Joy Formidable – and so she thinks https://andsoshethinks.co.uk CREATE:COMMUNICATE:CONNECT Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:31:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://andsoshethinks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cropped-FAVICON-90x90-1-32x32.png Joy Formidable – and so she thinks https://andsoshethinks.co.uk 32 32 Spector fall off the back of a van https://andsoshethinks.co.uk/spector-fall-of-the-back-of-a-van/ https://andsoshethinks.co.uk/spector-fall-of-the-back-of-a-van/#respond Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:31:17 +0000 http://itsallhappeningmusic.blog.com/?p=619 Back in August It’s All Happening discovered Spector. In fact, they’re one of the few things John remembers from Field Day. The band have also just been mentioned in the BBC’s Sound of 2012 list – but don’t hold that against them. Joining some of our favourite bands, including Two Wounded Birds , Tribes, The Joy Formidable and Grouplove, Spector have hooked up with Bands In Transit to perform What You Wanted.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPTOy6F-DT4]

]]> https://andsoshethinks.co.uk/spector-fall-of-the-back-of-a-van/feed/ 0 "A whole new level of busyness" – An interview with The Joy Formidable https://andsoshethinks.co.uk/a-whole-new-level-of-busyness-an-interview-with-the-joy-formidable/ https://andsoshethinks.co.uk/a-whole-new-level-of-busyness-an-interview-with-the-joy-formidable/#respond Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:41:51 +0000 http://itsallhappeningmusic.blog.com/?p=43

It’s not always easy interviewing a band you love. For example, you wouldn’t ask your best friend what they have been up to over the summer; what’s the point in asking questions when you already know the answers? That’s how I feared my interview with Ritzy, one third of the exceptional The Joy Formidable, could turn out.

It’s All Happening have long been avid followers of TJF but my what-will-I-ask related fears evaporated when Ritzy filled me in on the last 12 months, which have been, a “new level of busyness.” Since September 2009 they have headlined the Electric Ballroom and The Garage (the latter of which they recorded and released as a live album), released two singles (soon to be a third), signed to a record label, opened the Other stage at Glastonbury, played Reading and Leeds, toured Britain, the USA and Australia, and recorded their debut full length album. Oh, and they played with Paul McCartney and Manic Street Preachers at the Millennium Stadium. It turns out that we did have a bit of catching up to do, after all.
New single ‘I Don’t Want To See You Like This’ will be released on October 11th, but the trio still haven’t recovered from the experience of recording the video in south Wales, with it reminding Ritzy of some all too recent memories. “Oh, no…the video has been such a traumatic time! We really haven’t learnt about filming outside in Wales, the video for Whirring was a fucking nightmare too!”
A series of electrical storms, a hysterical crew and a damaged £200,000 camera later and the video was finally finished. The single has recently received Radio 1 airplay and this, along with headlining the upcoming NME Radar tour, demonstrates the increasing popularity of the band. Not that Ritzy is overawed by it, “It’s good but we’ve not really given it much thought. We’re just looking forward to another headline tour, it doesn’t matter what the name behind the tour is!” The band holds a similar opinion regarding their record label Canvasback Records who, despite being sure that they are the right label for them, Ritzy sees as the “boring business bit behind the music.” Throughout the interview it becomes clear that The Joy Formidable only care about the music they produce; not the money they make or press they receive.
January 2011 sees the release of the long awaited full length debut album, The Big Roar, to be accompanied by a headline tour. Three versions of the album will be released: a regular version, a box set version and a mystery third version (unfortunately Ritzy would not disclose the details of this!). Having already released ‘A Balloon Called Moaning’ (a teasing mini album) and ‘First You Have To Get Mad’ (a fantastic live album) it is of course no surprise that TJF have decided to go down the unorthodox route of releasing three versions of ‘The Big Roar’.  ‘A Balloon Called Moaning’ was greatly influenced by Mold, Ritzy’s and Rhydian’s home town, but a hectic touring schedule has meant that the new album was “written over a few locations.. London, South Wales, and whilst we were away on tour, where we had to grab sketches of them and then capture them properly once we got back”. This range of places and experiences has meant that ‘The Big Roar’ has “more range than ‘A Balloon Called Moaning.’ And it is much more aggressive, mainly thanks to Matt!”. Matt joined on drums at the start of 2009 and has helped TJF jump up to the next level, with his energy and charisma really shining through in the live performances and complementing the power and vivaciousness of Ritzy and Rhydian. Just ask Ritzy’s guitar, which took a festival battering and didn’t survive this year’s Reading and Leeds performances which was part of a “great summer.. the Glasto weekend was completely surreal, it was like a double head fuck. We supported Macca and Manic Street Preachers in the Millennium Stadium and then opened The Other stage at Glasto. Everyone was so down to earth. It was very inspiring!”
 In July 2009 I sat in a field in Kent interviewing The Joy Formidable at Hop Farm Festival , discussing who they would love to play on the same bill as. After a few minutes Ritzy, Rhydian and Matt decided upon The Manic Street Preachers. Within a year TJF had achieved this dream – this now seemed like a logical place to finish the interview with Ritzy. In hindsight, I wish I had asked what they hope to achieve in the next twelve months, but whatever it is I’m pretty confident this gifted trio are going to achieve it.  And that’s why I love them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

