Super Furry Animals

God! Show Me Magic. Something For The Weekend. Hometown Unicorn. If You Don’t Want Me To Destroy You. Mountain People. Play It Cool.

These are some of the oddest, loveliest, catchiest, most intriguingly unique songs to have come out of the 90’s, and they’re all off the first two albums by the Super Furry Animals. You’ve danced to them down the Waterfront. You’ve played them in your car. You’ve got together and broken up with people to them. Now you’ve got the chance to hear Fuzzy Logic and Radiator played in their entirety for the first time ever at the LCR. They’ve also just reissued Fuzzy Logic plus a brand new anthology, Zoom!. The SFA bus has had a rest, a service and is coming back out on the road so I had a chat with lead singer Gruff Rhys about what prompted this celebration of their early music, how they decided what to put on the best of and whether our hopes for a new album are founded or not.

So you’ve just come back from playing Mexico City for the first time ever and are about to set out on a UK tour. How’s it feeling at the moment?

It’s been fun. It’s been something we’ve spent most of the last 10 years doing so it’s quite normal for us to be together doing these things. It always feels good and we feel very fortunate to be able to do it!

The recent reissue of your debut album Fuzzy Logic was a fascinating look into the evolution of those songs from rough demos into the ones we know and love today. What was the impetus that brought you back to that album now?

It was a convergence of many things happening. We were hoping to be able to do it but we couldn’t figure out who actually owned the album because the rights are so complicated. We released it on Creation, they sold the rights to Sony, Sony merged with BMG and then when the monopolies and mergers commission split them up BMG took the rights. Unbeknownst to us BMG were planning on doing some reissuing of our stuff anyway so luckily we were able to sort it out at the same time as the 20th anniversary of the album. Also our friend Kliph Scurlock moved to Cardiff about two years and took it upon himself to find every piece of Super Furry Animals material so we feel extremely lucky to have someone like that on hand to make it work, someone we trusted from outside of the band taking control of it, someone to be a referee!

The Fuzzy Logic/Radiator tour is a very exciting prospect; I think it will be at least the band’s eighth gig here in Norwich. Which songs are you particularly looking forward to playing, maybe some album tracks you’ve never played live?

Yeah, there’s a lot of songs that were quite complicated to play but we were able to do it in the studio at the time - we’ve found 20 years on we can actually play some of the things that we found difficult at the time. So there are songs like Mario Man from Fuzzy Logic and Bass Tuned To D.E.A.D from Radiator, which we’ve never played live), so we’re never really played live before now.

Those songs were written when you were a much younger man with different concerns. Does it feel a bit strange to be revisiting those emotions and thoughts after 20 years?

It is strange – the strangest thing about it is that it is feels extremely recent! That’s the saddest thing! Time has flown extremely quickly. For the most part I’m finding the lyrics very sympathetic, I can still relate to them. In fact some of my more recent things I find harder to relate to, weirdly! These songs I’m enjoying singing.

Have you reworked any of the songs for the live show or will they be fairly faithful renditions of the album tracks?

We’re trying to get them fairly accurate because we’ve billed it as a performance of those two albums so we feel a responsibility to make it as similar as we can live. I mean if I was going to see someone perform an album I’d kind of like it to sound pretty similar to the original! Maybe it’s not the time to reimagine it..but I went to see Beyoncé, the singer, this summer at the Millennium Stadium and she reimagined all her hits and that worked out pretty good. But for us at this point we’re keeping it very similar, although Mountain People is twice as long as normal, but any changes will be extra rather than a reimagination.

One of your best known tracksThe Man Don’t Give A Fuck somehow managed to get to number 22 despite getting very little radio play as it says fuck over 50 times. What’s the longest you’ve ever played it for live?

I’m sure we’ve played it for 25 minutes before. I mean when Cian gets going, you know…!

A lot of the bleepy electronic tracks such as Wherever I Lay My Phone, No Sympathy andThe Door To This House Remains Open were left off Zoom, your new Best Of. Was there a reason for that?

There were loads of tracks we would have loved to have been on there. I suppose there was a limit – I think the record label had suggested putting out a singles collection before we met them and then once we knew of their plans and they knew of ours they asked us if we’d be into it. We said we didn’t think our best work has necessarily been the singles, although we do love them, maybe we could stick some more songs on there. So we all got a couple of favourites each – those songs you’ve mentioned were almost all put on there but we just didn’t have space for everything.

You composed the soundtrack for the film Set Fire To The Stars most recently as well as some computer game music, been in Neon Neon, made a documentary and done a lot of solo work as well as working with National Theatre Wales. How different does it feel to now be working with the band again rather than individually?

Well, it’s a completely different process. With a band it’s difficult to imagine how something going to turn out because you’re working as group and that’s the best thing about it – that it’s going to turn out unimaginable to anyone. Obviously we’ve got a common musicality and we all respect each other’s opinions too. I suppose working solo is the chance to completely indulge in trying things out. So they’re very different but I feel extremely fortunate that I’ve been able to part of a band like this one really.

How does it feel to have an anniversary tour rather than be touring with a brand new album, and are there plans for a new album?

There are no plans at the moment, and we’re all really busy with different projects. It’s been amazing that people want to celebrate that these records are 20 years old and we’re all still here! It’s such a different way of touring, less stressful in a way because when you’re touring new material you’re trying it out on people in a way, and people aren’t going to suddenly get every song. Seeing as we’re touring a comparatively old back catalogue it’s easier. People know the songs and the atmosphere’s been amazing.

I suppose you’ll also get that lovely space between album tracks where people will be excited for the song that they know is coming next!

Yes, I expect so, although we have yet to play the albums in full. We’ve been practising off and on since September so we’ve got to know the songs really well and we can’t wait for the tour now!

You’re such a visually arresting group as well as sonically entertaining. Which gigs that you’ve been to of other peoples that have stuck in your own memory?

As a band we all went together to see an act called Eboband in the early 90’s; I think they were Belgian or Dutch. They had a record out called Donuts With Buddha and that was an incredible experience. They had these insane visuals that were completely in time with the music, and the images themselves were very extreme. They also had some kind of catwalk coming into the audience at shoulder height so it looked like they were walking on the audience’s shoulders. That’s really stayed in my mind as something that really influenced us later on as a band.

If you met someone who’d never heard of the band before, which song would you play them that you feel best represents your work over the last 20 years?

Um…it depends on the day! I’d maybe play them The Piccolo Snare off our album Phantom Power and Zoom! from Love Kraft.

Super Furry Animals play their first two albums Radiator and Fuzzy Logic in full at the LCR on 4th December. Tickets available from ueatickets.ticketabc.com