Due for release 16th May 2025 via Rough Trade
CD / Std 2LP / 3LP Deluxe Apricot, Purple & Rosé Vinyl
In 2012 Gruff Rhys embarked on a solo 'investigative concert tour' through the heart of America following the route taken by his distant relative John Evans. Every night he presented songs augmented by a power point presentation that detailed his relative's unbelievable history, along with any new piece of information that had come his way during the day. He was ultimately looking for Evans's lost unmarked grave. Along with many major cities, the tour took him to play shows at the Mandan and Omaha tribe reservations, a Missouri vineyard, villages that no longer exist and lay at the bottom the Mississippi river and a New Orleans bordello.
What transpired from that ‘investigative concert tour’ was a 2014 album, American Interior, plus a book, film and exhaustive tour of the same name. With the aid of the dusted-off power point presentation, Gruff Rhys and a full band revisits the project in 2025 to perform the songs that formed both the album, and the soundtrack to the film.
Gruff says of the reissue -
“Revisiting American Interior 11 years later, feels very prescient. In following the unusual story of explorer John Evans (1770-1799) it becomes clear that faked narratives can have profound and unpredictable consequences in real life. His barely believable journey of verification in searching through continental scale wilderness for a [fictitious] Welsh speaking tribe believed to be living on the Great Plains of North America (an ancient folk tale perpetuated by the Elizabethan court following the subjugation of Wales, to make colonial claims on behalf of the British on the Americas) had a dramatic political effect on the fledgling USA and a devastating impact on himself and some of those who helped him on his way. I wrote an album of songs inspired by his life; American Interior, which also served as a soundtrack to a documentary film based on a book that detailed his journey, intertwined with my own investigative concert tour, all three of which I worked on simultaneously during a 2-year fever 2012-14. By far the most ambitious undertaking I’ve ever attempted. Living with one foot in the 18th century, wearing the same clothes (for cinematic continuity) for that entire period, left me pretty exhausted. (Imagine a cold extra from The Revenant movie). It took me a while to process the whole experience and its lessons and feel I owe it to my former self to take these songs back on the road for a couple of months and re-tell the story for a new decade. To celebrate it further Rough Trade will reissue a remastered version of the album with previously unreleased tracks.”
- Gruff Rhys
Tracklistings:
3LP Deluxe:
Disc 1
A1-American Exterior
A2-American Interior
A3-The Whether (Or Not)
A4-The Last Conquistador
A5-Lost Tribes
B1-Liberty (Is Where We'll Be)
B2-Allweddellau Allweddol
B3-Walk into the Wilderness
B4-Sugar Insides
Disc 2
A1-100 Unread Messages
A2-That's Why
A3-The Swamp
A4-Media Quake
B1-Cylchdro Amser
B2-Iolo
B3-Y Gwenan Gorn
B4-Year of the Dog
B5-Tiger's Tale
Disc 3
A1-I Grombil Cyfandir Pell
A2-Ar Goll
A3-Y Madogwys Neu Angau
B1-Power Point Presentation
B2- American Exterior (Extended Version For Two Synthesizers)
2LP:
Disc 1
A1-American Exterior
A2-American Interior
A3-The Whether (Or Not)
A4-The Last Conquistador
A5-Lost Tribes
B1-Liberty (Is Where We'll Be)
B2-Allweddellau Allweddol
B3-Walk into the Wilderness
B4-Sugar Insides
Disc 2
A1-100 Unread Messages
A2-That's Why
A3-The Swamp
A4-Media Quake
B1-Cylchdro Amser
B2-Iolo
B3-Y Gwenan Gorn
B4-Year of the Dog
B5-Tiger's Tale
CD Tracklisting
Disc 1
1-American Exterior
2-American Interior
3-The Whether (Or Not)
4-The Last Conquistador
5-Lost Tribes
6-Liberty (Is Where We'll Be)
7-Allweddellau Allweddol
8-Walk into the Wilderness
9-Sugar Insides
10-100 Unread Messages
11-That's Why
12-The Swamp
13-Media Quake
14-Cylchdro Amser
15-Iolo
16-Y Gwenan Gorn
17-Year of the Dog
18-Tiger's Tale