Feeder

In London, the pop-metal band Feeder originated when vocalist and guitarist Grant Nicholas joined forces with drummer Jon Lee, whose earlier partnership had taken place inside the Welsh outfit Temper Temper. Bassist Taka Hirose, born in Tokyo, completed the initial roster. Following their 1995 signing with Echo, the group unveiled the debut EP Two Colours and then the six-track Swim. A run of favorably received singles including “Stereo World,” “Tangerine,” and “Cement” broadened their audience, paving the way for the full-length debut Polythene in mid-1997. The single “Day In, Day Out” arrived ahead of the second album, Yesterday Went Too Soon, which appeared in 1999. Although Feeder failed to gain traction in America, their following remained strong across Europe. After continuous global touring, the trio scored their first major U.K. breakthrough in 2001 with “Buck Rogers,” the lead single from the third album Echo Park that reached number five on the charts. Before the year closed they added another Top 20 entry via the Just a Day EP and joined Stereophonics on tour.

Recording for a fourth album was already under way when tragedy intervened: founding drummer Jon Lee died by suicide at his Miami residence in January 2002 at age 33. Grant Nicholas and Taka Hirose chose to carry on, recruiting former Skunk Anansie drummer Mark Richardson and completing the Gil Norton-produced Comfort in Sound, issued that October. In August 2004 the band delivered the fan-oriented B-sides collection Picture of Perfect Youth, after which Norton again handled production for Pushing the Senses, released in 2005. Following tours of Japan and Europe, Feeder issued the career retrospective The Singles in mid-2006; the set gathered twenty tracks drawn from their first five albums plus the new song “Lost & Found.” That summer they played select dates in Milan, Berlin, and London as openers for the Rolling Stones.

Two years later the self-produced sixth studio album Silent Cry emerged in June 2008. Renegades followed in 2010, and the eighth studio release Generation Freakshow appeared in 2012. After a brief hiatus and a solo album from Nicholas, Feeder returned in 2016 with All Bright Electric. Their second compilation, The Best of Feeder, arrived in 2017 and incorporated several previously unreleased tracks that later expanded into the nine-song set Arrow. Bolstered by recent output, the band cultivated a larger audience and responded with the tenth studio album Tallulah in 2019. In 2022 they issued the heavier single “Torpedo” and the album of the same name that March. Two years afterward the ambitious double album Black/Red appeared, presented as the conclusion of a trilogy begun by Torpedo.