Super Furry Animals singer takes to music as an anchor, uniting people in euphoria, and releases new solo work 'Sadness Sets Me Free'
Graf Rhys (Photo: Mark James)
January can be a time of gloom and introspection. You will have to stay at home instead of going out. At times like that, it's great to have new music to shout about, and that's what we're doing here with Griff Rhys.It's not a one-time thing super furry animals The frontman is a particularly loud person, at least not off the record. He's a soft-spoken presence as we chat about his new album, Sadness Set Me Free, over a video call from his hometown of Cardiff.
The title, his eighth solo album, reflects a bittersweet reaction to the current state of life, but the more he talks about it, the more positive its effects seem. Rhys is a versatile artist these days, and our chat revealed just a few of his musical talents. Cozy indoors in the early afternoon, he is characteristically relaxed, searching for words with slow candour. There are long, comfortable silences as we speak, usually broken by a sudden big smile and a mischievous glint in the eye.
When asked about his accomplishments on the new album, Griff's answers are typically modest. “I'm still learning, you know? Learning on the job!” His assessment belies the observation that he and his band are making music more instinctively than ever. “I work instinctively. I try to at least stay in the present moment,” he says. “I've been thinking quite a lot about soundtracks and production lately, so it's a way to keep things fresh and do quite a lot of commissioned work, and it's a way to keep things fresh and do quite a lot of commissioned work, and it's a way to keep things fresh and do quite a lot of commissioned work, and it's a way to keep things fresh and do quite a lot of commissioned work, and it's a way to keep things fresh and do quite a lot of commissioned work. It’s completely different from being.”
Griff Reese – Grief Will Set Me Free
“Sadness Sets Me Free” is the title of both the album and its first single. “The title comes easily to me sometimes, but I like the alliteration of it. It was one of those songs where the title comes and then the song writes itself. There are songs of grumbling and dissatisfaction throughout the album. I felt like it might have some in it: I don't like being in a miserable situation, it's too comfortable a place to go, but I love the power of music to connect people to a sense of well-being. That's my preferred position, but we live in very solemn times, and when I was putting the record together I felt like I should go in a solemn direction.”
An example of that direction is the song “Cover Up The Cover Up”, whose subject matter is easily recognizable and perfectly relevant to the current political situation in the UK. “It might take about 10 minutes,” he smiled. “I only scratched the surface. I wish there had been a passage in there about the military, a pillar of society that needs to be taken back into democratic hands. I expressed it in a pop song. It was all I could fit into a feel-good song.”
The song “They Sold My Home To Build A Skyscraper” came from first-hand experience. “It's based in Cardiff and just around the corner from me, where we work with the City Council's funding arm to see what's going on by property developers to envision large-scale projects that take away much of the city's cultural life. A lot of cultural spaces have been demolished… I'm all for innovative buildings and modernist architecture. There's nothing wrong with that, and I see a lot of beauty in it. But… Poorly conceived planning affects cultural life on a global scale. Many venues in Cardiff and the recording studios where we performed and recorded are currently affected. Super Furry The studio where the Animals recorded 'Mwng' is gone, and so are many of the places where art, music and dance were happening. I think it's a worldwide problem.”
He speaks from his recent experience touring America. this is the kit, he produced the album last year. Were the results of the tour reflected in the songs on the new album? “He loves buying records and traveling,” he smiles. “When eBay and Discogs started, I wasn't really tech-savvy enough to adapt to it, so I wasn't really interested in mail order. I tend to buy a lot of vinyl when I'm traveling or on tour. It's a big deal. There was a time when I would find old shopping malls where all the chain stores had moved, run-down shopping malls where records would be left. At least before the pandemic, the hit rate was good and you could find records at random stores. I could almost buy a box of them. They influenced my music, that's for sure – 1970s European disco pop, records. Lucio Battisti – and some records I bought completely blind based on price or cover. ”
This method of purchasing records uses the distinctive Pete Fowler artwork on the covers of singles such as “Herman Loves Pauline,” “Play It Cool,” “Demons,” and “Hockey Hair.” It struck a chord with the interviewer who approached Super Furry Animals. “Pete is a genius,” Grif says warmly. “His work is incredible. His work has influenced our music as well. We're inspired by some of the cultural things he was picking up and putting into his paintings: the people. We started to incorporate the different mobile devices that he was carrying around. We started singing about some of the things he was observing.”
One such song is “Wherever I Lay My Phone That's My Home,” from the 1999 album Guerrilla, which still sounds years ahead of its time. “It was almost a single, and we had edited a shorter version together, but at that point Creation had finished and it ended up not being released. It was a really fun song to record. It was played by Hugh Bamford on guitar. I think it was based on the loop tripping over the lead of!”
