After releasing their second album this year, Garry & Emma caught up with The Joy Formidable at Summercamp Festival for a chat.  

Can you tell us a bit about the band for those that have not heard of you yet?

Ritzy:  Of course, well, we are from North Wales originally. Mr Thomas where do you say you are from these days?’

Matt:  An area down south, mostly London.

Ritzy: We have just released our second album, it came out in January. Always a bit of a difficult one defining your sound, but essentially on the surface we are a guitar band, but we like to incorporate a big kind of orchestral element into that.  I guess the main thing that kind of drives us and our ascetic is soul and commitment to making music that really turns us on. You know we have always felt a little bit in a bubble in that sense. I think it is encouraging to us that people find it difficult to know where we fit in and at the end of the day we are doing something that has a life of its own and what genre that fits in to is beside the point to us. For us it is about songs and meaning and doing something that is original to us and it comes from a very personal place.

So you are doing it for your own enjoyment and the bonus is having other people enjoy it with you?

Ritzy:  Absolutely, I mean you have to, you know it’s vile industry so if you don’t enjoy the music, the one thing you can control and if you’re are not into that you’re f****d.

(All Laugh)

So how did you get into music? 

Ritzy: There was always music going on in my house, growing up my mum and dad were just so passionate about it, you know that’s why I think they chose to live in North Wales ‘ because there was no neighbours and they could just blast music in the house. There was never any silence and they had a really eclectic record collection. I always say it could have gone either way, I could have been really turned off as a kid and taken up netball or something because this is like ‘they are too intense – they love music too much’ but I bought into it.

Garry: Is it the same for you two?

Matt: I nearly took up netball too.

So how did you all meet? 

Rhydian: Me and Ritzy have known each other a long time, you know we went to school together, primary and secondary but oddly enough we were never in a band together in school. We knew that we were passionate about music and we had our own separate bands and all that, but yeah it was years later that we reconnected, I had a band in Manchester and was looking for a guitarist.

Matt: But he couldn’t find one.

Rhydian: So my last resort was Ritzy. But we had a difficult time in that band so we forget about that experience, we escaped back to North Wales and started writing together for the first time and that kind of marked the start of this band. It was feeling like, yeah this is what we should have done all along, we really believed in what we were writing and were really excited by it and it hasn’t changed you know. So we carried on writing and six months later we met Matt and it’s been none stop touring ever since and none stop fun to you know.

Ritzy: Well… for two of them

Do you actually like touring; because that is what you mainly do isn’t it? You have been doing a lot of festivals?

Ritzy: Wwe genuinely do, it’s the most honest side to us. You know making music, it’s the side where you can connect, connect with the people, the people who have supported you and getting out to them. There is no fluff in that conversation that you have out there live in that moment.  You are either good live and believe in what you do or you’re not. There is no hidden agenda, you can’t hide behind anything. I think that is where the truth lies and we have done an awful lot of touring.

So which has been your best festival, apart from this one obviously, which one stands out for you?

Rhydian: It’s always tricky that.  There’s a few you remember on the way, like the first time we played Glastonbury, because it is quite an iconic festival, but you know they are all different. That’s what we like about touring, the variety you know and this summer has been great ‘because we have done a lot of smaller, more interesting festivals really and this one is part of that.

Ritzy: We had a really good time at the Y-Not festival this year.

Garry: Was that because it was smaller?

Ritzy: It was a Sunday and they had crap weather for the entire weekend and they had gigs but some of the acts had actually been cancelled because they had had a lot of storms and we were one of the last to close on the Sunday night and people were still so up for it. You know such a good vibe in that crowd, considering they had to put up with the elements, they were really into the moment. You know we really like those sort of crowds, do you know what I mean? They are just really good people, a good northern crowd.

Matt: It would be good to like filter out the real fans with like crap weather, so all the people that could not be arsed will have left and by the time we play, just the good people.

Rhydian:  We should do a rain dance before our shows.

Matt: Yeah, well I do anyway.

