TAS in Session: The Joy Formidable
The moment I first heard The Joy Formidable's single "Cradle" in late 2008, I was smitten. A mere two minute and 47-second splash of turbulent, hooting, guitar-soaked effervescence, it rocked as hard as The Pixies but possessed vocals as sweetly sky-gazing as The Sundays. It was a sonic slice of heaven.
The band's 2009 self-produced, 8-song CD A Balloon Called Moaning, which The Joy Formidable don't consider their official debut, was a further revelation; an aggravated swirl of smartly-written songs like "Whirring" and "Austere," all elevated to the stratosphere by guitarist/singer Ritzy Bryan's keening, pretty vocals and ferocious way with a guitar. A U.S. version of the collection will be released in April or May via Black Bell Records.
The trio - which also includes bassist/backing vocalist Rhydian Dafydd and drummer Matt Thomas - played New York for the first time in January, opening three sold-out shows for frequent tour mates Passion Pit and also headlined two sold-out shows in tiny clubs. The Joy Formidable's own gig at claustrophobic Pianos was so explosively loud that the floor literally trembled underfoot. It was also so thrillingly accomplished that the consensus of the dazed and now-completely-deafened folks standing around me (and subsequent blogosphere buzz) was that this rambunctious group from northern Wales was very special. They return to Mercury Lounge on May 1 and if you don't have a ticket, part with $10 this very minute and go.
For over a year I'd incessantly yapped about The Joy Formidable to anyone who'd bother listening to me, so I was quite ecstatic when Ritzy, Rhydian and Matt found time in their packed schedule to drop by The Alternate Side for a live session.
They revisited tracks from A Balloon Called Moaning and previewed new selections from their still-untitled debut album which drops this June (the first single, "Popinjay," is now available on iTunes and Amazon). Yes, they hit My Bloody Valentine worthy decibels and we all had to wear headphones to protect what little hearing we had left. It was glorious. Below are three songs from their remarkable live session: "Cradle," "The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade" and a brand new song, "Magnifying Glass."
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8j77dgWyQw]Kara Manning: You open most of your shows with "The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade?"
Ritzy Bryan: It's become a difficult one to beat. We always like to swap our sets up, but inevitably we do kind of go back to that. I suppose it's a big, epic, opening song. It's quite a personal sort of song for us as a band, so it feels like a good way to introduce us.
Kara: And "The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade" will be on your debut album which you're working on now. When will it be out?
Ritzy: We haven't got an exact date for it. I suppose it's the way we work. With A Balloon Called Moaning, even though that's not our debut album, we sort of wrote that right up until the last minute. Like [the song] 'Ostrich.' And it's quite chronological as well. 'Ostrich' was the last track written, literally, and it was recorded about five days before we pressed the album. So I suppose we're going to have to seal a date at some point. But at the moment, I suppose, we'll let it come together quite naturally.
Kara: You're producing it yourself? You're not using an outside producer?
Rhydian Dafydd: We've got Neak [Young] our sound guy and we've been doing the mixes with him, but we're still very much in control.
Kara: Ritzy and Rhydian, you're from Mold in North Wales which might be my favorite town name. Mold is not moldy, I'm assuming. What is it like?
Rhydian: It's a pretty quiet place.
Ritzy: It's rural village. I'm not actually from Mold, I'm from a place called Rhosesmor, which is just outside of Mold.
Rhydian: It's a beautiful place with great countryside. There's not a hell of a lot to do. But in terms of going for walks, there's plenty of greenery.
Kara: You began in Sidecar Kisses, another band?
Ritzy: [Rhydian and I] were playing together in a band called Sidecar Kisses and that sort of fell apart and happily so, because I don't think either one of us were particularly happy with that outfit. We moved back to Wales and started writing together. It was the first time we'd written together.
Kara: There's a really vibrant Welsh music scene, like Super Furry Animals, Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Los Campesinos! and Marina and the Diamonds who are hotly tipped. Growing up there, what sort of bands were you attracted to?