The music on “Sadness Sets Me Free'' suggests that Grif continues to operate in an environment where musicians are free to act. “I've brought in some really bad recorded demos where I'm playing a song on one instrument or a crappy drum beat on an instrument. Cliff Scurlock on drums and Ossian on piano. What I love about working with Gwynedd is that they're so good at it. What I'm trying to do is capture moments of their live performances so I don't have to build a recording from scratch. Cliff and Both of Ossian's arrangements are perfect, often perfect from the start, so it doesn't take long to record. The album featured double bassist Hugh V. Williams, making it an all-acoustic album. We did a couple of takes and that was it. Then we toured and refined some of the songs, like Celestial Candyfloss. We played it live a few times before taking it into the studio. But the arrangement and time signature changes made it very tight. Everyone contributed to that arrangement.”
“The pop PR model is being adopted by politicians.”
Other songs naturally grew into their own space. “We kept some songs and crammed them in at soundcheck, but we wanted to keep songs like Cover Up The Cover Up and I Tendered My Resignation pretty improvised. They were long jams. But I edited it into a tighter song. “I Tendered My Resignation'' had twice as many lyrics, but strangely it made more sense as a shorter song. We left space and encouragement for everyone to play and shape the sound. ”
He also has a very strong musical relationship with This Is The Kit singer Kate Stables, with the pair now guesting on each other's albums. “I think I learned more working with her than the other way around,” he says generously. “It was really great to see them put together that album (‘Careful of Your Keepers’) at the end of 2022. They are a great live band and group of musicians, and I All I wanted to do was support their decision to make this album. They wanted to make it. The recording took place in Paris, where Kate lives, so I gave her my I asked her if she could sing a song for me. She has a great voice and a great passion for music. She is always looking for music and has a very wide range of music that draws people in and feeds herself. I'm part of a community. It's really inspiring and what music should be about.”
Around the same time that our interview was taking place, it was announced that Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford was to resign. “I follow politics like pop music,” Griff says. “Because the pop PR model is being adopted by politicians. I can't keep up with the news cycle and I'm slow to comment. I'm slow-moving in that sense. I sing songs in response. I prefer writing. Although it is a slow medium, I can apply myself to it better and more clearly, otherwise it becomes a kind of calling. Political activists are my heroes I'm not a very effective political activist, so I think I try to reflect that in my songs. We live in very, very grim times, but I'm also on the fence. I don’t want to sit down.”
Are there any songs that don't get recorded because there's so much news to deal with? “Songs like 'Cover Up The Cover Up' are kind of on the nose, but they're not quite on the nose. No, I need to write a part 2. I feel constrained that I can't go any further, but I hope it has a sense of playfulness that could be mistaken for a ballad. I hope there's some subversion in there. ”
“A lot of places where art, music and dance were happening have disappeared. I think it's a worldwide problem.”
The message conveyed subtly but clearly throughout is that Sadness Sets Me Free is a record with a positive undercurrent, one that tackles difficult subject matter and still leaves you smiling despite it. I'm saying that. “I hope it's optimistic based on realism,” Griff said. I think optimism is one of the best characteristics of new music. ” He agrees that music is more important than ever in the current climate. “As language enters increasingly absurd territory, and the contradictions of politics are astonishing, music seems like an anchor we can cling to and understand.”
Alongside Griff's new album, it marks the first release from his Super Furry colleagues. Rhys Evansnow known as Das Coolies. The two records complement each other, placing Gruff's wistful, tuneful pop music alongside amplified, guitar-driven material. “I know their genius up close, and it's very powerful music,” he observes. “The live show will be magical.”
Both factions use a variety of media and arts very fluently. “On this record, I worked with Mark James, who started working with Super Furry Animals on Mwng, and the layout and graphics were done in collaboration with Pete Fowler, but Mark also did the artwork for Das Koolies. I love working with him. We dig deep into ideas and develop them, often resulting in completely unexpected results for both of us. I We set out on a journey to find out what this record is about and how to express it, and this time we're singing “Sadness Sets Me Free” inside a shipping container lost in space. I have come to the conclusion that this is the best solution. We didn't even think of that at first. It's an acoustic record, with string quartet, piano, double bass, drums, etc., so we had to make sure there were wooden elements on the jacket, so we had wood paneling all over. I wanted it to look like a really bad country music album from the 1980s. ”
With everything going on around him, what's his secret to staying open to new songwriting ideas? “I let them arrive gradually,” he says. he explains. “I used to be able to jump right in, but now that I have kids, I sometimes have to adjust my time to get ideas together and finish them. When it comes to starting an idea, I don't force anything and I'm very I let it emerge gradually. I don't have a specific work space. Time is more important than location.”
He waves goodbye cheerfully and the world seems to be all right again. Grief does set us free.
• Gruff Rhys' album Sadness Sets Me Free will be released on January 26, 2024 via Rough Trade. Tour dates and detailed information can be found here.