Super Furry Animals
POWERFULLY PLUSH
Super Furry Animals Conjure a Haunting Dreamscape on Phantom Power
They've recorded one album entirely in Welsh, had Paul McCartney guest on another -- playing assorted vegetables, no less -- and accompanied their last few releases with dizzyingly complex DVD extras that'd make Roger Waters stand up and applaud. Still, at the end of the day, Super Furry Animals seem most concerned with making pop music in its most topsy-turvy form. There are traces of Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds–era experimentation, dappled with the sort of sunshine that leaped from the grooves of countless early-'70s AM radio hits. Or, on a whim, the quintet are just as likely to burrow deep into the heart of techno territory -- or indulge Syd Barrett–style psychedelia. The Furries' latest outing, Phantom Power, exhibits all these aspects in glorious Sensurround. Frontman Gruff Rhys gave Barnes & Noble.com's David Sprague a glimpse at the ghosts in their machine.
Barnes & Noble.com: Did you intend the new album to be a step away from your last album, Rings Around the World?
Gruff Rhys: I think every album we make should be different. I get really frustrated listening to bands who release the same album over and over again and just make a career out of a particular sound. The bands that I come back to again and again are always willing to take chances, to surprise people. I think that's the most important thing to do.
B&N.com: Would you call yourselves technically minded?
GR: Technically curious, I guess. We like pressing buttons to see what they do, but we don't really understand how things work. The things are there to be used -- or, as it turns out, to be broken.
B&N.com: "Hello Sunshine," the first song on Phantom Power, begins with what sounds like an odd sample.
GR: That was Wendy & Bonnie, from the late '60s. I'd come across the record and thought I'd like to re-create the sound for this album, but couldn't replicate it, so we ended up sampling it as an intro to the album. I like the composition of hip-hop albums. They're much more composed than rock albums, with definite intros. It's like a teaser for the album, where you almost think you've put in the wrong album with these heavenly female voices, before the nightmarish male comes in.
B&N.com: You reprise "Father, Father" in both string and horn versions. Was that the original intent?
GR: They were initially going to be bookends for the album, but they ended up being sunk in. Actually, there were three versions initially, one with strings and horns and vocals and…it was pretty excessive. It drowned itself in over-the-topness. We're aware that we're often treading on thin ice, but we don't worry about it. I'd also love to make a very minimal album, but I don't think that will ever happen. We're far too curious in the end…
B&N.com: Not a lot of bands use strings in interesting ways these days, it seems.
GR: We're not precious about things like only using real strings, although working with Sean O'Hagan from the High Llamas, he's quite a spectacular arranger. He has a crazy knowledge of chords and a very different slant, so you can give him an idea, and he'll put his own twist on it. I think people often just use strings as a token thing, so it's nice to use them in a way that's not really a standard arrangement.
B&N.com: Ever considered trying to duplicate that live?
GR: We've asked the record company for an orchestra many times, and we keep getting turned down. [laughs] Maybe we can get a quartet -- or even a quintet, if that's not too daunting. But actually, with [keyboardist] Cian [Ciaran]'s sampling power, we can do quite a lot, but it's never going to be exactly the same. We try and use the arrangements we use on the records, but there's the limitations of…well, my playing abilities, for instance.
B&N.com: You tend to do most of your recording in Cardiff. Is that an inspirational place?
GR: Where we work, we've set up a studio in a building where a lot of creative people have set up, for some reason. In terms of the views, there's bars on the window, and you can almost see the sea, but not quite. You can see the seagulls, some derelicts lying around. We have to create our own fantasy world, visually.
July 22, 2003
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