The Joy Formidable

0:00Good? Yeah. Apart from Ritzy, she... Did she live under the weather? Well, she's not doing well at all really. She had really, really high blood pressure. Oh, shit. I figured that she's like, you know, where's the real cool kind of thing. No, no, like, she was gonna feign on stage last night. So the first time we've ever had to cancel a show like mid-gig. She's about to wear her hair. And she's not 100% tonight. So I'm hoping... We have to get... Because she went to the hospital, so we have to get someone out every couple of days to check her blood pressure and see if everything's okay. Wow. But it's not. Yeah. Which is a bit of a problem. I don't know if they can write about this or not. But like, how does it work being Welsh? Like, can you get health insurance in the States?

0:46Like, how does that happen? You go to the doctor? No, it's all the case of travel insurance. Yeah. You can claim a certain amount back when you're back home in the UK, you know. That applies to everybody in the UK, I think, doesn't it? Yeah. I think we've got like a business issue of like travel with you. Right. So I don't... I'm not so sure what the internet's announced, that particular conjurement is all over. No, I'm just curious. So just because of the Canadian, it makes things difficult to go down there too. And if something happens, it will help you feel it's better. That's horrible. Yeah, it was too. Yeah. You know, we hate, hate comes from shows as well. Yeah, sure. But can't have someone having a heart attack. No, no more important notes.

1:32That's... Although the show will go down into me. But there's a bad joke. I'm a bit away to go. But you guys have been on the road for quite some time. Like, this is a... Not many bands will do like five months in a row without breaks. That's crazy. Yeah, and it's kind of... We've got a couple weeks off and then straight to festival season and more tours. It's always been like that, to be honest with you, at this point. Really? Yeah. You know, big part of the band's history. You know, and we do like touring, so it's never, you know, God, this again, and exhausting and stuff. So it's all good, man. It's a great, honest way of getting to see fans and building things up properly, I think. Absolutely. And noticing things build gradually, I guess, as the years have been.

2:20Yes. Yeah. I mean, that's how we started as well. You know, it wasn't much backing or hype or any bullshit, really. It was going out and doing a shitload of shows and, you know, you don't always see that with new bands now. You know, somebody like a very good at playing the game, the signed game, and only have a couple of gigs under their belts and they're straight into the limelight. I think that's not right somehow, you know. If you go to what you do, you go to what you do, you know. But I think there's also a craft to playing live that you inevitably kind of perfect. And you get better and better as you do hundreds and hundreds of gigs, you know.

3:05And I think you can sniff that out when you're going to see a great live act, you know. I'm glad you say that because the muse dates recently, I guess not recently, but recently enough, must have been very, because, I mean, you guys play rooms like this. I don't want to say this is an intimate venue, but it means a great room. But the stadium thing with muse is a whole different ball game, especially for a band that's a three piece and is trying to fill a room that big, right? So how different is creating for an arena? How do you need to tailor the setlist to certain songs where better certain songs not fill a room as much? Well, I think we're belligerent fuckers. You know, we just go out now and play the same anyway and kind of accept the consequences, you know. So we don't really cater for any style audience, so it's just Mrs. Osen, like it or lump it, you know.

3:55I mean, I think the songs that we write are generally inclusive in people anyway, but we never really kind of go up there and perform, and there's a boundary between us and the audience. And more than the shape of the room and the size of the room and that kind of thing. Yeah, but that kind of ties into that for me as well, because like, you sound and what you're talking about and the kind of attitude that you have on stage is like we're all a collective, and that applies to any size room, I think, you know. Because, you know, we always say that a great live artist can actually make stadiums feel really intimate anyway, you know. So it's all pretty, you know, same.

4:41What have you learned as touring musicians that allow you to be able to do that, to make a stadium feel like an experiment? So have that connection with people, treat people like they are there, and you want to have a conversation, and lay yourself go as well in ambitions, you know. I think you've got to have that unrelenting belief in yourself, which allows you to be confident to have the quiet moments and also encourage people to get involved. I don't know. A little bit hard to describe, you know. No, I just want to say, I know that's not an easy question to answer though. You're being very quiet. Yeah, I don't like touring. No. Well, I mean, I'm going to throw some edge right now. Ritzy says the record is about feeling reinvigorated. Do you feel that it would be too?

5:28It depends on what day it is really, you know. It's raining and cold. If I was outside naked, perhaps I'd feel reinvigorated. Is that what you need? Maybe you should let loose. Yeah, maybe I should. But I might get arrested and then that would be the invigoration over. Good father for a song though, arrested onto her. Running naked, arrested onto her. Make it in the rain, arrested onto her. It's not that catchy. No. You can rework things. You're the hero. That could be the lyrics. Yours of youth. But the song could be called the daisings or something. Throw people off. Yeah. That's great. And now you know why I don't talk.

