The Joy Formidable roaring into Birmingham
Although they are hailed as a three-piece from North Wales, rising indie stars The Joy Formidable's concert in Birmingham on Thursday night will mark something of a hometown gig for drummer Matt Thomas.
Although they are hailed as a three-piece from North Wales, rising indie stars The Joy Formidable's concert in Birmingham on Thursday night will mark something of a hometown gig for drummer Matt Thomas.
Matt, who comes from Wolverhampton, joined singer/guitarist Ritzy Bryan and bassist Rhydian Dafydd two years ago, helping them record their just released and critically acclaimed debut album The Big Roar.
"Matt's been adopted," laughs singer Ritzy, "Birmingham's always fun anyway, we're never disappointed. Matt gets a lot of friends and family down."
The band is riding high on rapturous reviews from the likes of Q magazine and The Times, with comparisons drawn to the music of Nirvana, Hole, Arcade Fire and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
But Ritzy insists there's no way to completely pin down the band's sound.
"We like being a lot of things and I don't think we ever want to limit it in a lot of respects. Obviously live we're a three-piece guitar band but the sonic ambition is far beyond that. I think we're definitely creating quite a definitive sound between us."
Although they've been together for nearly four years, it's been during the past couple, with Matt on board that The Joy Formidable have really made a name on the live circuit, touring constantly to support their A Balloon Called Moaning EP, touring the UK with Editors and Passion Pit, supporting Sir Paul McCartney at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium and playing at last year's Glastonbury and Reading and Leeds Festivals.
But despite all the positive reviews for The Big Roar, Ritzy insists: "To be honest I don't really read them. When we finished it we were very proud of it as a body of work, that's the main thing. That's the main validation, we've got no regrets. It's an album that grew over a period of a year. It chronicles that year for us. We're just happy to share it finally."
The Big Roar fully justifies its name, with a huge, widescreen production which utterly belies its humble beginnings. For it's hard to believe that epic songs like The Everchanging Spectrum Of A Lie, Buoy and the single Austere, were recorded on a home computer in Ritzy and Rhydian's flat, the couple having relocated to London to pursue their dreams.
"We've got a tiny bedroom in our little flat in south London and one corner is a computer with the mikes. I love it, the spontaneity and just being able to wake up in the middle of the night with something in your head and just capture that moment," says Ritzy.
"Things have been very spontaneous for us. We've released our music and we've had the good fortune to be able to tour the EP. We toured it around the world in parallel to actually writing The Big Roar as well.
"It's definitely been a steady build. We've never been inactive. We're constantly working, we've constantly released tracks that don't even feature on either body of work."
"I think we've had a great journey," she adds. "We don't want to have a short shelf life, we definitely want to have a career."
The Joy Formidable play Birmingham O2 Academy 2 on Thursday February 3, 2011. Tickets are £10.
