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Rhys tells all about solo album number seven
All photos: Mark James
It was, as they say, a different time. Back in October 2018,
Gruff Rhystook his band on a three week tour of California. Their mission was to knock a series of songs that Rhys – sometime
Super Furry Animals frontman, sometime solo artist – had penned into shape before heading into the studio.
“We had three weeks before recording when we were doing gigs every night and trying out the sounds live and rehearsing them in soundchecks and things,” he recalls, looking back on this time from his front room back in Wales towards the end of lockdown number three. “It’s something that would be difficult to get into that kind of shape during lockdown.“
Tired of writing about himself, the songs on Gruff Rhys’ seventh solo album were all inspired by events relating to North Korean volcano Mount Paektu. Recorded with the same band that featured on 2018’s
Babelsberg, it was put together as they toured America. On their drive, it evolved into more of a West Coast road album, with the volcano becoming a metaphor for Rhys himself and the times we’re living through.
There are vague references to
“the constant rumble” and
“looking for truth and wisdom” but it isn’t an overtly political album. Allusive rather than specific, it comfortably sits within his solo and Super Furry Animals back catalogue. ‘Loan Your Loneliness’ and ‘Can’t Carry On’, in particular, are as concise and pop-orientated as he’s ever been, with their stomping psych influences and soft-rock harmonies.
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