An interview with The Joy Formidable: Part 1
"Ssshh...f*ck off, you’re dumped" June 22, 2009, 08:47 PM Views: 703
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 I’ll keep this introduction as short as I possibly can, as the interview that follows is anything but. For those of you not yet fortunate enough to know of The Joy Formidable, they are a three piece, primarily from Mold in North Wales. Originally a four-piece known as Sidecar Kisses in 2006, they dropped their bassist in 2007, and changed their name, their drummer and subsequently their location, relocating to London. The Guardian cited them as "one to watch" in 2008, and they subsequently appeared at both the Latitude Festival and the Reading and Leeds Festivals. A further drummer change later and the remaining Welsh contingent, lead singer/guitarist Ritzy Bryan and bassist Rhydian Dafydd , are now fortunate enough and wise enough to be settled with the excellent Matt Thomas.
Their debut single "Austere" was released on August 18, 2008, and they then bagged a support slot for White Lies' UK tour. The band's first collection of songs, A Balloon Called Moaning was released as a CD/poster package from Pure Groove records, and instantly received critical acclaim (not least here at Altsounds – check out our review - http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews...y+formi dable ) The band also released the mini-album as a free download at NME.com (the most rewarding few clicks of a mouse button ever). The latest single to be taken from A Balloon Called Moaning, “Whirring”, was released on 6th June 2009 through Friends Vs Friends.
Earlier this month Altsounds took the band to Manchester city centre bar before their gig at The Ruby Lounge (review here - http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews...y+ formidable ) to find a little more about the band who have captured our hearts. So here it is, part one of the beast that is An interview with The Joy Formidable.
Altsounds - Gonna start off with a bit of an odd one. I have never actually heard your name pronounced, but for some reason I always read it in a French accent (recites their name in a French accent) – do you ever find people pronouncing your name in French?
Rhydian – Yeah we get it a lot actually yeah
Ritzy – but there’s no inflection, so that’s what gives it away I suppose. I suppose the meaning’s a little bit different, I dunno I don’t want to give people too much leeway to think we’re a f*ckin’ cheery, happy band (laughs) - do you know what I mean?
Matt – It sounds a bit pretentious as well doesn’t it? (adopts posh pretentious accent) Oh it’s The Joy Formidable!
Rhydian – It’s part of the grunge- nouveaux movement
Matt – (laughs) yeah part of the grunge- nouveaux movement yeah.
You guys were a couple before you formed a band together right?
Ritzy – We sort of became a couple.
Rhydian – Yeah it was kind of the same time...erm which was quite strange really, I’ve never really thought about it, but yeah it was a time where things started to knuckle down in terms of writing together so obviously that’s when a lot of time was spent together and it kind of grew from that.
Altsounds – Right because I thought I’d read somewhere that you were a couple first and then you had been in other bands and decided “why not write together?”. So I wondered if perhaps you’d previously thought that the pressures of being in a band together is a kind of test I suppose, but you’d been in a relationship where you’ll have your ups and downs, but being in a band you have even more ups and downs, so combine the two and...
Rhydian – Yeah I know it’s a difficult one but I think because we’ve known each other a long long time and we’ve been in that kind of environment before as well, it kind of felt...it didn’t feel difficult you know.
Ritzy – It felt quite natural...I dunno. I can’t really remember which came first. I think there was definitely erm...
Rhydian – It was obviously the music because we were doing bits and bobs before hand, but I suppose with this the difference is...you see with past bands it hasn’t really been about us writing together and this is the first time we’ve really been a...proper partnership in terms of the songwriting, and so the musical side did come before the relationship.
Altsounds – There’s quite a lot of bands, when you think about it, that involve, well quite often marriages actually, so I suppose you need to get to that stage I think (laughs)
Ritzy – Yeah but it does bore me actually, to be honest, no offence (turns to Rhyds), but I do f*ckin’ hate that a lot of the focus has been on the relationship.
Altsounds – Yeah that kind of thing can follow you around.
Ritzy – In some ways it drives the band because it obviously gives it a unique dynamic.
Altsounds – But do you not write songs about...have you not written...
Ritzy – No I don’t generally write songs about us, there’s far more important things to write about.
Altsounds – I think this is the problem when you read other interviews you’ve done, because I thought I’d read in another interview that ‘Austere’ had some lyrical content about...
Ritzy – Well, maybe there's bits and bobs, but it's not all consuming by any means
Altsounds – Yeah sorry I didn’t mean necessarily direct “I love you, I love you, I love you”
Rhydian – I think that’s the thing because there’s been a few reviews about...it’s just what this songs about, oh it’s just about me and Ritzy having an argument and us getting over it you know – there’s a bit more depth to it than that - but obviously you can only write about your environment
Ritzy – That’s bullsh*t, you can write beyond that as well.