]]> https://andsoshethinks.co.uk/a-whole-new-level-of-busyness-an-interview-with-the-joy-formidable/feed/ 0 The Joy Formidable, ahead of The Great Escape 2010 https://andsoshethinks.co.uk/the-joy-formidable-ahead-of-the-great-escape-2010/ https://andsoshethinks.co.uk/the-joy-formidable-ahead-of-the-great-escape-2010/#respond Sun, 09 May 2010 20:22:51 +0000 http://itsallhappeningmusic.blog.com/?p=291 Saturday
21.00 @ Coalition
One of the most impressive displays of The Great Escape 2009 came from the trio of Ritzy, Rhydian and Matt: The Joy Formidable. An energetic performance on the 2nd floor of Revenge has seen the band asked back once more, this time as support to The Sunshine Underground at the Coalition. The layers of exceptional sound and extended riffs create a sound that the band found difficult to capture entirely on mini-album „A Balloon Called Moaning‟. However, live album „First You Have To Get Mad‟, recorded at a headline gig at The Garage in London, excels from start to finish. Regular readers of It‟s All Happening will know that we are pretty blinded by their brilliance and head over heels in love with the band, and can guarantee that their gigs are worth running over a lollipop lady to reach. The Joy Formidable live is a mesmerising experience not to be missed – we‟ll see you there!
The first time I saw TJF I was amazed by their intensity and raw power, but how does a band from the historic town of Mold in North Wales generate such a sound? ‘Mold is quite a repressed place and music is a great way to escape and I guess to rebel against the repression…but not necessarily in a conscious way. There isn’t really an obvious scene in North Wales which means that anything goes and so the writing hasn’t felt restricted for us.’ states Ritzy, and Rhydian agrees completely.
‘We don’t have to follow a legacy. Like if you grow up in Manchester then you listen to and follow a particular type of scene, such as Oasis. We had a mixed bag and so there were no rules for us. It would be nice if we could put North Wales on the map as South Wales has a large metal scene, Mid Wales has bands such as the Super Furry Animals and then North Wales is just lumped in with Liverpool.’
Throughout the conversation it is clear that a youth in Mold played a huge role in the music that they produce today. This sense of belonging to a small town rather than a huge city has also impacted their strongly independent stance. ‘We aren’t signed up to a permanent label. Financially it is a struggle but it has its pros and its cons…we have very strong opinions about where we want to take this and so being independent allows us to do that, but it would be pretty nice to be able to have a budget so that we could maybe push things a little further. But if you have a look throughout the history of music then lack of resources always brings creativity.’ explains Rhydian. ‘Yeah, we have to pay for everything ourselves but we don’t really mind. It’s about the creative side and not the money. In modern music a lot of bands don’t have a connection with the fans, but bands wouldn’t be there without them.’ Matt adds. Ritzy follows on seamlessly from the end of Matt’s sentence, ‘Absolutely, we are truthful about everything we do. The process isn’t watered down at all…you don’t really have to go through many people before you’re actually talking with the band!
However, for a band the size of The Joy Formidable it’s simply not possible to do everything between the three of them. Fortunately for TJF they receive fantastic support from their band manager, Joel. ‘He really is our fourth member. He’s been involved from the start and I know it’s a cliché but it feels like a family. All of us have a real love of the band and the music and that’s all that should matter. There are so many levels within the band and Joel wants to look after the band in a business sense but importantly he gives a shit and we all get on really well.’ explains Ritzy.
Rhydian adds, ‘There is so much more to it than money. It’s been a long road which has been slow going and involved a lot of hard work and if Joel was just in it commercially then he’d have dropped out a while ago! We have all grown together and we’re constantly building on the fan base, by which I don’t just mean the number of fans. A fan base is a natural process and we just get our heads down and believe in what we’re doing and people connect to that. The downfall of bands is where they are concerned about money and the amount of fans, but we believe we’ll get fans by just switching off from trying to attract people and just sticking to what we do.’
