers.
In November 2009, the feelers released their latest song, ‘Blue Skies’, a song that most fans would agree is a departure from their signature sound.
Says Hamish “After listening to our demo of ‘Blue Skies’ a few times, we thought it sounded like a wicked summer song and decided why not just get it out there for summer?” The band made the choice to remove all the electric guitars and instead replaced them with acoustics and extra percussion. The song was partly recorded, and the music video filmed in the Cook Islands, where traditional Cook Island log drums were used on the track.
James says ‘Blue Skies’ marks the beginning of the feelers’ next ten years “Expect to hear more singles from us and then an album later in 2010.”
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