Welcome to the latest catch-up Q&A. We spoke to Paul a couple of days ago about the band's trip to Morocco and filming of the first video for the new album campaign. Thanks to Richard and Kev for the Morocco pics and Ben for the pic from the video shoot. Click above to leave a comment. And email your questions for Kev next time to feedback@thefeeling.com.

Paul looks made up at the video shoot

Hello Paul, how are you?
I'm good thanks.

It's been a busy few weeks for The Feeling since we spoke to Ciaran.
It has indeed. A couple of days after you spoke to him we were back in the big house, finishing off little bits of recording. The record company actually brought a few media bigwigs down to see us, which was quite fun. We ended up playing a few songs for them. They were flown down in a helicopter and we managed to persuade the pilot to take us for a spin in it too. That was brilliant. We got our first little taste of what it would be like to be a super band in the 1980s, going by helicopter everywhere.

Did you sing your song 'Helicopter' while you were up there?
Oh, we should've done that! Missed opportunity! Hopefully there will be a next time and then we definitely will.

A few days after that you had media playbacks of the album in a London studio.
That's right. We rehearsed in Trevor Horn's studio for a couple of days and then we did the three playback sessions in one day. We only played three songs live, but we were there from the minute people came through the door, mingling and chatting. Then they went through and listened to five tracks in the control room, then we brought them back into the main live room and performed the three live tracks to them. So it was quite a long day.

Paul and Richard. In Morocco. With snakes.

Did lots of people come?
Loads. I think initially we'd looked at it being three groups of 20, but it ended up being over 100 people in all, because more and more people wanted to come. It was a really good day. I think we finished about 9pm and Dan went straight to this big industry thing called the Woman of the Year Awards. He presented Emma Banks, our live agent, with the Woman of the Year award. She's extremely deserving, so we're very pleased that she won that. Then the next day we had a final meeting about the video for the first single, 'I Thought It Was Over'. And then the day after that we filmed it.

What's the plot?
It's a little bit inspired by Close Encounters or ET. We're playing in a dilapidated house and some strange goings on are afoot. Things shake and electronics go weird, as if we are being visited by some other-worldly beings.

What's the link the title?
Um, well, we thought after we'd had a beer with the aliens last month, that it was over and they'd gone home. But in actual fact, they'd popped back down because they enjoyed the beer! But the tune is very upbeat and dramatic, so we wanted a video that reflected that. And it's a performance-based video, to re-introduce the band.

Little donkey, little donkey, on the dusty road...

Is it finished?
It's taking shape, but they've got some more post-production things they want to do with it. I think it's due to be delivered on December 12th. So it should be on TV before Christmas. And then, once the video was done, we went to Morocco.

Morocco?!
Yep. We've been working really hard on the album and we wanted to treat ourselves to a couple of days away once the recording was complete, to reward ourselves. We didn't want to go somewhere far away where you spend the whole trip trying to get over the journey. So we wanted a short flight, preferably to somewhere warm, ideally with a similar time zone. Morocco turned out to be perfect - three hours away and due south, so it's in the same time zone. Then while we were there, a journalist from Q was interested in doing an interview with us out there, so we agreed to him popping over too.

Paul without snake

 
Did you have fun out there?
We had a really good time, as you can probably see from the pictures. We did a lot of wandering around. We had a massage, we had snakes draped around us as some sort of blessing and we rode camels. And the sun was shining. It was great. Although a bus drove into one of the taxis we were travelling in on the way back to the airport, which wasn't ideal. But nobody was hurt.

So 'I Thought It Was Over' make its debut on Radio 1 last week?
I know! I didn't realise it was on until someone told me afterwards. I might listen again on the website.

Is he kissing them or eating them?

Why did you chaps pick that as the first single?
Well, it was difficult - everyone was suggesting different songs as potential singles. That's a good problem to have, though. But even when we started work on 'I Thought It Was Over' in the big house, we thought it would definitely be the opening song to the album and potentially the first single. It's really upbeat and exciting and, on the face of it, quite unlike anything we've done before, although I think it definitely sounds like a Feeling song too.

It has quite a propulsive beat. Is that good for a drummer?
It's particularly good. I love it. I enjoy house music anyway, so playing that really driving four to the floor beat is really nice.

Chilling at the hotel...

 
What have you got coming up in the next week or two?
Well, right now, the tables have turned and I'm on the road with Sinead. She's doing the War of the Worlds tour. We were in Birmingham last night and we're in Newcastle now. I got to sit on the tourbus with Jeff Wayne, which was pretty mad. And it's amazing to see the full show, in front of 12,000 people. It's a brilliant show. I think the whole band are coming to see it at the O2 on the 22nd.

With special guest Paul as, um, travelling companion...

What part is Sinead playing?
She's Beth, which is the only female character in it. It's nice for me to be following her around after she and all the other partners have spent the last 18 months doing that for us! Actually, we all went down to see Richard's wife Sophie supporting Take That at the O2 last week. Sophie was great and Take That's show is quite amazing.

BIG snakes 

When are you back with The Feeling?
In a couple of days. We're going up to Liverpool to do the cover for our album.

Why are you chaps calling it 'Join With Us'?
Well we thought long and hard about it. It's very difficult to find something which is not sort of pretentious or comedic. And we didn't really want to use a lyric from a song again. In the end we decided that 'Join With Us' is perfect, because it's a song we've been playing for over two years, so the fans know it. And it has a nice invitational quality to it too.

A room with a view 

Right, readers' questions. Grace would like to know if you'd like to be the frontman of The Feeling.
Oh no, definitely not. I genuinely find it a bit scary standing on the stage if I don't have a drumkit between me and the audience. I'm much more comfortable behind my drums. And, also, you wouldn't want me to be singing the parts that Dan sings. People would run screaming for the hills.

Do you do karaoke?
Only drumming karaoke.

Have you met the War of the Worlds drummer?
Yeah, his name's Gordy and he's the Moody Blues drummer too. He's great. We've already spent quite some time talking about drums!

Izzy would like to know what colour your toothbrush is.
It's a Phillips Sonicare and it's white and electric. It's brilliant. I love it. Once anyone's tried one, they'd never go back to a normal toothbrush!

Ciaran, Ciaran's iPod and Paul

The final question is from Lavinia. What is your favourite kind of apple?
Oooh. The big apple, New York. I've been there a few times and it's marvellous. Sinead's got some family there who know exactly where to take us for good times and big fun.

They'll be your family soon. Didn't you and Sinead get engaged recently?
Yes we did!

How did you propose?
Walking the dog. I bought the ring in LA and when we got back I just couldn't wait to ask her. We were walking the dog by the cathedral in St Albans and there was a really nice sunset. It was a great night and we've already started making plans for the wedding.

Will The Feeling be playing?
Well, I was thinking it would be a cheap way of getting the music sorted!