This certainly is a refreshing approach to hear and a long way off from massively publicised ‘manufactured’ bands of today that seem to grace the radio stations, TV channels, magazines and whatever else on a near constant basis.
Whilst speaking to the band it is clear that Matt has fitted in perfectly since replacing Justin as drummer. Matt doesn’t like us talking about it but for a moment Ritzy gets a little bit sentimental: ‘It would have been so easy to have not got this extra level of dynamic from anyone else. Matt is crazier and more surreal than anyone of us but I can’t imagine anyone else having joined us…it’s just been so easy and natural.’
The strong relationship that is present between Ritzy, Rhydian, Matt and manager Joel is a stark contrast from what Ritzy and Rhydian went through in previous band Tricky Nixon. The conversation takes a bit of a different tone when talking about Tricky Nixon – evidently it really was a difficult time for the both of them.
Rhydian explains, ‘Ritzy was the latecomer to the band so she wasn’t involved with the writing, but over time it became clear that neither of us were happy with the situation. Basically, the drummer in that band was a very controlling character, and was obsessed with Ritzy so the whole thing disintegrated. Ritzy and me felt a connection but because she joined late it was a really difficult dynamic. It became evident that we needed to do it ourselves, and it became clear through his actions of violence that we had to screen ourselves from him and move back to Wales. We almost had to get an injunction against him, but looking back on it now it was so obvious we should have got out before we did.’
Usuallly quiet on the subject of Tricky Nixon, Ritzy adds ‘We can see the injustice now, but it wasn’t really clear when we were actually in the situation. In the long term I guess it’s been good for us and it definitely helped us to mature’. Rhydian makes it clear that that is all in the past now, ‘Yeah, we’re quite controlling about things now and we’d never let ourselves get in that situation again. We won’t be fucked about anymore.’ This sad past obviously hit Ritzy and Rhydian hard, but the clean break was what they needed and allowed them to strike up a creative writing relationship together, as well as their own personal relationship.
Rather than becoming self centred and introspective about their own music, TJF get excited talking about discovering new bands, and have had some stellar support. Not confining themselves to scenes, like their own music, I get the feeling that their iPod playlists border on exploratory.
‘I don’t like the side of things now where there just seems to be so many scenes. It’s evident from the path we’ve taken that we’re not concerned about being part of a new scene, we just get on with it. People keep telling us that they have problems trying to fit us in a genre, but that’s a compliment to us because all of our favourite artists are dynamic’ states Rhydian.
Matt follows on with his thoughts, explaining that ‘We really don’t like labels. categories or labels. Why do people need them? Surely music itself is enough of a genre!’
Last year TJF released a mini-album entitled ‘A Balloon Called Moaning’ which was intended as a snapshot of their material ahead of the release of an album in 2010.
‘We try not to be orthodox. It’s good to be different and creative in the way that we record and the way we put material out there. I guess we’re against doing the usual!’ So how do they think that their new album will differ from A Balloon Called Moaning?
‘ABCM has a particular feel about it and I don’t think that the new album will be a massive change from it but I think it will be a bit more dynamic. That’s the way I feel about it anyway,’ states Rhydian. Ritzy has a similar view ‘ABCM was pre-Matt and he has brought a lot to the band and I hope the new album will capture that. With the new album I don’t want a massive change either, just a natural progression. There will be some overlap with the new album and ABCM. It was for the fans so that they could have something substantial and the new album will be an extension of that, but there will be a little bit of a twist and a few changes’.
With the full length album in the pipeline the future is looking good for The Joy Formidable, maybe it won’t be too long until North Wales is known for a band of its own…

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