{"id":9335,"date":"2013-04-01T14:59:27","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T21:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=9335"},"modified":"2013-04-01T14:59:27","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T21:59:27","slug":"the-joy-formidable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2013\/04\/the-joy-formidable\/","title":{"rendered":"THE JOY FORMIDABLE"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9336\" alt=\"THE-JOY-FORMIDABLE-Issue-No25\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/THE-JOY-FORMIDABLE-Issue-No25.jpg\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/THE-JOY-FORMIDABLE-Issue-No25.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/THE-JOY-FORMIDABLE-Issue-No25-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/h1>\n<h1>THE JOY FORMIDABLE<\/h1>\n<p><b>The ambitious indie rockers explore a bolder, broader range of textures\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>After spending years refining their debut album, Welsh rockers the Joy Formidable wrote their follow-up, <i>Wolf\u2019s Law<\/i>, on a much shorter timeline. Though the writing process started off in a familiar place, they didn\u2019t let that limit them. \u201cWe went back to the basics of songwriting, which was me and Ritzy with a guitar, jamming vocal ideas over it, or one of us playing piano and singing along,\u201d says Rhydian Dafydd, who plays bass and co-writes songs with frontwoman Ritzy Bryan.<\/p>\n<p>The band emphasized lyrics, with song topics ranging from the story of Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai to more personal matters, like the loss of people close to them\u2014including Bryan\u2019s grandfather\u2014during the recording of the album. \u201cWe\u2019ve always been a lyrical band, but this brought a nakedness to the songwriting process,\u201d says Dafydd.<\/p>\n<p>Known for a blistering alt-rock sound, the band varied the pallet of <i>Wolf\u2019s Law<\/i> by incorporating fewer rock instruments. \u201cWe really enjoyed experimenting with instruments,\u201d says Dafydd. \u201cThere\u2019s a harp, timpani and Chinese drums\u2014not for the sake of being excessive; we just enjoy being playful with sounds.\u201d The band also wrote their string arrangements, a first after the guitar-bass-drum instrumentation on their debut, <i>The Big Roar<\/i>. \u201cRitzy and I have a bit of a classical background, but we\u2019re very much self-taught. As long as you\u2019ve got a good ear, piecing together any composition is a beautiful challenge. If you can hear the notes and know what timbre you want, then it\u2019s absolutely possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More than possible for a band that\u2019s hands-on in every step of the creative process\u2014including producing their own records. It\u2019s not about being precious; we just know what we want the records to sound like,\u201d says Dafydd. Still, they brought in an outsider to help them with the mixing process. \u201cWe definitely needed an extra pair of ears when it came to mixing the record. That\u2019s where Andy Wallace came in,\u201d says Dafydd. \u201cHe understands what you\u2019re trying to do on a musical level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The band is on a mission to grow. \u201cThe key thing for us is not to have this formula to repeat on every album. That would be just boring,\u201d says Dafydd.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013Amanda Farah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE JOY FORMIDABLE The ambitious indie rockers explore a bolder, broader range of textures\u00a0 After spending years refining their debut album, Welsh rockers the Joy Formidable wrote their follow-up, Wolf\u2019s Law, on a much shorter timeline. Though the writing process started off in a familiar place, they didn\u2019t let that limit them. \u201cWe went back [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[6231,6236,6233,6232,6234,6230,6235,5975],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9337,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9335\/revisions\/9337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}