Totally Dublin 1
about and trying to articulate what a beautiful,
mad existence it is. Moving along, the day of our meeting sees the British local elections take place. As it happened, the obliteration of Keir Starmer’s so-called Labour Party saw Welsh independence party Plaid Cymru gain the majority of seats in the Senedd, the Welsh parliament. Although failing to achieve an overall majority, Plaid Cymru forced Nigel Farage’s dreaded Reform Party into second place, and ended Labour’s century-long electoral hegemony in Wales, with Plaid’s Rhun ap Iorwerth installed as First Minister. So, you’re not going to be able to vote today in the Welsh local elections. Naw, no, none of the band. (I note a wistful tone of regret.) How do you think it’s going to go? It’s a big election. I mean, it’s a proportional system. There’s a strong left bloc in Wales, but we saw in the Brexit referendum, how the right wing could be more effective through social media and media in general. But I think this campaign has been good in Wales. It’s been very empowering. Since Brexit, there’s been a rise in progressive Welsh identity, a change in people in Wales’s selfperception, their perception of themselves. Presumably you’d vote for independence tomorrow, if a referendum came along? Yeah, it’s popular. The question of independence is a real one now, and I suppose the levels of opinion are somewhere where Scotland was before their last referendum, before that campaign started. But what, I suppose, what there is now is polarised politics in Wales. You’d have to convince a lot of people that it is a good idea. It’s not a foregone conclusion? It’s a process, but for Wales it depends on a lot of external factors as well, constitutional external matters, including Ireland and Scotland, England itself and the European Union. So it might not be a question of whether Wales wants it, it might be forced upon us. In which case we might try to sabotage it. You’re big Kneecap fans? Yeah, I admire them very much… their bravery. You share a kind of language activism… Yeah, yeah, they put us to shame, in that sense. I do admire how popular culture can reach places that public policy can’t. It’s got a special power. I admire the use of language that is not earnest, at all… what’s the right word? Irreverent? Their irreverence and their playfulness, you know, it’s powerful as well. I’ve seen them a couple of times in Wales. It’s interesting to find a band coming into Wales with a complete understanding of Welsh geopolitics. They used to come to Welsh language festivals when they were forming the band, there was a kind of… Network? A network of minority language… 16 Enthusiasts? Yeah, festivals… but that’s how we started out. We used to tour – before we toured in England – we were touring in Brittany, where there’s a sister language to Welsh. The first Furry Animals tour was going down Brittany, playing for Breton language activists and backers. Did you ever feel a lot of pressure being in the role of the representative Welsh band? I mean, kind of the biggest Welsh band, or certainly the biggest Welshspeaking band, more so than, say, the Main Street Preachers or Catatonia or whomever? It was kind of like you were ambassadors or something, for the whole Cool Cymru thing. Well, we grew up in the Welsh speaking community, but we were liberated by our irreverence, in a way, so we didn’t feel that pressure, because we were rebelling against our own community. And so it was… we were extremely irresponsible, you know, with our own culture. So we did find quite a lot of artistic liberty in doing that… Although it wasn’t particularly clever of us, it meant that we were a bit out of control. And as a band, we all have varying opinions, you know, politically… 95% of which we can agree on, you know, but we do have new ones. So, it’s a band that’s a little bit out of control. Do you still feel that now? Oh yeah. I mean, that’s the beauty of it, you know? It’s friendly. I mean, I’ve laughed a lot in the last twenty-four hours. We have a band where we can do that. Do you see each other much when you’re not playing music together? Yeah, I see Dafydd and Cian, they’re brothers, and I see them regularly. I’ll see Cian at, you know, kids’ football. Bunf lives like a mile further in a different town, which is stuck to Cardiff but there’s like a psychological barrier. Guto lives in Scotland, and plays a lot with Pictish Trail, and his own band, Gulp. So I see Guto less, but I get to stay with him sometimes. Super Furry Animals play Wider Than Pictures at Collins Barracks on Sunday, August 30th, promoted by Singular Artists, with Baxter Dury and Really Good Time as support. Wider Than Pictures - Collins Barracks. Aug 25th & 26th:: Amyl And The Sniffers + Mannequin Pussy + Spider Aug 27th: Faye Webster + Sprints + Amie Bleu Aug 28th: Berlioz + Sofia Kourtesis + Ricky Chong Aug 29th: Mac Demarco + Tex Crick tickets & info: www. widerthanpictures.ie or www.singularartists.ie So you’re back here in Dublin at the end of August. Any particular Dublin memories? Yeah, I mean, one of the times we played the Olympia was the last night of smoking in Ireland, which shows my age. So everyone was lighting up. It might have been banned in a decorative theatre, I don’t know, I can’t remember the situation. But we all smoked anyway on stage. Yeah, that was a memorable one. Is there anything different about playing here than other places, in terms of the audience? I’d say, so, yeah. What I found in Dublin in particular is people like to sing along, and we’ve had great experiences playing here, usually involving a late ferry crossing after the gig. It continues long after. A few people from my hometown came on the ferry yesterday. But yeah, when we play Dublin, we feel like The Beatles.
