Oneof this year’s most effective music videos is also one of the most flagrantlyridiculous. In the grandiose black and white footage accompanying The JoyFormidable’s “Wolf’s Law,” the full cycle of life, if not the entire creationmyth, is depicted in a collage of nature, the elements and the animal kingdom.The skies erupt; flowers bloom; bears and lions spring at each other and fireand water engulf their surroundings. Coming from a more mockable band, say aColdplay or a Kings Of Leon, it’s easy to imagine the heavy-handed short filmtaking on a second life as an Internet meme, but coming from an act asdisarmingly forward as The Joy Formidable, the piece actually works. It helps,of course, that the Welsh power trio’s music really is every bit as vast andsweeping as that video.
“Wolf’sLaw” is the title track to the band’s upcoming sophomore album, due Jan. 22,though somewhat confusingly, it won’t be on the album. “We just always saw itin some ways as an art piece; it belonged on its own,” explainssinger-guitarist Ritzy Bryan. Nonetheless, she describes the song as a goodindicator of the album. “It was one of the first songs we wrote for the album,and it evokes a lot of the themes and the message of the album,” she says.
Withits sparse piano foundation and its soaring orchestral climax, the song alsohints at the greater instrumental breadth on Wolf’s Law. Where The Joy Formidable’s aptly titled 2011 debut The Big Roar conveyed grand scope withlittle more than surging guitars and meaty bass riffs, the trio set out for amore varied sound this time.
“There’sa great deal of range on this album, from the orchestral to the intimate,”Bryan says. “I think some of the songs were conceived for with voice andminimal accompaniment in mind, so we tried to keep them more bare and strippeddown. But at the same time, a lot of the tracks grew into fantastical,bombastic songs as well.”
Thealbum’s statelier sound is in part a product of its recording circumstances.After months on the road, the band retreated to Portland, Maine and immersedthemselves in the studio, free from distractions. “It was a beautiful location,very isolated, and I think that solitude gave us a strong kind of focus,” Bryansays. “We were completely consumed by making this record over the course of thethree weeks we were there. It was a fast turnaround, but we went into thosesessions eager to get back into the studio, and very hungry.”
Thoseideal conditions were a far cry from the piecemeal recording sessions for The Big Roar, an often harried albumthat captured some very real frustrations the band was feeling at the time.
“Werecorded The Big Roar in quite aclaustrophobic, intense environment,” Bryan says. “We were grabbing any momentwe could in between touring to record in this tiny room on top of each other inan attic in South London. At the same time, there were a lot of things going onwith us personally, a lot of turbulence and relationship breakdowns, and youcan hear that in that album. I wouldn’t say Wolf’sLaw is us being content, or that we’ve ridden ourselves of all agitation,but the location we recorded it and the fact that we recorded it in one sessionultimately brought a different focus to the album. It feels like a very directpiece of work, very direct and cohesive.”
Fora band so deft at mining exhilaration from tumult, there’s a risk in moving onto calmer sounds, but Bryan doesn’t see it that way.
“Welike music that has commitment and intent,” she says. “We don’t do thingshalf-hearted. We like to commit, but I don’t think that always comes fromthings being loud. You can also have that commitment in your most fragilemoments, so long as you’re saying something and you can stand behind it. Youcan dip in between genres, and you can put your hands into everything so longas you have a clear sense of yourself as an artist or as a band.”
The Joy Formidable playFM 102.1’s Big Snow Show 7 Saturday, Dec. 8 at the Rave with Silversun Pickupsand IAMDYNAMITE at 8 p.m.