This time last year, didn’t you play Leeds.  I think I remember because I was there working, did you enjoy Leeds?

Ritzy:Very much.

Garry: On the NME stage I think?

Rhydian: It was.

Ritzy: I mean that festival is definitely a big part of this band and the beginnings of this band. That show I think we have played every single year since we formed.So in terms of them supporting us we have gone up a stage every single year. You can almost get a sense of your career through that one festival.

Garry: Was that your big break, because you played on the BBC Intro stage didn’t you?

Rhydian: We did that was very early on. We have probably done that festival more than any other, so it’s been nice going back there, always brings back memories.

Ritzy:It does.

Can you describe your perfect gig? (One you have taken part in or one you would like to take part in (and what would that be like)?

Rhydian: I’d like to see a festival in North Wales you know. I would like for North Wales to be put on the map musically a little bit more. There is a lot of great things there you know, a lot of great bands and promoters and stuff but it is just a difficult scene to bring all that together so yeah, for me, I mean obviously they are some awesome festivals but it would be nice to put something really hot there.

What has been your weirdest or strangest gig; you must have had one of those? 

Ritzy: Oh yeah man (laughs) most of them fall into that category.

Matt: Which one should we go with?

Rhydian: We have played in bike shops.

Matt: Played in bank safes to four people.

How did that come about then? A bank safe?

Matt: Exactly.

Rhydian: It was like a little acoustic set for a radio station. Their listeners came in and it was such a tiny room you couldn’t fit more than four people.

Matt: Worse thing was there was no air in there either so as soon as you went in, you had to get it done and get out. Everyone was sweating.  Urgh, ‘Why did we do this?’

Rhydian: I remember doing a gig in Aberdeen down by the docks that was surreal, the craziest people going nuts. Like pulling down lamp posts outside and there was fighting everywhere and we were out loading the van and someone threw a fire extinguisher from the top window and it almost hit my head.

Ritzy: There was a guy walking around outside the venue and we couldn’t figure out if it was Boy George or if it was a Boy George impersonator, we were like, ‘it’s all just f*****g confusing.’ Do you know what I mean?  There is just so many to mention, but that was a pretty weird night. 

Who has been your most influential musician or had the most impact on your musical career? Have you got any heroes? 

Rhydian: I think it varies for all of us.

Ritzy: I would say the reason I wanted to get into playing guitar and writing songs was because I saw Elvis Costello at the Royal Court in Liverpool and yeah I was really little. I was about 6 or 7 years old but my mum and dad had taken me. I didn’t make it all the way through the gig; I fell asleep for the encore. But I still have that memory of literally being entranced and after that it was like listening to all his albums and buying his song books and you know? That was my real musical obsession growing up so… yeah.

Rhydian: Hendrix definitely for me, that kinda turned me, as before that I was quite an outgoing sporty person and as soon as I heard some Hendrix records it changed me. Just how powerful music can be you know? It was just a very personal thing and happened to really blow me away and that was just the gateway in obviously. All the other great music that is out there yeah, but that is obviously a really important one for me as it turned me on to how powerful music can be.

Ritzy: What about you Mr Thomas?

Matt: I don’t know, there is a lot of stuff I remember as a kid, my Dad loved his jazz funk and stuff. I do remember stealing his 75 of Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter group and playing that for 24 hours non-stop really loud.  My mum got quite annoyed.  It’s that synth solo.

If you could meet someone and thank them for the music who would it be?

Rhydian: Oh God, wow.

Ritzy: I’d like to shake Mr Bruce Springsteen’s hand and especially because I have had the pleasure of seeing in concert quite a few times and I just think just the love of music he has it’s not forced it’s just, you get a sublime three hour set with just him and the energy and the feel good vibe is just there and I think you know definitely if you are gonna go out there and be a musician everyone should have watched or been to at least one Springsteen concert. Just as one example but he definitely is a style of performance that to me is really powerful so yeah I would give him a nice shake of his hand and maybe a grab of his arse (laughs).

