Super Furry Animals
(Daff)

With "Rings Around The World" the Super Furries make history as the first band to simultaneously release an album alongside the DVD. In 5.0 surround sound the band set about recreating the amazing live shows. We caught up with Daff to discuss the Furry Mania weekends, the rumoured collaboration between them and Brian Harvey and what's happened since Creation folded up.

Q: You're in the middle of the "Furry Mania" weekends. Can you ever do a normal tour again?
A: When you've been in the studio for a year making the album and a DVD you just want to get out there and play live. Its the first British gigs for a year and a half if you don't include the festivals and stuff but it doesn't feel like we've ever done a normal tour anyway. Its good cos' we've been trying to do it for years, taking over a town for a whole weekend.

Were doing another British tour in September or October so it will be the same production, well better hopefully, and louder still. I don't know whether we'll be doing all the extra-curricular activities.
 

Q: How did it go from being a label less band after Creation to where you are now?
A: We weren't a labellers band cos we had our own label. When Creation split up we knew people were interested but with the whole contract side of things taking so long. There was never that worry with us cos' we knew we were going to go with Epic last summer.
 

Q: When the DVD idea come about?
A: We were thinking of doing it for ages but we were busy and that and then the technology became available. It all stems out of doing the live shows with the surround sound and we thought it would be good to do it on record and then the DVD.

If you've got a DVD player and 5 speaker then you can listen to it!!!! Its sounds nuts sitting there on you're picnic blanket with speakers blasting at you from all direction. People adapt to new ideas and all of a sudden these weird ideas become the norm. I wouldn't be surprised if the DVD Album idea is the way things go, but then again it could turn out like 8 track cassettes.
 

Q: Lyrically the ideas Gruff comes up with are pretty out there?
A: I just think he's just being honest, you know what I mean. People put it down as being silly but I think he talks about conversation you'll have in the pub and he puts that into his songs. There not outwore compared to some lyrics out there at the moment but that's because they're crap cliched rock & roll lyrics.
 

Q: I'm never sure whether this is a joke with you guys - Bobby Brown and Brian Harvey apparently were supposed to do vocals for "Juxtaposed"?
A: No, it was serious!!!! We asked Brian Harvey to do it and he told us to Fuck off!!! He's a twat so I'm glad he didn't do it in the end anyway. And Bobby Brown I think he was too off his head snorting away with Whitney.

People think we make up half the stuff you hear about us in the press but we don't lie - well most of the time anyway. Coldplay are so middle of the road you'd probably get them working with Tony Blair.
 

Q: And Paul McCartney - how did you blag that one?
A: We met him at the NME awards last year. We were all sat around a table and Cian came over pissed as a fart going "Look What I've Found? Paul McCartney" and we introduced him to everyone in the room. So 3 weeks later he phoned him up and said do you still want us to do that remix. We asked him if he wanted to do the rhythm track chewing carrots instead of celery. He did it with the Beach Boys so we thought rip it off.

We were given the original tapes from the Revolver sessions and you can here them all talking together in-between those songs you know really well.
 

Q: You've been talking recently about not being able to shock anymore simply by being loud. Would you like to expand on this?
A: I don't dislike any particular kind of music and I think that's why we take in so many influences. We don't just listen to guitar music or techno. You think about your average person who buys music and they're not just into one type of music - they listen to all sorts and that's what we do - we don't just listen to one type of music.

Guitar bands nowadays just tend to be lazy. They pick up a Beatles song book and think they're important. We took Erban Poets on tour with us - a hip-hop group from Wales with a half Jamaican and half Cardiff accent - which bands would you get doing that. We tried getting another guitar band out with us and it sucks!!!

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"Rings Around The World" is out 16th July
www.ringsaroundtheworld.com
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