‘There’s been a solo album on the cards for about ten years,’ laughs Griff Lynch when we meet up in Wrexham to talk about the long-awaited Blas Melysa’r Mis (Flavour of the Month). He’s in the city for Eisteddfod and fits God Is in The TV into his schedule between gigs and soundchecks and preparing for the record’s eventual release. And how well worth waiting for are these eleven pop gems, melody-rich and colourful, pop and folk and electronic and gorgeous strings combine to make a very special album indeed.
Griff also the frontman of psych-pop band Yr Ods – who boast five albums under their collective belt – played and recorded all eleven songs on Blas Melysa’r Mis himself in his bedroom or pop-up studio, half in Cardiff and the remainder in London, flitting between the two cities. The press release raises a smile when it says he moves around a lot, as if he’s on the run. But movement is very much part of the record. ‘The subjects within (the songs) span a three or four year period of change for me personally which has been quite nice. I can see it in the songs as well,’ he says.
Recording bilingual records sung in both Welsh and English is a long-term element of Griff’s music making. He acknowledges and understands the existence of the stubborn glass ceiling with Welsh language music, but firmly believes there are ways of pushing through to those who don’t speak Welsh. ‘When you understand things sung you connect even more to the song. By making it bilingual you draw people in, you “cheat” people into listening to the Welsh language.’
His summer single ‘Same Old Show’ from Blas Melysa’r Mis was always intended as a bilingual song from the offset, he explains. The song starts off in English and the choruses are in English. ‘But then you feed them a little bit of Welsh I think it’s an interesting way of doing it. Some people in Wales don’t like them, they like you to sing in either language but I’m a fan of doing it.’ He cites Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and Gruff Rhys as practitioners of bilingual songs. ‘We live bilingual lives, so it makes sense.’
Same Old Show features guest vocals from James Dean Bradfield. The two men introduced by Emily Eavis and her husband at Glastonbury Festival, working together is something they’ve wanted to do for the longest time. And much like Griff completing the album, they finally got round to it; the pair kept bumping into each other over the years in Cardiff before Griff finally bit the bullet and gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse; the opportunity for the Manic Street Preachers vocalist to sing in Welsh on a record, something James had never done before.
‘I texted him on a whim and he answered me back in Welsh so I was “ah, he’s keen, the fact that he speaks both languages” . Knowing that James had learned Welsh over the past few years, I thought “ah, I really want him to sing in Welsh on this”. We did it in a day in his studio. I went over there, and we recorded it and that’s that really!’
On the record Griff has filled his boots in embracing the genres. Album opener ‘Gwlad Fy Nyhead’ (Land of my Longing) is brief, unsettling and remote recorded with the microphone on the other side of the room for a lo-fi feel. A sweeter version is Blas Melysa’r Mis’ s conclusion. ‘I wanted to bookend the album so that song reappears as a nicer produced section at the very end, the last song on the album. I wanted it to be like a hymn. Like a religious feel to it. The words are not poetic, but extravagant it’s meant to feel you’re on the verge of something quite epic.’
‘Fe Lyncodd’ (He Swallowed) starts off ever so beautifully and sweetly, ciggie lighter in the air folky then a quirky alien sample kicks in. What’s not to love about that. And Griff totally rocks out on title song ‘Blas Melysa’r Mis’, Catatonia, 90s Brit-pop, early Radiohead and Welsh cult bands like Y Cyrff and Big Leaves from his younger days coming back into his life. ‘I was super keen in doing something quite big. Just trying to make as much noise as I can!’
The really very wonderful ‘Kombucha’ is a superb playful pop bop paying tribute to the well known fermented effervescent black tea drink. And lordy, the video is right up there. Griff in a laboratory with dancing lab assistants in rain hoods, it’s absolutely bonkers and heck knows what’s going on but what a joy to behold. Filmed in Bangor for Welsh language tv channel S4C he waived his appearance and directing fee to get a fatter budget for the video itself. Releasing the video before the album was even announced grabbed attentions and shouted, ‘I’m doing music and it’s going to be fun’. The video absolutely did all that, touching a fanbase he never considered.
‘I went to buy a baguette in Cardiff a few weeks ago in the central market,’ he recalls. ‘A girl working there said “you look like a guy from YouTube that my sister’s daughter likes to watch he’s singing about Kombucha… “. She looked at me as said “is that you?”, took a selfie with me and sent it to her niece!’
‘Ti Sy’n Troi’ (You Turn My World Upside Down) featuring Lleuwen Steffan was another special one for him, working with her a long held ambition. ‘She’s one of those artists in Wales you get the feeling that everything she does is pure. She’s super genuine as well and has a fantastic voice and she’s outspoken about in what she believes and also her music is really emotional and passionate about everything that she does. It’s rare that you find artists that you believe in everything that they do and this is one of those people. I’m super happy to have her on board.’
Ti Sy’n Troi is an elegantly harmonised duet with ghostly folky strings. Strings are a magical ingredient on the album. Griff worked on the songs but after he’d done all he could wanted a way of connecting a handful. With different vibes in different songs, he felt strings would give the record a sense of commonality. ‘They’re a fantastic way to get emotions into a song,’ he says.
He invited arranger Owain Llwyd who worked with Yr Ods previously to help, happy to take advantage of Owain’s expertise. The gorgeous briskness they bring to ‘Cyntaf i’r Felin’ (First to the Mill) make the song a stunner, a gasp and a breath following the bare opener. If you’re doing something on your own, he reasons, it makes sense to get another perspective at some point in the creative process.
‘The way we went about it I’d more or less finalised the song with an idea in my mind a string section would work nicely and say (to Owain) ‘”this the song, do what you want with it”. We recorded it together in urchin studio in London that was where the investment was going! It worked out really, really nice. A lot of players from Wales who were living in London. They were great, an onboard with the songs. I’m super chuffed with them. I always believe if you do something on your own you need to get other people involved at some point to have a different perspective and Owain definitely brought that to the album.’
He’s proud of the record full stop. Quite rightly so. It’s an ambitious work. Sometimes things just take time.
‘I told everyone each year there’s an album coming. And now it’s the truth!’
Blas Melysa’r Mis is released on 10 October via Lwcus T
Photo credit: Carys Huws
