Interview with The Joy Formidable
Hi Ritzy, where are you right now?
Hiya, I’m just on the train, so I’m gonna find a quiet little spot…
Where are you on the train to?
Well, we’ve just been applying for our American visas at the moment and there’s an awful lot of paperwork, so we’re just off to see our friend, who’s also an optician, to get him to sign some documents!
Official stuff! It’s great to talk to you today for many reasons, but it’s especially good for me because I come from a town near where you’re from in Mold…
Is that right? That’s great! It’s very rare we meet anyone from North Wales; usually people we meet in London are from South Wales, but North Waleans are hard to come by - especially in Norwich - that’s the other side of the country!
You’ve recently finished tours with Editors and earlier in the year, Passion Pit, haven’t you? How did those tours differ?
Yeah, I think they were different in scale, I mean, the Editors tour was the largest tour to date, so for me, we kind of got a taste of what it’s like to do something that’s got a big production and got a huge team behind it. It’s nice for us to be able to play venues or that sort of scale as well. It’s quite interesting, again, opening for those bands and trying to win over your audience in quite a daunting venue. We love the live thing though and both bands were really good company, I mean, they were nice beyond the professional side of things; we had a really good time with both bands, which helped. We had a lot of fun - especially with Passion Pit.
I can imagine they’d be fun actually -
Yeah they were! Really nice guys, so er, we’re going back out to tour with them. They invited us to New York, sort of half way through the tour, so we knew then that we’d kind of be carrying on with them later on in the year. We were all getting quite sentimental that we’d have to part company, but luckily we’re going back out with them.
They personally chose you to support them as well, didn’t they? How did that come about?
Literally just through them hearing ’A Balloon Called Moaning’, I think, or hearing it online. They had a perspective of getting bands and going on the road with bands that we share; they didn’t want bands that sounded exactly like them, so it wasn’t about finding someone exactly with their sound, it was about choosing a band that they really respected and who enjoyed music, which is certainly our ethic when we’re gigging with people. It was nice to feel that - certainly no nasty nepotism or backhanders involved, which was great. It was a true love of the music that went both ways. It’s good to have that, but it doesn’t happen all the time.
So, I read that Rhydian passed you a note in the pub that said, “Do you wanna jam sometime…” - is that really how you formed the band?
Yeah, it is! I’ve been longing to find that note for quite a while, because he completely denies it…
He’s a smooth operator, isn’t he?!
Haha, yeah I know. That actually ended in nothing, which is quite comical I suppose! Haha. It was quite a few years after that when we started actually writing together and by then, I’d been over in the States doing my own solo stuff as well, so yeah, that was really the beginning of it.
At the beginning of this year, the dynamic changed slightly with Justin leaving the band and Matt replacing him. Is this new line-up working for you?
Oh, very much so, I mean at the time, when Justin left, we were gutted, but it was an amicable split and we were very close, but since Matt joined us, it’s brought a different dynamic and I think musically, we’re a lot stronger. Considering the way we found him was what some people consider to be quite traditional, or quite dull almost, finding a band member through advertising and auditioning, I think the dynamic has been very, very professional and I don’t think we could have asked for better, I mean, in terms of how we all get on and our musical selections. I think it’s very rare that you get that and we were very fortunate to get such a good match. He’s a superb drummer and he’s brought a lot to our live side of things and we’re just starting to test the recording process now, which is going really well, so yeah, we’re really happy.
What are the pressures or strains to do with band life that you think make people want to leave?
I think in Justin’s case, his reason for leaving was that he didn’t like touring; I think you have to be a certain type of animal for that, I really do. You have to enjoy not being particularly settled anywhere and it’s the sort of life - you know, we really enjoy what we do and we don’t have a home, or a place we call home - so it doesn’t really affect us, being on the road. I think we actually quite like it; it actually tends to be a more relaxing time than trying to record in several different locations and it being less structured, because at least on tour, there’s structure in the chaos somehow. But it doesn’t come with many strains, you know, we’re absolutely privileged to be able to do something that you really love and wake up every morning and so something like this. It certainly hasn’t become a job; you know, I talk to lots of musicians who say that it feels like more of a job, but it isn’t like that for us.
We can’t be far off hearing your debut album proper - is it far away?
Erm, no, not really. It’s certainly taking shape. It’s actually quite hard, because we’ve been touring so much, we’ve actually just been dipping in and out of it for the last few months now. We’ve just sort of been snatching at time really, but I think as soon as we come back from Europe, we’ve got two months then. I mean, it’s written, it’s demoed and we’ve actually demoed a lot more material than we need for the first album, which is a good position to be in, but it’s harder for me to gauge where we’re at with it, because I haven’t listened to it for a few weeks. It’s definitely the beginning of next year that we’ll have the album out by.
Are there any tracks on it that you think we’ll be surprised by?
Oh, I think with some things maybe; I think we’ve definitely evolved in certain ways and there’s definitely different with Matt, because it’ll be the first album that he’ll have drummed on with us, or should I say, the first body of work that he’s drummed on, so erm, I think it’s not gonna be a massive shift sonically in terms of what we’ve done before, because we’re producing it ourselves, so it’s not gonna be a million miles away from ‘A Balloon Called Moaning’ and the vision, because we started with that. But yeah, I think it’s certainly gonna have a few different takes on things - we’ve definitely gone a little bit darker and a little bit heavier on some of the tracks. The thing that we like about albums though is that there is usually a sound that runs all the way through it, so you can be varied in the sort of songs you write. I think that was true with ‘A Balloon Called Moaning’ and I think it’s definitely true with the next album.
Your 8 track CD, ‘A Balloon Called Moaning’ was released early this year and it sold out of its first run - were you warmed by the fast reaction of your fans?
