Noel Gallagher recently stated that Super Furry Animals were the best band to come out of Wales. Do you have any wild stories from the 90s involving Oasis or other Creation Records’ bands? RobJ1982
Plenty of wild stories! We were in an incredible situation, where we grew up listening to records on Creation as teenagers and then got signed by the label. I pinched myself many times. Oasis took us on tour and were generally really warm and generous to us. We had front row seats for some of the madness.
When we played the Etihad Stadium with them, they generously gave us the Manchester City home dressing room. One of our guitar techs who supports a rival team claimed to have left tiny messages for the City players all over it – the lockers, the showers, everything. I can only imagine the scenes when they came face to face with all these sarky comments.
What happened to the tank? qwertychucha
They were confiscating sound systems after the criminal justice bill [became law], so we put ours in a tank. Tanks are illegal on highways, so we had to pull in favours to park it in fields. When we took it to the [1996] Reading festival on a lorry, we got all these complaints, because it was louder than the second stage. In the end, we sold it to Don Henley from the Eagles, who collects military vehicles. He had no interest in the band and I think had the SFA logo repainted in military colours. We were hoping to have a festival on an aircraft carrier and such, but to do that we needed a platinum‑selling album.
We met backstage at Victorious festival in 2015. Now that we are best mates, can I use my influence to persuade you and the Super Furry Animals boys to record a 10th album? Maff78
It’s a decimal culture, but through no planning we only managed nine, which seems to be a friendly number for the 21st century. They fit really well on a Rubik’s Cube. I’d never say never, but there are no plans. We last reunited for a tour for the reissue of Mwng [in 2015], which was very enjoyable, but if you let it get out of hand you end up reliving the past in real time, which would be a very strange existence.
Eight years ago, you wrote a song about Brexit [I Love EU]. How have you found the time since? Hussar
It was a yes-or-no referendum and the outcomes we’re seeing now were all predicted. My sense was that the parameters for Brexit were all going to be set by the right wing. Although I’ve got a lot of time for leftwing arguments about leaving the EU, travelling around Europe was a nightmare before the Maastricht treaty and we’re back to that. I like Noam Chomsky’s take that both in and out are pretty bad situations, but if you’re offered two evils then you go for the lesser one every time.
The excellent song Bad Friend on your new album, Sadness Sets Me Free, refers to a caravan holiday on the western edge of Wales, where “it was raining, the beer was warm and the chips were wet”. Is the lyric based on real experience? VerulamiumParkRanger
Every holiday I’ve had, more or less. But the song is about how you can only take a caravan-load with you, or if you’ve got a five-a-side football team only five can play. It’s about the pressure of not being able to be there for everyone everywhere all the time. I wrote the song in 2022, but only learned the word “capacity” in 2023, which would have explained it much more simply.
Could there ever be a Euros Childs/Gruff Rhys collaboration? And do you agree he is one of the greats from the Welsh music scene? Peeby7
I agree, he’s one of the greats. I first heard Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci on Welsh language radio in 1990. We’ve played gigs together over the years, then about two years ago I was in a supergroup with Euros on Welsh language TV. We ended up jamming with the Welsh band Adwaith for 30 minutes, but it was never recorded. It’s probably still echoing in space.
Your Edinburgh fringe show a few years ago demonstrated an incredible talent for deadpan comedy. Is that an experience you’d like to revisit? DefinitelyStillAlive
I did a slideshow tour for the album American Interior and got offered a week of gigs in Edinburgh. I’ve got no interest in comedy, really. It was harrowing; all the posters with comedians staring out of them were really scary. They’re all there for a month. I felt really bad for them. It’s brutal. I enjoyed playing in one place, sometimes twice a day, but they didn’t ask me back.
Having written Neon Neon’s Stainless Style album in honour of the DeLorean, which of the vehicle’s most famous drivers are you more like: Marty McFly (resourceful, family-oriented, success-driven) or Dr Emmett Brown (dreamer, creative, a sponge for new experiences)? McScootikins
Emmett Brown sounds like a more interesting place to be, but I think maybe I’m just the car itself, just the vehicle for the songs. The wild thing about songwriting is that it makes things happen. We did gigs with all these DeLoreans parked outside, people giving us lifts in them, even DeLoreans racing down Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.
Do you remember the SFA gig at Somerset House? You played a DJ set at Corsica Studios afterwards. There were face masks of Dickie Davies on the ceiling. ginger-nick
I think it was my 38th birthday [it was his 39th]. I’ve got no memory of Dickie Davies face masks, but Andy Votel played the DJ set. It was so loud that it blew my friend’s ears. He’s still got tinnitus, 15 years later.
What was it like recording Superfast Jellyfish for Gorillaz? Are the rumours true that you secretly appear on more tracks? FurryVision8000
Damon Albarn had the bassline and he got me and a drummer to jam with him until he felt there was something happening. The next time I heard it, De La Soul were rapping on it. I’d bought their records as a teenager, so it was unbelievable. Then we did gigs where Mick Jones and Paul Simonon from the Clash were the guitarist and bass player and De La Soul were in the band. It was a surreal experience – incredible, really. Damon recorded a choir for the whole Plastic Beach album and I was in that choir, so I’m probably on a lot of songs.
I always regret never buying an SFA-sponsored Cardiff City football shirt from the 1999/00 season. However, with you being a Bangor City fan, why was it Cardiff you sponsored and not your beloved Citizens? Alsithee
When I moved from Bangor in north Wales to Cardiff in the south, to make my fortune, or something, with Super Furry Animals – I’m still trying! – there was a contingent of Bangor fans who supported Cardiff: the Bangor City Bluebirds. So I didn’t feel conflicted. Bangor were bankrupted and I’m a Cardiff season ticket holder now.
In the late 90s, there was this guy who was buying cheap ice hockey shirts from Egypt and convincing football teams that there were football shirts. So the Super Furry Animals Cardiff City shirt was actually an ice hockey shirt. We could only afford to sponsor them for the Welsh Cup. The chairman made a speech about the “five-figure deal”, but in reality it only cost us £2,000.
Mwng is my favourite SFA album, despite me not understanding Welsh. Does singing in Welsh makes your songwriting easier? Flash bleu
It’s my first language, but my favourite melodies are the ones that come with words attached, so if they come in either language I won’t change them. I’m surprised I’ve made so many English-language albums, but I’ll always do Welsh-language ones. People ask me if I dream in Welsh and I’m like: “I don’t think language is anywhere near my dreams. I don’t know what’s going on in them!”
Would you represent the UK at the 2025 Eurovision song contest? VerulamiumParkRanger
I’d maybe do it for an independent Wales, although music is meant to transcend borders. Maybe I could represent a country from eastern Europe, although their choreography is far superior to mine.
• Gruff Rhys’s new album, Sadness Sets Me Free, is released on 26 January on Rough Trade
