Jaydon Martin speaks with Super Furry Animals’ guitarist Huw Bunford, and keyboard player Cian Ciarán about the remastering of Fuzzy Logic, playing their first two records back to back, and the secret to the group’s longevity.
Since their debut album Fuzzy Logic 20 years ago, Super Furry Animals have become a firm Welsh and international favourite, with a creative pace and range that could be argued to match the Beatles. As part of the Cool Cymru wave, the group helped to put Welsh, and Welsh language, music on the map, and have continued to create psychedelia laced music that playfully dances around the boundaries of pop. Celebrating this important 20th anniversary, the group will be on tour playing Fuzzy Logic and the successive album Radiator back to back, with the last night of the tour being in Cardiff. “It’s not something we’ve done as a band before, playing the albums back to back. Some of the songs we haven’t played in a while, so it’s like going back to school. There’s a load of homework involved,” Cian laughs in a studio alongside fellow Super Furry guitarist Huw Bunford.
“Like Cian said it’s a bit like going back to school,” Huw agrees. “We knew the singles. When you do an album, you go out and tour the album, but you kind of do the singles really. Songs like Gathering Moss and Long Gone, they were studio songs really.” Cian adds: “With certain songs, like Bass Tuned to DEAD, I don’t know if we’ve ever played them live. Probably because 20 years ago we were a bit of youthful and wanted to be more a bit more noisy, and have a laugh on stage. But now, we’re a bit more chilled out and we have the production to back songs like that up so you get in the zone more.”
They then start to discuss their reputation for playing fantastical live shows. Huw starts: “If you look at our YouTube history of playing live, I think something grows with each album. There are images for each album. We always thought that visuals were very important because, well, Gruff’s not Mick Jagger is he. We’re not the most animated bunch. I suppose we’re concentrating more on playing.” Cian adds: “You’re a product of your circumstances, I don’t really know how to say it in English.” He hesitates. “The more you progress or grow, you get these opportunities that you wouldn’t get when you were starting out. We get more financial backing now so we get to experiment more with what we can and can’t do live on stage. We’ve also met people who are on a similar wavelength, so it becomes more of a collaborative process. You don’t really have that luxury when you’re 18/19 playing the toilet circuit.”
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How do the group think circumstances have changed for young bands now? “None of us could say what it’s like starting as a young band now,” Huw stresses. “Compared to what it was when we were starting, when record companies were still funding bands to go on tour, and venues were still open. There’s so much change.” Cian agrees: “The places you can play, and opportunities are half of what they used to be. Where we are now, labels expect bands to do a lot for them. These days they do all the groundwork.”
Huw then reflects on the early years: “The first years, we didn’t even have time to reflect on how crummy the venues were. You’re so amazed that you’re doing something. I can’t believe that people were buying tickets to see us. We embraced it. You have to embrace something like that, you know how lucky you are.” “That’s what we wanted,” Cian adds, “The majority of people don’t write music to put on the shelf and forget about it. They want to share it and play it live and have fun while they’re doing it. Some venues probably we’ll never visit again, and there’s towns we’ll never visit again, like Falmouth, Exeter, Derby, and Hull. We played Hull once, and they left a note on the drum stool saying ‘don’t ever play Hull again cunts’.” “True. I didn’t think we were that bad,” Huw laughs.
The group are well known for their psychedelic artistic collaborations with Pete Fowler, whose style immediately attracted the Super Furry Animals. “We first were aware of Pete Fowler’s work when we just came back from Tokyo, and we were sitting in a meeting and there was a magazine on the coffee table, I think it was actually Buzz Magazine, so there you are, it comes full circle,” laughed Huw. “There was some of Pete Fowler’s artwork on the back, it just reminded us of Japanese style art. So we thought ‘who is this Pete Fowler’? Cian continues: “I think we were lucky, he’s a Cardiff boy on a similar wavelength, and the artwork and the music complimented each other. The relationship grew over 20 years and it’s still growing. We’re lucky because that doesn’t happen very often. It was a no brainer. With every album, we’d pick up the phone and say are you up for doing the artwork again. There was never any scratching of heads. It was usually last minute though”
“I think it also coincided with us not wanting to appear in our videos either and to use animations instead,” explains Huw. “It just looked so traditional. The classic band in the studio. We tried it more than we care to remember. There were some good ones, Golden Retriever’s good. We decided to do with Pete Fowler with, I think it was Hello Sunshine. It was great I could actually sit and watch one of our videos without going ‘NO!’”
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What’s next for the group? Cian says: “The last gig of the year is in Cardiff. I still call it the CIA. After that it’s a bit of downtime after 18-20 months of touring. No one in the band has stopped working either as individuals or in collaborations. We just haven’t released music under the name Super Furry Animals. I’m also working with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales on Fri 4 Nov. Everyone’s still out putting music, still working, still writing, and producing for other bands. It’s been like that since day one. It’s just a question of whether it manifests itself as a Furries record.”
After 20 years, and still creating music together and delighting fans across Wales and the rest of the world, what’s the secret to the group’s longevity? Cian responds: “Don’t take yourself too seriously. Don’t be too far up your own arse. We grew up together and know each other well. Luck, and right time, right place, and being friends first. Just luck of the draw I guess.” Huw agrees: “There’s no magic wand really. Just be polite and respect everybody else.”
Super Furry Animals, Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Fri 2 Dec. Tickets: £30. Info: 019 7062 3232 / www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk; Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff. Sat 17 Dec. Tickets: £35.70. Info: 029 2023 4500 / www.motorpointarenacardiff.co.uk; Fuzzy Logic, out Fri 4 Nov. Info: www.superfurry.com
