“We were just laughing through the entire first song, the entire weekend was an incredible experience,” reminisces Rizty Bryan, front-woman (or is that ‘person’?) The Joy Formidable, on the last weekend of June 2010. The band played a support slot for Sir Paul McCartney at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, before opening the Other Stage at Glastonbury the next day. Impressive, considering at the time the band had released just one E.P. “It’s definitely something we’d love to do again, I mean, you’ve got to have a target,” adds bassist Rhydian Dafydd. Although just three hours later, the band would perform to a respectable 300-strong crowd at the O2 Academy 2, this Welsh trio are born for the big stage. The band released their debut LP, The Big Roar, in January to strong critical acclaim after a year of stop-start writing around extensive touring.
Unlike current hype-fuelled acts such as The Vaccines and James Blake, The Joy Formidable’s ascension to the public eye has been the result of four years of extensive touring and recording. “It’s important to build up, I mean we’ve never really been hyped by a major publication. We try and avoid all the reviews and things like that, even the good ones. At the end of the day, what does it matter what one person thinks? We go out there and just enjoy doing what we do. Hype’s ultimately going to lead to people being disappointed one way or another.”
Rhydian cites Arcade Fire as a model to aspire to; “Just look at how they’ve done things, they’ve just focused on making great records without letting all the pressures get to them; they’ve managed to do things on their terms and look at them now, selling out arenas. That’s ultimately where we want to take the band. We know what we want to do but it’ll always be how we want.”
Critics praised The Big Roar for the sheer intensity of its sound, including reworked songs from the debut EP A Balloon Called Moaning. Although the band has recently signed a major label contract, this intensity of sound originates from the most natural of writing environments. “We wrote the songs for the new album in the same sort of way that we wrote the EP, in our bedrooms at home. It’s difficult to be creative locked away in a studio; our way’s always worked for us and I can’t imagine that changing in the foreseeable future.”
The debut album may have only been released last month but the band have no intentions of resting on their laurels over the coming years when it comes to new music. Songs such as Greyhound in the Slips and Popinjay were released inbetween the EP and album – a trend that’s set to continue. “Writing and releasing ten songs every two years sounds boring to us, I [Ritzy] go fucking mad if I can’t write and get some ideas down when I want. I don’t want to be waiting two years to get another album out, we’ve got some rough ideas already. Sometimes it’s frustrating on tour when you’ve got this idea in your head and you just want to get it down properly in the studio. “
“As a band we’ve got a great chemistry and so it doesn’t feel difficult to be creative. With the box set of the album we put out a second disc. We could’ve put out a double album if it’d been appropriate for a debut.”
It’s a testament to their ambition that the band are able to see past their hectic short-term future. The current UK tour merges straight into a mainland European tour, before an extensive run in the US. “It’s the first time we’ll be doing east to west and then west to east. Touring in the UK feels easy afterwards, you’ll arrive in Scotland and think “oh, that’s it?” whereas in America you’re on the road for hours every day. I don’t think we’ll be home until festival season now, so we’ve got our big suitcases packed.”
“Festival season is great though, especially when you’ve only got the one that weekend so you can relax and see some bands yourself. Playing 11am like Glastonbury means you can enjoy the day and have a few drinks.” Drummer Matt Thomas extends the idea; “We should put that in our booking contracts – no gigs after half five in the morning!”
With an ever-growing fan base, critical backing and an exhaustive ambition to work upwards, it may only be a matter of time before The Joy Formidable are able to make such demands. It’s refreshing to hear a band with the sound to fill the stadiums they aspire to play once more.
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