The Joy Formidable love being on tour. "On the road, I just like opening the blinds," says the band's Ritzy Bryan. "It's like, 'Whoa … where are we?' The other day, we opened the blinds and we were driving through the middle of Montana. It was so green and snowy and massive big mountains. Moments like that, they never, ever get boring! It's always that sheer excitement of being on the move and waking up somewhere new every day."

Being on the road so much necessitated the writing of their first two albums simultaneously while touring, but for their latest record, Hitch, they tried something new. "We'd been on the road solidly for a long, long time and I think it was important to regroup and kind of get rid of some of the fluff that comes with the music industry sometimes," says Rhydian Davies. "I think we just wanted to disappear and just the three of us in a room for a long time."

With a new album in hand, The Joy Formidable are back on the road, touring in support of Hitch. In the Twin Cities for a show at First Avenue in Minneapolis, the Joy Formidable stopped in to The Current studio for a session hosted by Mary Lucia.

Listen to the complete in-studio session to hear more from the Joy Formidable, including their descriptions of growing up in North Wales, and the work they do to help emerging bands in that area to network and grow their careers.

Songs Performed

"Little Blimp"
"The Last Thing on My Mind"
"The Brook"
The first song comes from The Joy Formidable's 2013 album, Wolf's Law; second and third song are from their 2016 album, Hitch.

Hosted by Mary Lucia
Produced by Anna Reed
Engineered by Michael DeMark
Visuals by Nate Ryan
Web feature by Luke Taylor

Gallery

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