gruff rhys
Set to premiere at Soundtrack festival, Gruff Rhys’ debut film Separado! is a magical
realist Spaghetti Western set in Patagonia. Just what you’d expect from the frontman
of The Super Furry Animals, then. Ben Bryant spoke to him to find out more.
What’s the story behind Seperado!? nice looking van in the street, and we put a note in creative. And we could move across ideas and they’d
It’s a tour film, following a tour I did in South Amer- the window saying, “You’ve got a really cool van. Can support it fully, and go with it instead of pestering,
ica in 2006. Because it’s filmed in South America, I we borrow it for three weeks?” and this guy phoned and they had the resources at the time to indulge
thought it should be filmed in a magical realist way. back saying, “You can have it for 50 quid.” And we the most ridiculous whim.
A lot of the filmmakers are filming in that kind of travelled a few thousand kilometres in a van. I think
vein, so I thought it should fit in like that as well. So there were five of us in all. So will this be a sort of greatest hits from the
it was shot by Dylan Jones and he’s done a lot of live Creation Records period?
projections for the Furries. He directed it and there’s What is it that attracts you to Soundtrack? Your We’re just going to be playing our new stuff. We’re
a subplot where we’re looking for some distant rela- music’s always been full of imagery, and psychede- not gonna bow down to the dark, shut doors of
tives in Patagonia, including a guitar playing uncle lia is a very visual genre. Are you interested in the nostalgia. No, we didn’t even know it was a Creation
who’s briefly had some success in the 1960s in Wales. link between music and visuals? night; we just fancied booking a show in Cardiff
Yeah, the film’s got like a Wild West styling. The title before Christmas.
Is Seperado! fact or fiction then? Magical realist is like a Spaghetti Western title, and I’ve had a Spa-
art typically blends truth and myth... ghetti Western score in it. So I suppose it’s perfect In Juxtaposed With U you wrote the lyric: It’s
Yes, I’m hoping people will be actually confused as for a festival like Soundtrack. And also the Film easy when you know how / to get along without
to whether it’s a documentary or not. There’s quite Agency For Wales were hoping to put the festival Biff Bang Pow!. Was that a kind of elegy for
a few detours and we filmed quite a lot of South together, and they stepped in after we shot the film Creation Records (Alan McGee was the cofounder
American musicians as well, some of whom sing in and they helped us out with the resources to finish of Creation Records, and Biff Bang Pow! was the
Welsh, and also some Brazilian and Argentinian. it. It was such a huge project. name of his band)?
I’ve got some distant relatives who live in the Welsh Yeah, kind of, it’s a play on words. I was a big fan of
speaking communities in Patagonia, and they went It’s also the 25th anniversary of Creation Records, Biff Bang Pow! and Alan McGee. But in the context
over in 1880 and there was no contact between the and you’re playing a gig at the Coal Exchange on of the song it was more like, “It’s easier to get along
Patagonian and the Welsh family in almost a century 20 Nov. How do you remember this period as a without violence.” It was great to put in a reference
– not until the 1970s. But it turned out some of them band? about Biff Bang Pow!. You know, I think it was very
are musicians and everything. In terms of Creation Records, I grew up listening to admirable of Creation Records to dissolve them-
a lot of the bands on the label – The Boo Radleys, selves, because it was at the right time, and they
So how did the film come about? My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus And Mary Chain, all didn’t want to fake it. They’d kind of the taken the
The Super Furry Animals were signed to Sony when these people – so to be on the same label was really label places it was never meant to go and they’d
they started the project – that was in 2004 – and exciting. And it was pretty incredible to get that kind kind of lost their musical way a bit. Because it was
Sony gave me £15,000 to make the film, so we shot of support. Complete freedom... they were like our an extremely focused label early on and it was very
it with an extremely small team. It’s an 80 minute fairy godmother. It was an environment where we successful, and they just stopped it – a very brave
feature film. So we just went out there, we saw a could be creative and where it was encouraged to be and admirable thing to do.
BUZZ 10
NOVEMBER 2009.indd 10 28/10/09 12:50:33
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