Oh, absolutely, you know, I think the beauty of it all was that none of it was actually planned; we always have a kind of idea of what we want to do - you always have an overall master plan that you’d like things to follow in a certain way, but with the album, it was just an extension of a Japanese release that we had to put out, so we were quite chilled out about it. Our fans had been asking for more tracks and up until then, we’d just been doing singles. I think that’s the beauty of when you haven’t put too much expectation into things, you know, it was really nice to feel that sort of reaction. We certainly hadn’t sensed that up until that point.
What a really like about your approach to your fans is that you always seem to be coming up with new ways for them to get involved, and exclusive prizes for them to win. Is it important to retain this personal approach with your fans?
Oh I think it’s absolutely vital to us. I think it should for everybody, because obviously your fan-base is an important thing - especially for us; we’ve based ourselves on being close to our fan base and I guess that’s helped by the fact that we’re not doing things in a particularly traditional way - we haven’t got the backing of a big machine and I think that emphasises how important it is to have your audiences supporting you really. I don’t think you should ever forget that people buy your albums and buy tickets to come and see you. We kind of like being a bit playful as well with it… I guess we’ve all got an imaginative approach to things about keeping things fresh.
I love the golden Willy Whirring ticket, giving 10 fans free entry to your gigs for life… who came up with that?
I don’t know, it was just one of those things we came up with sitting in a room together. I think for me, I remember following bands when they were in their infancy and if they had a fan club, or things going on, you’d always get excited about getting things in the post, and now I guess we’ve turned in to a culture of everything being on a computer, which is great, but it’s kinda nice to have that moment of putting something in the post and that ‘Will I, won’t I?!’ sort of thing.
You asked your friends and fans to send in a picture of their own Joy Formidable - in your words, ‘any moment you’ve experienced that you’ve found sublime or unique - to be included in the boxset of your 8-track, so I have to ask you, what’s yours?
Mine was actually in there - I think all of the band actually put their joy formidable in the boxes. Mine was the meteor shower that was actually on the front of the boxset. That was in Norwich actually! We did a very early show there and we were driving back really late in my Nissan Micra with all the gear piled up and we could hardly move for guitars and the drum kit, then there was this absolutely amazing meteor shower and we all got out and it was like, three in the morning, and it was a very emotional moment; we’re a very emotional band - we wear our hearts on our sleeves. It was a special moment - it sounds a bit corny really doesn’t it? But we’d just played a really good show and we were all together. It kind of felt like things were getting a little less difficult.
I was really pleased to hear Paul Draper featured on your new single, ‘Greyhound in the Slips’, but how did you manage to get involved with the Mansun front man?
Erm, we were literally in a pub with some friends and I think one of them had Paul Draper’s email address from something they’d done together years ago. We were just talking about vocalists that we really like, just chattering about music and talking about who we’d like to work with and it was Rhydian that said, ‘Oh, Paul Draper - brilliant voice, brilliant front man’, and we mentioned that it’d be really good to do something with him - that his voice and my voice would really compliment each other, blah, blah, blah, you know, and then this guy just wrote him a line, and the next thing he added us on MySpace and we were like, ‘Oh, that’s quite cool isn’t it!’ Then we thought, oh fuck it, let’s drop him a line, and he got back and he’s a really nice guy actually. We’ve been for quite a few drinks with him, before and after and he’s really good company. I think Mansun were an absolutely superb band, so I’m very chuffed to have worked with him - he does a great vocal on our track.
I was wondering, with you and Rhydian constantly working together, do you ever forget to just be a couple and go to the cinema or something?!
Yeah, I think I’m quoted in an interview just recently saying I can’t remember when we last just went for dinner or something! I think it is difficult, but it’s not something we dwell on, because it’s a beautiful thing that we’re able to work on this together. We travel a lot and have all these experiences together and do the recording and do the live side that gives us that connection. It could be so different as well, I mean, I think it’d be impossible to have a relationship if both of us weren’t in this band! I think in some ways it is difficult if you look at how most relationships work, but we just enjoy our time together and not put too many things in boxes.
I can’t finish without talking about THAT video, but I want to look at it in a slightly different way - I think there’s a depth and intimacy that’s been lost through the controversy surrounding it, but what do you think the fan meant by making that video?
I think, or I like to think that my first impression was exactly that - it wasn’t just a wanking video; it was so well executed that it just felt like it was quite playful, but also, wanking can be quite a lonely thing, but it can be quite a frustrated thing - it felt like it certainly could have a lot of depth to it. I thought he captured a lot of what we capture in our videos, but a lot more playfully. I think the problem with that is that a lot of people take things on face value, as you say, and people become quite lazy - they think, ‘oh it’s a wanking video - all the songs must be about fucking and stuff…!’
Apart from the meteor shower, which must have been an amazing moment, have you any other memories of Norwich?
Erm, I think we’re always really blown away by the reception, like, genuinely; we’re not from Norwich, and we’re not Norwich-based, but the reception has always been so warm and exuberant, especially early on - it was quite noticeable for us. All those shows give you a lot of experience; there’s lots of ups and downs, you know, one minute you’re playing to nobody and the next week you get a good audience and I think we instantly hit it off in Norwich. We really felt that the audience were really ready to embrace us. We’ve had a couple of good nights there too! We’ve made some good friends there - Annie Catwoman has been very good to us and we’ve enjoyed some good nights round hers, just enjoying the delights of a cheese board and a good bottle of red wine!
Emma Roberts
The Joy Formidable headline wombat wombat’s 9th birthday celebration on December 11th at the Norwich Arts Centre. For tickets, go to www.norwichartscentre.co.uk or call 01603 660352.