6:15No man, I've seen you in an interview. I wish we had the cameras because they'd be good. But there's a Welsh quote. They got some vinyl sitting over there. They won't just sign after. But there's a Welsh quote like, I think it's Welsh. I assume it's Welsh. In the liner notes. Yeah. What does it say? Because I don't understand Welsh. He says, and what does it mean? Without loss, there is no hope. Without hope, there isn't a smile. Without a smile. There isn't love. Without love, there is no loss. It's just a cyclical. That kind of runs through some of the themes on the album. And that encouragement for people to ultimately still feel something and not just put up. Yeah. The album I think is a bit of a fall into arms in that respect. It's our choice.

7:03There is always a tomorrow. It's almost a Welsh icon. Really? Yeah. Haikou, man. I like how it's word haiku. You guys are writing a Welsh EP. Is this true? Yeah, that's something that I'm working on. Yeah. I mean, we don't really stop writing. You know, we've got material already for whatever the next release would be. The record's only been at like three months for months. I know. Well, you know, I think it's just a natural thing for us to constantly write. It doesn't feel right to... It's not just this thing that you switch off. You know, it's got ideas. Yeah, it's quite funny how people are always surprised. Oh, yeah. Pretty much just written another album.

7:49And I'll be like, what? Well, because I talked to a lot of bands and a lot of people say they can't write on the road. Which is what I find very interesting. Some people can do it, some people can't. Like, so I guess you guys are very open when it comes to, I guess, picking up a guitar or whatever. Or are you starting to beat on the boss or something and everyone's being like, let's go. Yeah, exactly. I find it weird that people can't. It's suppose it depends how you write. Well, I thought I was going to be my next question. If you're a band that needs every single member on stage to write, that can maybe be a bit difficult because all you've got is soundcheck time and it can feel that we're pressured. But, you know, what we've written in a multitude of ways, you know, me and acoustic and myself, working on a drum beat and sort of fleshing around that. Same with Ritzy, all this together, you know.

8:36I think it's nice to be able to do it in different ways. But yeah, I would feel really kind of criss-tag-genated if you had to, the only time you would write it is when you were off the road. Off the road, we never off the road. We never off the road anyway. We'd be flucked. One song a year, you know. I was talking to, in this actually sitting on this couch, Scott from Fright and Rabbit a couple of weeks ago. And he was saying that the touring lift, so it was very military-esque. Like it's very regimented up, up, up, and everything is a thing. And then you get home and you don't really know what to do with yourselves. Yeah. So have you experienced that yet? Have you gotten home for a period of time and been like, oh shit, this is different now? Yeah. It's not what it used to be. There's definitely been times at home where after a little while you're itching to get back on the road,

9:25I think because we talk so much, it is actually nice to get that contrast and go home to your family or your girlfriend or whatever. And that's actually something that we really enjoy whether we don't even think about it. But after a while, because touring has been such a big part of the band, I do think it kind of feels like it doesn't feel right to not be playing a show now. You know, you're kind of conditioned as opposed to the same with anything. You're so busy and you're like, there's so much stuff going on and then suddenly there's nothing. Yeah. You're just like, what am I doing? Yeah. Look, one big break that we had that I was off for it, you're doing it right in a way.

10:14I actually tried to get a job as like a filing clerk just to fill my day because I was so bored. I was just like, I'm going to go and do some filing. That'll do. That'll fill in my day. I'm feeling it. Yeah. Just anything. I was trying to like, I was like, anything I could get a job for. I was like, maybe I'll go and do this just like a nine to five, just for a little bit. Just take some time. I didn't have time in here and I had to rehearse. So just like. That kind of, that was like one week and then I was like, one week. Actually, actually I've got to, I've got to learn all these jump parts. So maybe I should just do that instead. So it didn't get to file anything in the end. It's like talking about learning these drum parts. So when you guys toured the last record, I assumed the shows would have been just the record, right?

11:03Because you only had the one record out and a couple of VPs and whatnot. But now that you have this new record out, how the set list changed. Well, you know, we had an 8-track EP and a whole bunch of singles and spot releases before the Big War as well. So there is quite a lot of material there all together. And we do like to swap it up as well, you know, play tracks that far and off either record. Real challenge to the real fans. And keep people on their toes as well, expose people to songs that maybe they haven't heard before. And, you know, I know some bands that, especially early on in their careers, they don't do that so much. But because everything is about capitalizing them up. Yeah, sure. But I don't know. I think we always think long-term with this band.

11:51And we like to separate the kind of men from the boys, if you like. You know, we want people there because they want to be there, not because they've heard one song on the radio, you know. Right. So do you see that in the audience? When you're on stage, do you notice that? Yeah. And if people are just thinking that one too, then kind of- Oh, no. Well, do we get that? No, not so much. No, we've got a pretty fucking hardcore loyal fanbase, you know. I think some of that comes from the way we've gotten out there. That thing of doing a lot of shows and people talk to you rather than too much kind of media hype or anything like that. You know, people want to be there because they want to be there. One writing songs about interesting topics too. Like reading, like, I don't know if I want to get it to tendons. Or if you want to get to tendons rather.

