Four years is a long time to forget you’re in a band. But that’s exactly what happened to Far From Saints, the transatlantic trio featuring Kelly Jones of Stereophonics and Dwight Baker & Patty Lynn of The Wind and The Wave. Their self-titled debut is finally out in the world, and the only thing more surreal than releasing it was learning how to play it.
“We recorded it in 2019,” Jones deadpans. “So now we’re trying to figure out what the hell we were doing.”
The record took nine days. The aftermath took four years.
Part of that delay was COVID, of course. But some of it was the group just… vibing too hard. “We all became fans of the record,” Jones admits. “And forgot we were actually on the record.”
Lynn laughs. “It was like listening to other people’s music. Until I was like, ‘Wait—I think I wrote that line.’”
The band came together with a backstage jam and a mutual admiration pact. Jones was already a fan of Lynn’s voice when The Wind and The Wave opened for Stereophonics back in 2013. Fast forward to a Tom Petty/Stevie Nicks duet cover, and the chemistry was too real to ignore. “It’s rare when voices connect like that,” says Jones. “We didn’t overthink it. It wasn’t supposed to be Fleetwood Mac, but we weren’t mad when it sounded like Fleetwood Mac either.”
There’s an Americana thread throughout the record—a little southern grit here, a little folk-rock haze there—but no one can really say how it got there. “We didn’t try to make a sound,” Lynn insists. “It just happened. Honestly, it was more like writing emails with guitars.”
Which might explain why the lyrics land like late-night confessionals disguised as folk-rock anthems. “There’s hope in the songs, yeah,” Jones says. “But it’s not like these characters are in a good place.”
“And even the lines I didn’t write,” he adds, “sometimes I hear them now and I’m like, ‘That’s exactly how I feel this week.’”
Their writing process was less Lennon/McCartney, more emotional improv. Someone would send a verse, someone else would answer with a chorus, and the result would either be magical or… sent back. “It was like, ‘You should sing that one.’ ‘No, you should sing that one,’” Jones recalls. “And then Patty would just take it and run.”
One of the first songs, “Screaming Hallelujah,” literally came to Baker in his sleep. “I woke up with the melody and that line in my head. I said to Patty, ‘I think this is a song about someone interviewing a murderer.’ And she said, ‘Give it to me.’”
That darkness flickers throughout the album, but it’s never cynical. “Sometimes love isn’t all you need,” Lynn says, referencing one of the album’s most striking lines. “But also… sometimes it is.”
Despite the casual intensity of the themes—rebirth, grief, memory loss via four-year release delay—nobody’s trying to make sense of it all. “It’s very ethereal,” Jones offers. “Very subconscious. I think our subconsciouses were three years ahead of us.”
Now they’re catching up. With live shows, support gigs for legends like Roger Daltrey, and the possibility of future music, the trio is learning to be a band again in real time.
They’re even considering more covers. “We started with ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,’ so we might keep that tradition going,” Lynn teases.
Just don’t ask them what any of the songs are about.
“We still don’t know,” Jones shrugs. “But it sounds like us. Whoever that is.”
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
