Gruff Rhys by Mark James
Gruff Rhys will put it out on Rough Trade Records on May 21st.
Gruff Rhys has confirmed the details of his seventh solo album Seeking New Gods.
The LP was recorded after a US tour and kept an American flavour through being mixed in Los Angeles by Mario C.
Originally conceived as concept wrapped around Mount Paektu, it’s now described as being more broadly about, ‘people and the civilizations, and the spaces people inhabit over periods of time’ by the Super Furry Animals frontman.
“How people come and go but the geology sticks around and changes more slowly. I think it’s about memory and time. It’s still a biography of a mountain, but now it’s a Mount Paektu of the mind.
“You won’t learn much about the real mountain from listening to this record but you will feel something, hopefully.”
“The monochrome has made it look much sharper and stylish (for want of a better word – I don’t think I know what style is!!) like a Japanese 60’s pop show or something,” he continues on the video for first single Loan Your Loneliness.
“We added a layer of cloud to add some spot colour and to integrate the album sleeve aesthetic to the video.”
“The colour was always stronger at the very end – I don’t particularly like the brown slippery dinosaurs but love the mammoths and northern lights…. so we bought it back to colour by the end – the narrative being that a soloing guitarist accidentally invented colour TV with sheer exuberance!”
Seeking New Gods tracklist:
Mausoleum Of My Former Self
Can’t Carry On
Loan Your Loneliness
Seeking New Gods
Hiking In Lightning
Holiest Of The Holy Men
The Keep
Everlasting Joy
Distant Snowy Peaks
