Formed in their native Wales in the early 1990s, the Super Furry Animals were signed to Creation Records in 1995 by label head Alan McGee after seeing the band at the Camden Monarch club. He famously asked the band if they would sing more songs in English, only to be informed by the band that every song in their set that night had indeed been sung in English. Not the type of people to let their Welsh accents stand in their way, the band have since gone on to enjoy a distinguished career that can only turn their contemporaries green with envy – eight studio albums, critical acclaim and a fervent fanbase. They’ve recorded with Sir Paul McCartney after a chance meeting in the bathroom of an awards ceremony, toured in 5.1 surround sound, been recognized in the Welsh parliament for their contributions to Welsh culture, turned a new generation onto Howard Marks and Bill Hicks, and released a single that sampled Steely Dan and said the word “Fuck” over 50 times. Tuesday saw the U.S. release of their latest effort, Hey Venus!, and the band started a month long U.S. tour Wednesday in Hoboken. They will take the stage at the 9:30 Club on Sunday with the Fiery Furnaces and Holy Fuck. We spoke to bass player and footie fan extraordinaire Guto Pryce about the tour, Lee Perry and the shocking revelation that major labels aren’t evil.
So are you still recovering from your New Year’s show?
Yeah, kinda. It’s that weird time of year, that lull where nothing really happens, right?
Over here we call that lull “The NFL Playoffs.” Is it football season over there right now?
Oh yeah. It’s raining, it’s full-on football season right now.
Have you been to any games lately?
No, I’ve missed loads because we’ve been on tour, but I’ve got one tomorrow.
I wanted to start off by talking about the new record, Hey Venus! Would you be offended if I called it “a return to form?”
No, I’m not offended. People say so many different things to us now, like what you’ve just said or people will say it’s not as experimental as our other records. So I’m not sure what our form is really.
Love Kraft was a bit of a departure for the band because everyone contributed to the songwriting. But this record reminds me of the unbridled energy of your first two records, Fuzzy Logic and Radiator.
One thing about this record is the songs were chosen because they were pretty direct and they were quite poppy and short. We knew what we wanted to do before we went into the studio. We had played the songs loads and just wanted to record them live. In the past we’ve sort of kept things open and had the luxury of time to pontificate and experiment and do vast soundscapes. But this time we had three weeks and we wanted to finish an album in three weeks.