Rhydian: It's a bit different for us because we're North Wales and a lot of Welsh bands that got the press tended to come from mid and south Wales. There is a little bit of a scene that is kind of happening now in North Wales and it's nice to be a part of that. In terms of what we were listening to, it was all sorts of music. We had this place that we had this place we always mention called the Buckley Tivoli down the road and it wasn't much music-wise.
Ritzy: It was like the only club in like a hundred mile radius so it was like a mecca for trying to do something social! And it had a lot of great bands that toured, especially at the end of Britpop, we had [bands] like Super Furries and Blur. It was a real distraction for us, otherwise [we were] quite isolated.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5btjaftHgkA]Kara: Will "Cradle," which is on A Balloon Called Moaning, also be on the new record?
Rhydian: We're not totally sure to be honest. We wanted to keep a couple of tracks off Balloon. We'll just see how it goes, I suppose.
Ritzy: It felt like, since A Balloon Called Moaning was never set up as our debut album, we just kind of released it because it came on the back of another release.
Kara: It was also very DIY and you also gave it away for free through NME, correct?
Ritzy: We did, through download.
Kara The decision to give these eight fabulous tracks away for free - why?
Ritzy: I think it was because it was actually with another concept. We had the box set and the poster album. The physical format is still kind of important for us and the download side of things, I think people are just listening differently and we did genuinely want to embrace that. People like to download tracks and to get it out to as many people as possible, it was important for us, for people to be able to listen to it.
Rhydian: It's going to happen anyway and we prefer people come to us. You can't avoid it these days. You've just got to embrace it and trust that people are going to be interested. Genuine fans are always going to come back to you. They're investing in you.
Ritzy: They might download a track and then they might come and see us live and then they'll buy one of our hundred t-shirt designs. Or they may buy all of them, all at once! (laughs)
Kara: I think it's okay to say that Ritzy and Rhydian, you're a couple, yes?
Rhydian: Yes!
Kara And you endlessly tour. How hard is it as a couple to work and tour together?
Rhydian: It's actually been surprisingly easy because we've known each other for such a long time anyway.
Kara: When did you meet?
Ritzy: We were about three.
Rhydian: We've been through school and all of that together. Ritzy was a year below me. I suppose we didn't know each other extremely well [then], but we've known each other a long time. And like we were saying about the past band as well, it was a different setup because it was really me and a friend. We needed a guitarist and Ritzy was actually living in Washington D.C. at the time.
Kara: What were you doing in Washington DC?
Ritzy: I was au pairing. That was just a cover. I was actually trying to do some music and some singer-songwriter type stuff. But I had a visa that allowed me to au pair (laughs). Otherwise it would have been an illegal entry. [I was there for] almost two years.
Rhydian: So Ritzy flew back over and joined the band and it was about a year or two before The Joy Formidable. So we're well used to working together. And we're very professional as well, I like to think!
Ritzy: We don't go out to dinner very often. I have to flag that up.
Kara: You've got a huge tour coming up in the UK and you've opened for Passion Pit, White Lies, Chew Lips, Howling Bells, Editors and The Temper Trap. You're always on the road. How do the three of you keep your sanity with that itinerary?
Ritzy: The sanity is questionable, looking at Matt (all laugh). But we've got a really easy dynamic, to be honest. Considering [the three of us] have only been together for a year, it's been a really special chemistry, I think. We genuinely get along as friends, we love what we do and we've gelled together so well. I think there's a lot of good morale to this band.
Rhydian We all like being on the road so it's like a positive vibe all of the time.
Kara: Matt, when did you jump aboard?
Matt Thomas: Almost exactly a year ago.
Ritzy: Second of January.
Kara: You celebrated your anniversary!
Rhydian: We went out for a candlelit dinner.
Ritzy: No! We did celebrate it. Matt made us a giant lasagna.
Matt: Oh, yeah. I did! I made lasagna.
Ritzy: It was really good as well.
Kara: What do you use in your lasagna?