Rhydian – Well it has to come into it in some context
Ritzy – You can write about dreams, you can write about things that have never happened, you can make scenarios up – not everything has to be autobiographical, so I dunno...
Rhydian – Yeah but whatever has made you the person you are...surely has an effect on your writing?
Ritzy – (Laughs) Ohh you see it’s so tiring.
Rhydian – Just go quietly, sit in the corner
(Matt and Ritzy laugh loudly)
Ritzy – Ssshh...f*ck off, you’re dumped ( still laughing – thankfully)
Altsounds – (laughs) Oh god, what have I started?
(all laugh)
Was your move from Wales to London a move made for the good of the band, was it for the exposure?
Rhydian – Well it wasn’t really for the exposure, it was more of a practical thing to start of with...we started writing in North Wales, and then when we decided to expand into a band...it just happened to be that our drummer was from London and it’s so integral that you’re all in the same place together..you know it’s important for us to have that proper kind of family feel, I wouldn’t like to be in a band where one of the members is on the other side of the country, so it was an easy enough decision for us to go to London and I think there isn’t a hell of a lot of infrastructure for this stuff in North Wales, unfortunately, you know it’s getting better but there isn’t much
Ritzy – But we were considering it, quite honestly, thinking of moving the drummer up to us in North Wales.
Rhydian – But we hadn’t worked in London before so we thought “yeah, let’s try it”.
Ritzy – Yeah and he sort of got cold feet and wasn’t being forward about it – making the move, and we thought OK let’s...one of us...one of us has gotta go...
Altsounds – You could have come up here to Manchester
(Matt laughs)
Altsounds – But then before you knew it, you would have ended up sounding like Oasis
Rhydian – Thing is, we’ve been in Manchester as well so it’s time to try something new, you know? And the thing is with London is that it’s such a massive melting pot that you don’t necessarily feel that you’re outside – I think in Manchester we always felt like we didn’t really fit in whereas in London you don’t really have to fit in because there’s so much going on.
Ritzy – It’s been nothing but good to us to be honest with you... creatively, in terms of writing together, in the team we’ve surrounded ourselves with, and the labels that we’ve worked with..it’s certainly been a massive influence on our band...on all levels – but then I’m still kind of really anti...you know a lot of people sort of think that we went there with some kind of a strategy - “oh you can’t make it unless you move to London” – and I’d like to definitely dispel that, it’s untrue...
Altsounds – Because if you’re good enough you’ll get there...
Ritzy – Exactly right...
Altsounds – Especially with the internet being the way it is now
Ritzy – Yeah
Altsounds – So the club night you’ve got going (Club Joie De Vivre), is that something you’ve been planning for a long time?
Ritzy – It’s been neglected to be honest – we love doing it...
Rhydian – It’s just a matter of time isn’t it? - it’s just been difficult...
Ritzy – We’ve been on the road...I mean we haven’t been home properly for months, you know, in terms of being settled anywhere...
Rhydian – Yeah initially it just started off as a platform for us to play and actually have control of what’s going on – because there’s a lot of just odd nights going on you know...just a real mish-mash and promoted really badly - we just wanted to...
Altsounds – Have a go yourself?
Rhydian – Yeah and why not? We put on, not just bands, whatever we believed in and I think that kind of says more about you as an artist anyway - but like you say it’s just been difficult hasn’t it?
Ritzy – Yeah there is talk about us doing it again but I just think we need to based there. It was f*ckin’ great, I loved doing it
Altsounds – Did you play there as well?
Ritzy – Yeah.
Altsounds – DJ?
Ritzy – We did... have we DJ'd?
Rhydian – Not sure if we did at our club but at a couple of others...
Ritzy – Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs blew the speakers at one of them...
Rhydian – Trouble with us is because we do everything, we’re a bit too ambitious so sometimes it’s a bit hard to fit everything in – but you’ve gotta give it a go (laughs).
Altsounds – Did you have a set list staple that you’d always play when DJ’ing?
Rhydian – Well there’s a few - (to Ritzy) You always slip a bit of Elvis Costello in there.
Altsounds – (to Ritzy) I see this Elvis Costello thing keeps cropping up with you? (laughs)
(Matt laughs)
Ritzy – That’s it man.
Rhydian – But you know people should listen to Elvis Costello more, some of the younger generation
(there then follows a five minute conversation about Elvis Costello)
That's it for Part 1. Go here for the second sizable chunk of An interview with The Joy Formidable - http://hangout.altsounds.com/feature...tml#post118873
Last edited by Heron : June 22, 2009 at 09:38 PM.
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![The Joy Formidable [Live] @ The Ruby Lounge, Manchester](http://hangout.altsounds.com/file.png)
The Joy Formidable [Live] @ The Ruby Lounge, Manchester