Watkins is a Prophet for charity - WalesOnline

Watkins is a Prophet for charity - WalesOnline


Ian Watkins headlines Kidney Wales Foundation’s New Year’s Eve Charity show at Cardiff University on January 31. Tickets cost £20 from 0871 2200 260.

But 2009 will be another big year for Lostprophets as they prepare to release their fourth album, It’s Not The End Of The World But I Can See It From Here, with the first new material expected in the spring.

“There won’t be any new material in the NYE gig because the full band won’t be there with me,” he says.

Having planned to release a new CD in 2007 the band scrapped virtually their entire slate of songs because they were not satisfied with the quality the Los Angeles recording sessions had produced.

“We just weren’t happy where the producer was taking it, and there came a point where we had to step back and say, ‘OK this doesn’t feel right’,” says Watkins, who says he was never worried the band had hit a fallow point creatively.

“That’s something we have never worried about,” he says, “and so far, thankfully we have remained prolific. We don’t stop writing songs.”

Part of that writing team was the band’s former drummer Ilan Rubin. The American replaced original drummer Mike Chiplin in 2005 and while the band were disappointed to lose Rubin to Trent Reznor’s band Nine Inch Nails, Watkins said it wasn’t a surprise.

“He was an amazing drummer, but he was also always more focused on doing his own thing, so it wasn’t much of a surprise,” he says.

“He’s a career and goal-orientated guy – he sees what he wants and he goes for it – but Trent’s gonna be bummed when Paul McCartney calls.”

Ian Watkins headlines Kidney Wales Foundation’s New Year’s Eve Charity show at Cardiff University on January 31. Tickets cost £20 from 0871 2200 260.