Matt: Anything I can find. Squirrels, badgers.
Kara: Mozzarella cheese over the squirrels.
Matt: Yes, it hides [them] better that way.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnPLUgWn5Co]Kara: "Magnifying Glass" is a new song from the upcoming album. When you return to the UK, you're headed back in the studio. How close are you [to finishing the record]?
Matt: Close. Pretty close.
Ritzy: It's coming together. We've mixed about a third of it, or something like that. It's all written, it's just any final bit of tracking.
Kara You're recording it London, where you live now.
Rhydian: In our bedroom.
Ritzy: [None of our neighbors] have ever complained. There must be thick walls.
Matt: think the first guitar chord you played deafened them and now there's no problem.
Ritzy: That could be true.
Kara: The choice to move to London ... was it an easier base for you?
Ritzy: It was really logistical. I think a lot of people think that we were career-driven or something. But I think we would have stayed in Wales had it not been that our previous drummer before Matt was actually London-based.
Rhydian: It was a welcome change too. We hadn't lived in London before.
Kara: Do you think it's harder for bands now to break through now than in the 90s or even the 80s?
Rhydian: Yes and no. Obviously, the internet has opened it out to whatever and I think that some of the traditional methods are there, but I think that everyone is finding their feet. But the great thing about it is because of the internet, people are much more aware of quality now. You just have to sift through it, that's the thing.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9fvl88FyX4]Kara: Ritzy, what made you pick up a guitar when you were a kid?
Ritzy: All my family were all completely musically obsessed. They're total anoraks, they were collectors, we had a massive record collection. [My parent] were both musical, my dad was a bass guitarist ....
Rhydian: Oh, come on, it was the chicks Ritzy. (all laugh)
Ritzy: The chicks? For the chicks (laughs). I don't know how to reply to that.
Matt: She wanted to play flute but they wouldn't sell her one.
Ritzy: I actually smashed my flute over somebody's head.
Kara: Do you remember the first album you ever bought?
Ritzy: I honestly didn't have to buy any albums because I had a whole vinyl library in our big lounge.
Rhydian: Her dad has such a massive collection.
Ritzy: Yeah, like 5000 vinyl albums so I actually don't remember buying any music until I moved away. It's quite weird, though, I'm as passionate about music, but it was a bit over the top. He had like every Dylan bootleg of an entire year's tour even though the sets were actually quite similar. So it can almost have the alternative effect, you kind of hate music (laughs). But that wasn't the case.
Kara: Rhydian, did you grow up in a a musical family.
Rhydian: Not really, I grew up as a sporty ....
Ritzy(interrupts): As a gymnast but then he got thrown off the Welsh gymnastic squad as well so he had to find an alternate.
Rhydian: Yeah, that was the beginning of the end I think. But I got obsessed with [Jimi] Hendrix, that's what got me into playing, I think. I was about 12 or 13 and ever since then, obsessed.
Matt: My dad's always been into music. He played guitar for years, carrying on chugging his jazz funk chords.
Kara: I read that you're all Elvis Costello fanatics.
Ritzy: [Those] guys like Elvis Costello, but I'm probably the fanatic. They're really sick of him after I obsess about him so much. I just grew up listening to a lot of Elvis Costello. Lyrically he really excites me. I guess I like music that has that sort of sneer about it. But it actually has a slightly playful side to it as well which I think he manages to combine, especially in his early albums. And the fact that as an artist, he's continually changed. I think in terms of myself and this band, I think the aim would always be to continually evolve and try new things and not be scared of changing either. So I definitely respect [Costello] for that. Like "Lipstick Vogue" [the band's guest DJ pick]. The drums and the baseline on that are just unbelievable.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dip-FtbsD8E]The Joy Formidable's single "Popinjay" will also be available as a limited edition vinyl 7-inch on April 5. In addition, they're on board the very first Truck America Festival in Big Indian, New York (April 30-May 2), joining White Rabbits, Hopewell, Mercury Rev and more.
