GRUFF RHYS | INTERVIEW
Always good to receive new product from Wales’ foremost pop alchemist, and Gruff Rhys delivers this month with Seeking New Gods, his seventh solo album. Beginning life as a sonic biography of a Korean mountain – and why not? – it evolved into something bigger and odder, as he tells Carl Marsh.
Seeking New Gods finds you partnering with the BBC’s Research & Development department, using their audio orchestra technology. What’s the story behind this?
Well, I’ve been working on a long-term project where I have been looking into ways of creating events that give the listener a feeling that they’re transported into a different outdoor space, even if they’re at home. The technology’s amazing, yet it’s very simple – people can connect to it with smartphones/devices. If you have a Wi-Fi signal, you could get together four devices with family or friends – if it’s allowed – and you get a QR code on your main device. Then if you point the other devices at the QR code, each device is assigned a different signal. And you can create a surround sound version of the new record, wherever you are. By placing the devices around you, you can dictate how you want to experience it.
It’s a bit further than stereo as you’ll hear a lot more things that you can’t in a stereo signal, as there is more detail. I think we’re going to experiment so that it would work with up to 20 devices, but if you only have four, it will still be a complete experience. We’ll be putting some more sophisticated things in there that people can try if they have the ability, but it’s going to be something easy to set up: accessible, yet still bonkers and fun.
Pushing the boundaries of how your audiences hear music has always been something you have been interested in; where does it stem from?
It’s interesting to me. Obviously, with Super Furry Animals, Cian Ciaran has always been really important in driving many of those experiments, with the albums mixed in 5.1 surround sound. When I was growing up, I’d see shows by people like Tackhead Sound System and a lot of events that worked with surround sound, which has always been an element of club culture. Weirdly, for some reason, it’s not integral to songwriting and band culture, for want of a better word. There’s more emphasis on audio in cinema and dance music than there is in the world of recorded music, which is weird.
With your latest album Seeking New Gods, I guess if anyone were to read some of the tracks’ titles, they might think Gruff’s gone all spiritual or religious…
[Laughs] It started off where I was going to do a biographical record about a mountain called Mount Paektu in Korea, and the songs would have dates and facts and stuff in it. But those songs didn’t sound so good. The new songs were written as if I was the mountain which connected much better, emotionally, and I went down that kind of abstract route.
So, yeah, the inspiration for it was a story around a mountain. But by the time I’d finished it, it was autobiographical. I finished the album before the pandemic – finished mixing it and everything. The only thing I could control, in terms of engaging with the current moment, was with the title. So I took the title of one of the songs as it just about looks to be about the time we’re living through…
Did you write this album of songs for yourself as an escape then, primarily, rather than for the fans?
I never take any listeners for granted, you know. With the songs I write, it’s because, for some reason, I enjoy writing songs. And, you know, I’m not very quick on my feet, in terms of daily life, and songwriting is a suitable medium for me because I can take a lot of time over it and think about the words and take the time to piece them together. So I write them for myself. It was almost two years from finishing it to releasing it. So, that’s quite unusual.
Seeking New Gods is out now on Rough Trade. Info: www.gruffrhys.com
The BBC Taster Seeking New Gods listening experience also launches on Fri 21 May and can be found here.
words CARL MARSH
