Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys has never been one to rest on his laurels. In addition to writing most of the music on the band’s nine albums, he’s released three solo albums (including this year’s dreamy Hotel Shampoo), teamed with Boom Bip to form the Mercury Music Prize nominated Neon Neon and worked with artists as diverse and Mogwai, Simian Mobile Disco, Danger Mouse, Goldie Lookin’ Chain and Gorillaz. Oh, and he co-directed and starred in his first documentary film, Separado. Whew. His latest US tour, which brings him to the Red Palace tonight, began Wednesday in New York. We talked to him late last month about his new record, how his Gorillaz collaboration almost didn’t happen and (most importantly!) what the future holds for the Super Furries.

So…Hotel Shampoo. How did this record come about? Who produced this record?

I recorded most of this record with Gorwell Owen in North Wales. Basically, the recording was a process of me visiting a load of different studios with a hard drive and me recording things into the hard drive. For example, Gorwell was painting his house, so he had loads of paint stacked up in the studio, so he said “you can make the album here, but there’s no space for drums.” So I went to London to work with Craig Silvey to work for a day, in a real big studio. He did the last Horrors record and he mixed the latest Arcade Fire album, so I could only afford to go there for a day. [laughs] A drummer called Chris Walmsley came in, he plays in a band called Voice of the Seven Thunders, and we recorded the whole album in a day, you know put down the basic drum tracks. He was incredible. He did most of the songs first take. And then I went to Gorwell’s house to overlay synthesizers and vocals.

I had a hard drive full of bits recorded with different people, so I took them all to Los Angeles for a week. I went to see Mario Caldato, who’s mixed a bunch of Super Furries stuff. So I went to see him for about a week to make it all presentable.

Were these songs that were written specifically for this record, or were these older songs that you had laying around?

Most of them were new. There’s a couple of tracks we tried to record with the Super Furries. There’s a recorded version of “Take A Sentence” by the Super Furry Animals, which is really good, but it had different lyrics and it just didn’t fit on anything, so it was kind of scrapped. It’s still really good, it’s just one of these songs, like “Beacon In The Darkness” on Candylion, just one of these songs I’d like to record. I don’t know if there’s something imperfect about them, they just didn’t make the grade. But I think they’re still worth documenting.

You’ve been in the Super Furries over 20 years now. Is it inevitable that a lead singer that’s been in a band that long is going to do a few solo records?

It’s maybe inevitable after 15 years or so. I suppose it’s quite an unusually long time for a band to be together. Very few bands stay together with the same lineup for that kind of period. We’ve done nine albums, which is quite a lot. So I think it’s inevitable that we do different things. Cian’s recorded most of his new album and the stuff I’ve heard sounds amazing. Bunf has recorded a load of things, they sound incredible.

He’s turned into quite the songwriter, huh?

Yeah! By far the best songs he’s ever written. The lyrics are incredible. And he’s really unique.

There’s only one Bunf.

[laughs] Dav’s finished the new Peth album and he’s produced another album for a friend. Both he and Cian have done two television soundtracks. Two drama series worth of music and a lot of animation music, music for TV animation. So that’s been their day jobs recently.

So it sounds like everyone’s keeping busy.

Yeah, Guto is touring with Spectrum.

You’ve also had a film, Separado, come out as well. That was something you made with [Super Furry stage lighting & video maestro] Dylan.

Yeah, it took about five years to make it. We filmed it between 2006 and 2008, and then Dylan took about three years to edit the film, because he was doing it in his downtime. We’d never made a full feature film before, it was quite a challenge. I recorded a soundtrack album as well, that I hope to release before the end of the year, or next year or something.

You were also on the last Gorillaz record. How did that come about?

They phoned me up. I was on Rough Trade at the time, so they tried to photo Rough Trade the label, but they got the number for Rough Trade the record shop instead. Which is a completely different company. But luckily a friend of mine was working in the record shop and she was able to phone me up. So I had this really weird phone call from Rough Trade record shop with someone saying “there’s someone from Gorillaz trying to get a hold of you.” So it was a weird, roundabout way. I went down to their studio for two days and we jammed and we recorded, I did some vocals and wrote some lyrics for two songs. And I was in a choir doing backup vocals on about half the album. They have a pretty amazing studio. They have an animation studio upstairs and a recording studio downstairs. It was a very ambitious record. They explained everything to me and played all the music that had been recorded, which at the time was about 3 hours of music. It was like Smile by the Beach Boys, it seemed like this infinite album. I was quite amazed when I heard it because they really edited it down to extremes.

Let’s talk about the tour for a bit. Is it just you doing solo stuff or will you have a band with you?

There’s a surf band from North Wales, Y Niwl. I’ve known some of them since we were kids. They are an amazing instrumental rock band. They are going to open the shows and then help me play my songs. I’ll do some alone as well.

After you’re done with the solo record will there be another Super Furry record?

I hope so. I think it’s inevitable. I’m not sure when, but we really need to make a tenth album. But it’s been great getting some breathing space. I can’t imagine not doing another Super Furry Animals record. That would be terrible! [laughs]

The only thing that would be worse is if you did do one and didn’t tour the U.S. again. We never got a proper tour for the last album, only two dates in New York City and your appearance at All Tomorrow’s Parties.

The Super Furry Animals shouldn’t do anything by half-measures. I think we are at our best when we go to extremes. So it was a real shame doing a half-measured tour. I think we need surround sound and films and the sensory overload. When I play alone it’s a chance for me to do things by half-measures.

Gruff Rhys and Y Niwl are at Red Palace tonight. Doors are at 9. Tickets are $12 in advance, $14 at the door.