Breaking the Mold: The Joy Formidable open up

'We shoot down hecklers carefully placed wit and sarcasm!'

Ones To Watch doesn’t quite cut it when it comes to Welsh destroyers The Joy Formidable. The trio have just spent the last 30 minutes assaulting the stage at the grubby, old Vindicat venue in the centre of Gronigen in the Netherlands. If they don’t go down for it, the performance has Chinese-burned VF into submission, giving us second thoughts about changing the name of our emerging bands section to Ones Not To Miss in 2011.

Live, it’s pretty daunting stuff: mad gazing eyes from frontwoman Ritzy Bryan that could hypnotise The Demon Headmaster, thrashing perpetual motion on the drums by Matt Thomas and head-nods and bass smashing antics from Rhydian Dafydd. It’s real rock and roll.

But as they enjoy some post-gig drinks in a bustling Dutch bar, there is one thing even more frightening than all of it: mention of the Vengaboys. We’re talking about albums to fall in love to, when Dafydd offers the Eurodance outfit. “It's all to do with memories,” he says before grabbing at some sort of defence. “I think when you really feel for someone it can be even the cheesiest thing. I mean I fell in love to the Vengaboys. ‘Boom, boom, boom, boom. I want you in my room.’”

And that’s what’s great about them: the band present a refreshingly laidback and tongue-in-cheek vibe in interview compared with their live personas. Unlike some other acts who are so far up their own arse they’re able to wear sunglasses indoors twice, The Joy Formidable are able to differentiate between putting on a performance onstage and just being themselves off of it.

It’s clear that it’s playing live that excites them, though. “We never really get a bad crowd,” says Bryan. “I mean even the quietest crowds, some of them you think they're not enjoying it but maybe they're just shy or bewildered,” she laughs, “or they're shocked. I'm quite looking forward to the day where we get a proper cracking crowd reaction, a bit of feeling. We've not had booing. We'd like some booing.”

They’re probably not going to get their wish, but there will be plenty of opportunity for serial boo-ers to give it a go as they tour in February after the release of their début album, ‘The Big Roar’, on 24 January. They say they’re up for hecklers, too, but, as Dafydd warns: “The ones that aren't witty usually get the death stare.” Or, as Thomas nobly adds, “We shoot them down with our carefully placed wit and sarcasm.”

But what can long-term fans, who have watched the trio play from Glastonbury up to Reading and Leeds festivals, expect from the LP? Have the group managed to tie down their live show? “We certainly wanted to capture the whole dynamic that Matt's brought to the band and the really powerful drumming, so when it needs to be live, it is live,” says Dafydd, adding, “We definitely feel like we've achieved that. At the same time, it’s got all the fragile elements, so it’s quite different to the live side.”

“It's different to being on tour,” Bryan explains about their studio time. “We wanted to stand up in our own way. To be able to make an album you have to layer it and give it a synthetic feel.”

Dedicated fans will notice that three tracks survive from their first mini-album, ‘A Balloon Called Moaning’, including live favourites ‘Austere’ and ‘Cradle’. “We wanted to keep them on there because they still feel relevant,” says Bryan. “When you look at the background of the mini album, there are very similar themes.”

“I think you’re always striving for development as an artist; even now we’re thinking of ideas for the next album,” Dafydd chips in. “It's always nice to just keep on writing. It never gets dull because even though we're doing some of the same songs, they are interpreted slightly differently. It's the same with playing live: even though we are playing the same songs every night, we do things to make it different so that it keeps us interested and nothing gets stale.”

If these Ones To Watch become mainstream must-sees in the near future, some credit will have to go to their work rate. Since the release of their mini-album in 2009, things have been pretty hectic. “Over the two years we've been very busy,” says Bryan. “We wrote a lot of singles, we've made videos, some have just been off the cuff things.”

Things don’t look like slowing down either. “We want to do all the festivals really," says Matt. "A few more European festivals would be good.”

'The Big Roar' is set for release on 24 January 2011 and you can catch the group out on tour from February.

Head to The Joy Formidable official site for more information.

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