Rhys’ late father, Ioan Bowen Rees, is regarded as one of his country’s leading political thinkers – a prominent voice for local democracy in Wales. The influence of his father may not have been direct, but it was inevitable that some of his philosophical and political ideas would influence Rhys. “Sometimes it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how… when I was growing up, he was always feeding me propaganda of some kind. I did pick up on at least some of his beliefs. But he wasn’t into melodic pop music … so in that sense, he definitely didn’t see that coming,” Rhys chuckles.
Over the past 15 years, Rhys has been creating what he describes as “melodic mayhem”. Alongside Super Furry Animals’ nine albums thus far, Rhys has released three solo albums and collaborated with various musicians including Boom Bip (with acclaimed side-project Neon Neon), Gorillaz, De La Soul, Mogwai, Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and Simian Mobile Disco.
For his third solo album Hotel Shampoo, Rhys’ initial plan was to record an album of piano ballads, but it was a plan that inevitably evolved into an adventurous and multi-faceted composition. The album title comes from Rhys’ vast collection of shampoo bottles and hotel products, which he hoarded while touring – the oldest item of his collection dates back 15 years. Essentially, Hotel Shampoo is “a piano and saxophone-based album about random moments from the past 15 years.”
Rhys also created an art installation as part of the Hotel Shampoo project by constructing a miniature hotel out of the collated products. “It was quite a shock,” asserts Rhys in reflecting on the sheer quantity of products. “When you’re touring in this age – I’m used to touring in vans and staying in people’s houses, but when you’re working with promoters and staying in hotels and given all this free stuff, at the time it was very exciting and it seems a very privileged existence. I kept them as souvenirs and I thought I’d build something out of them as a monument to our disposable society.”
Rhys says that these items havebecome akin to diary entries. “It triggers memories – I suppose songs do the same – and it helps you make sense of the past,” Rhys muses. “Coming across all these different people – not necessarily talking to them, even – just watching how other people live,” he laughs. “Most of the time, I live an incredibly normal life. So when I go on tour, sometimes it’s sort of hyper-real.”
Hotel Shampoo ‘s first single, Shark Ridden Waters, is accompanied by a Peter Gray-directed video starring French actor Roxane Mesquida. “I was interested in social networking and how people lead different lives simultaneously,” Rhys relates. “And I wanted to try and set social networking in the 1960s – how the Smartphone would look in the ’60s – so I wanted it to look like a Godard movie. I wanted to do it in France with French actors and Peter found this cast and turned it into a crazy, crazy video,” he laughs, “that I could never have imagined.”
Conservation Conversation deals with Rhys’ “frustration with the way the conservative government in the UK high-jacked the Green campaign and the frustrations of the environmentally-friendly political party”. Meanwhile, colonisation is addressed is Christopher Columbus whereas Patterns Of Power deals with inequality.
Rhys has always been a prolific songwriter, which has resulted in frequent releases from Super Furry Animals. SFA have always been an unpredictable and exciting alt-rock collective. Introducing themselves with the fuzz workouts and lush pop harmonies of their 1996 debut Fuzzy Logic, the quintet’s sound became more warped and psychedelic with its follow-up Radiator, and increasingly eclectic with the genre-bending Guerilla. Since then, they’ve experimented with just about every genre under the sun including ’80s electro/funk, psychedelia, trip-hop, experimental rock, punk, jazz, drum ‘n’ bass, calypso and other exotic musical styles. The Super Furries even released a Welsh album in 2000, and a year later unveiled their most experimental album with Rings Around The World.
Whilst SFA’s eighth album, Hey Venus, was one of the group’s most conventional releases in terms of both composition and production, the writing and recording of their ninth studio album Dark Days/Light Years was deliberately contrary in its jam and computer-based approach. Completed in a 40-day period with no breaks, the album was as grand and playful as it was intricate and deftly executed. Since the highly-anticipated follow-up to Dark Days/Light Years will be SFA’s tenth album, Rhys has decided to – uncharacteristically – take his time with it.
“I think we’re trying to become more of a ‘normal’ band and take a few years off between albums, and let people catch up on our back catalogue,” he grins. “The tenth album seems significant, so our next album will be very over-ambitious. Hopefully, we can come back with a crazy, multi-media extravaganza.”