12:36But I find that a very interesting topic to choose. I don't know if you're together, if you're not together, if you were together, what it is, but like- We were together. To sit down and write a song like that. It's got to be difficult for both of you to do. Well, at the time we were together, but I think it just- Things flow out of you naturally, you know. It's- We kind of felt it via inevitability maybe of what we're doing, eating away our romantic relationship. Because there's certainly a type of friendship there. It's always been about the music, you know. But yeah, it wasn't too kind of overthought. I think it's just- It also is a celebration of that friendship as well, you know. And the songs on the album, I celebrate, start with all three of us.

13:23It's a really special dynamic that we don't take lightly. We've had to look to ourselves, you know, to get through a lot of our experiences. We certainly haven't always had the support, you know. So it strengthens you. We're fucking- We feel very lucky and very strong. What's one of those songs that's about the three of you? Little Blim. It's definitely one of them. Okay. Cool. You want to give a little background into writing that one then? Erm, coming up with that one, how'd that one go? Well, Ritzy wrote the lyrics to it, so she probably would be able to explain it. She typically wrote lyrics? No, not really. I mean, maybe the majority of it on this album, but the songs where it's just me, and the songs where it's together as well.

14:10Yeah, again, mixing it up, you know. But with her being the singer, and she writes great lyrics to anyone, so she's certainly a big force in terms of the lyric writing. Okay, it's a little blim, sorry. Er, yeah, I was saying that she wrote that so- Oh, right, so you can't answer it, that's why we're the other way. In terms of big detail, yeah, but, you know, we'll write this, we'll write this easily. You know, it's kind of like this feeling of elevation from unity, you know. And yeah, that's how, like I was saying, that's how we felt, you know. I don't know how much time we have here, but Canada had a little effect on the record, too.

14:58Carl Ray paintings here in Toronto, music anthropology in Vancouver. So, okay, so you were talking, I can't remember who was talking about those things in an interview, but what was it about either the paintings here or the museum in Vancouver that inspired you to write? Well, I don't know that we're definitely creatures of nature, and we grew up, you know, with a- being fascinated by a kind of mythological stuff, folklore, stories that tie into history as well. I mean, you know, we're big fans of that stuff, and I think, I mean, Ritice, first of all, most came across Carl Ray's paintings and was totally taken by them.

15:44You know, they just talk a lot about nature and the cycles of nature, and we took a bit of that on the album and how, you know, it's easy to lose touch with that. And yeah, just such a evocative kind of symbols as well, you know, that animals and so forth being almost like metaphors or symbols for personal things that are going on in your life and what's important and stuff that just really kind of picturesque, really evocative paintings, you know, that I think we sometimes view the songs like that, you know, that, I mean, always done our own artwork and we've always done our videos and stuff.

16:30I mean, yeah, we've worked with Collaborated as well, but we kind of do see the songs very often as an extension of that, you know, like this one huge picture and how it all ties in into this, you know, big painting somehow. Do you write with videos in mind ever knowing that there's going to be a visual to go along with it? Definitely have visuals in mind, yeah, that have ended up on artwork or videos, whatever. I mean, very often, you know, when I was drawing kind of covers for our single or albums or whatever, Ritzy was with me, you know, jamming those ideas and what's going on in their ex, so it's not a separate thing.

17:16Yeah, they have to speak the same kind of language. Cool, I'm going to let you guys go, see if you're getting bored over here. I'm just kidding. I'm just looking for back then. So five good questions, one word answers. You can both answer. Roto Studio. Yes. See, I knew you were fun. Yeah, I really can't choose that. No, I'm going to go over some of them. Leonard and McCartney. I ask everyone this. I'm going to call it. I can't choose that. I know how I'm going to be decisive. When you hear a song that usually hits you first, lyrics, melody, or rhythm. You can at least give me one word answers.

18:07I'll say melody, but it really depends. It really depends. If the song's got like a shit rhythm, you're not going to be picking that out. Oh, you do look at that lyrics amusing. Song you've written your most proud of. I'll say today, the ever-jones inspection with a lie. I would go with that one too, probably. Cool. Although you seem kind of sort of... No, I recently wrote this other song called Crackers and Cheese.

18:54That's what it looks like. That's a title. Daisy's and Crackers and Cheese. You got to get some good text. In one word. Enjoy formidable. Or follow me dabbler. I don't know. I like follow me dabbler. Real's good. Cheese or Crackers? Definitely cheese. You're going to get what cheese for that? I'll go with cheese. I'll go with cheese. Oh, I'm going with cheese. I said everything I want to go with.