Mad About The Joy

They say nobody gives a toss about music anymore, but fans of ascendent Welsh power-poppers The Joy Formidable would beg to differ. Last year, a super-ardent devotee posted a video on YouTube in which he expressed his love for the band via-the timeworn art of the five finger shuffle. Rather than seeing the funny side, YouTube decided it was (rather literally) a case of wank you and good night: the enthusiastic approval of the band notwithstanding, the tug of love promo was mysteriously, ‘er, yanked from the site within a few hours (and thousands of hits).

“I remember our manager sending it over to us. I sat and watched and thought, ‘This is fucking hilarious’,” says frontwoman Ritzy Bryan. “It was so well executed. You never actually see anything. There’s a lot of ambiguity. It’s only as the video develops that you understand what it’s about. It is very witty. I don’t understand why they needed to ban it, considering the amount of shit up on YouTube. In the grand scheme of things it seems silly.”
Not every rock trio can inspire fans to create their own tribute films. However, The Joy Formidable would appear to reach parts other power-pop outfits could only dream of. Sometimes even they are blind-sided by the reception they receive. A 2010 stop gap EP A Balloon Called Moaning was such a huge success for instance, the band were forced to push back the release date of their debut LP proper, The Big Roar by more than six months.
“It was all quite accidental. We put out A Balloon Called Moaning and then all these invites to tour the world came rolling in,” says Ritzy. “As a result, finishing the album became a bit of a juggling process to be honest. We have a modest little studio in south London, but it was difficult to find the time to be there. We were touring so much. A Balloon Called Moaning developed a life of its own.”
Ritzy and guitarist Rhydian Dafydd (surely the most Welsh-sounding name in history) have been going out since before The Joy Formidable. She tries to play down the romance, saying they are both laidback and realise that life in a band makes a normal relationship more or less impossible. Not that it’s on the cards, but were they to break up she could see the group rumbling on.
“I can’t remember the last time we went to dinner or anything like that,” she says. “This is all-consuming for us. I don’t want to take anything away from our relationship. We are driven first and foremost by the band, and are passionate about what we are putting out there. There is a lot of common ground in that our main arguments are over music. It’s healthy because both of us are headstrong and believe in what we are doing. The band means an awful lot to us.”
Ritzy grew up in rural north Wales and moved to London because that’s where the drummer Matt Thomas is based. In between, there was an unlikely sojourn in Washington DC, where she went for reasons which, to this day, she struggles to fully articulate.
“It makes me feel a little ill to talk about it. I went over there as an au pair. It was a very, very quick way to get over there to do music. And, in some ways flee the UK I suppose. That’s a fucking weird existence – being an au pair. Even though we always think the US doesn’t have a class system, it was actually quite telling on some levels. Without doubt I was the worst au pair in history. I hope those kids are alright!”
Because they are female-fronted and tout a heavy rock sound, it was perhaps inevitable that The Joy Formidable would be compared to ‘90s girl groups such as Veruca Salt and The Breeders. However inaccurate the comparisons, they don’t bother Ritzy particularly, though they do strike her as a bit lazy.
“Come on – there are worse comparisons than The Breeders. I do think it’s a bit unoriginal. You get that with reviews though, don’t you? They look around for someone to compare you to. I don’t spend lot of time reading our press. I can understand that people would want a soundbyte. If you really wanted to dig beneath the surface there are all sorts of people you could list as influences. Most of the time they’re too lazy to do that. It doesn’t bother me. It certainly isn’t going to stop us from doing what we do.”
Though London based, Ritzy says she is fiercely proud of her north Wales background and would move back there in a flash should circumstances allow.
“I am always very clear about this. We came to London because that’s where our drummer was. Not to do the usual career thing. Logistically, it’s useful when we’re all in the same place. It was either him coming to Wales or us going down to him. We love writing in north Wales. The difficult bit was finding enough variety for gigging. It’s getting better now. But purely in terms of numbers, there really aren’t enough venues. However we go back there all the time. We love the contrast, between the peace of the countryside and the craziness of London.”

The Big Roar is out now. You can listen to 'Austere' on hotpress.com.