Rhydian: I would have to say Hendrix again. I’ll just say Hendrix to everything.

Matt: Mmm I would say Zappa but he’s also a bit dead also. But it would be great if we could you know, well it would be a bit weird bringing them back I suppose, but if we could travel back to the period where they were at their hype to meet them that would be great.

Has you music changed over the years?

Ritzy: Absolutely and I hope it continues to do so.You know I think that just has to be a natural thing and I am a big believer in the evolution of the band and it’s all very connected to where you are personally together. But absolutely that’s the thing that you can’t control but you hope you are kinda constantly getting inspired and maybe every album that you make has a different flavour or captures a new moment or different mood. You know I think it’s not something you force, but I do think we have changed over the two albums we have made and will definitely continue to do so.

Rhydian: Whilst still maintaining your voice and identity but like I say just has to be natural and you grow as people don’t you? So it definitely documents that instead of sticking to a formula for every album.

Who is the main song writer or do you all contribute?

Rhydian: Me and Ritzy I suppose mainly but we have different ways of writing so we all have our input you know and it’s nice to never say this is the way we do it. It’s again coming back to that thing of not having a formula.  So we come up with songs in all kinds of different ways.  It might start with a drumming pattern or it might start with lyrics, it might start with an acoustic guitar, it’s nice to never put restrictions on it.

Is there anybody you would like to write or sound like?

Rhydian: Not for me really, I like and respect so many artists you know, but ultimately you have to, you know, being in a band, being an artist is all about your own journey and what your own soul is about so to try and emulate someone is a little bit of an alien feeling, but it doesn’t mean you can’t respect what other people do as some are obviously great writers.

Have you got any new material coming out in the near future?

Ritzy: We are definitely writing and we have been writing since, well since we finished the sessions for the last record. That’s a big part of this band, that we just constantly, you know if we feel like we want to. If we are fired up then we will write you know non-stop on the road. We demo a lot while we are touring, so erm yeah we are definitely writing. I think that we are at that kind of exciting point where we are just relaxed about it and who knows if it’s a collection / album or smaller, something longer. We are big believers of letting the songs lead the way so we are just relaxed at the moment and seeing where it all goes really.

Has your music been used in any soundtracks?

Rhydian: We have been on the Twilight soundtrack, there is stuff for things on television and it’s something we encourage. The way that people digest your music is constantly evolving and you know the key thing for us is people actually hearing your songs so yeah might be the radio, might be the TV, might be a film and it has been used for all those things

Have you got any songs lyrically or musically that you like playing / performing,  any favourite songs?

Ritzy: I think it changes so often and it’s kind of you know, what we always say you can’t really pick your favourite child can you? When I think a song has come from a really kind of emotive place I think what is interesting about it over the course of time is that is either triggers and continues to trigger that emotion of a raw place where it was first conceived or it has a journey of its own where you almost feel something else every time you play it.  I think that is definitely something we experience live that. I definitely feel that we are the sort of performers where it can all be quite jarring our performance of a night because there is so many different emotions. I think that people think that we are a little bit psychotic because there is a lot of different feelings running through the set from happiness to feeling quite exultant and then feeling very sad and songs taking you back to that moment when they were written and that turns on its head on a night with different songs and I think that is the real key to any song you write; that at least it triggers something in you. Like you said before [looking to Rhydian] it’s not about going through the motions.

Rhydian: I wouldn’t really be able to choose one, they all mean something different, the key thing is that they all mean something.

Can you tell us what you do in your spare time to chill out from the music world? Or do you not have spare time?

Rhydian: We read a lot and are big film buffs, art in general for me you know. We go to shows and exhibitions and stuff. We are also creatures of nature you know, especially growing up in North Wales. Getting out into the country side and walking and yeah getting some fresh air when you spend so much time cooped up it’s nice to do that.

Interview and photos' Emma Louise Taylor & Photo by Garry Urwin 

The Joy Formidable

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