Right now The Joy Formidable seem to be in something like the ideal position for a hard-working British rock band like themselves. Since their formation in 2007 they’ve released a string of singles and EPs of various kinds on small record labels, toured extensively, and received a lot of positive attention in the mainstream music press, but since 2010 all this promise seems to have turned into a more traditional, palpable kind of success, with high profile gigs such as a one-off show supporting Paul McCartney at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. They then signed a record deal with Canvasback, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, and from this sprang The Big Roar, their first proper album, released last month.

When I asked singer/guitarist Ritzy Bryan what’s coming next, she said she was told to pack her bag for a year for a world tour in support of the album. But when I mentioned that two weeks ago the album was at 31 in the UK album charts, she seemed genuinely oblivious. In fact, every time I inadvertently edged towards suggesting that this or that move might have been aimed at furthering their career, Bryan seemed eager to emphasise that it’s playing and making music that they care about, and nothing more. “The minute we finished writing the album... and mixing it, we were very proud and we had no regrets, and that is the final and only validation I need. And I’m very genuine when I say I’m not really interested in reviews, I’m not interested in chart positions”, she asserted. When I asked about the kind of venues which they enjoy playing, she added “there’s a lot to be said for getting really up close and personal with your audiences… playing small, sweaty, vibey, heckling, heavy venues.” The most interesting thing about all this ‘we’re still down to earth I promise’ rock band cliché is that I genuinely believed her, and later that evening when they played to a packed out St. Paul’s Church, they indeed showed a real desire to connect with each member of the audience, and clearly enjoyed doing so.

On the other hand, I sensed an underlying pragmatism about the need to get by in the music industry, and even an enjoyment of some of the fruits of their success. Having remarked that she doesn’t care about reviews, I told Bryan how positive the critical response to the album was, and she responds wryly, “well it doesn’t do any harm does it.” When I asked about the move from North Wales, where Bryan and bassist Rhydian Dafydd originated, to London, she began defiantly, “we didn’t move from North Wales to the bright lights of London. The only plan was that we needed to be in the same city as our drummer”, but then admitted that “ultimately it does come down to getting out there and being a live band, and that was maybe one side that flipped the balance in moving to London”. I couldn’t help but interpret “flipped the balance” as a bit of an understatement - not that I believe Bryan to be disingenuous, by any means. In relation to the Paul McCartney show, she said, “when you’re playing to a stadium… it’s a great experience, the natural grandness of that space, and your sound matching it is a really good feeling. Anyone who says "I don’t like doing stadium gigs’ is lying.” So she’s under no punk-ethos pretences. Importantly, she followed the statement up with “…but I wouldn’t like to just do those.”

The narrative of The Joy Formidable now feels like one which tries to reconcile these two aspects: on the one hand a love of playing for themselves, for every individual in every crowd, and for making music that they can be proud of; on the other hand is their ever-increasing success, and an acknowledgement that sometimes you just have to play the music industry game. Emphasising that they are still the same band they ever were, Bryan told me, “we produced A Balloon Called Moaning [the EP from Feb 2009] in our bedroom, we produced The Big Roar in our bedroom, and the only difference is that we got working with two other people for The Big Roar, which is Nik, who’s our live engineer, and Rich Costey who mixed it all.” This is extremely impressive, but when you look a little closer the differences are much larger: A Balloon Called Moaning was distributed by the band themselves, including folding the cases individually, and was released on a very small record label, whereas The Big Roar was released on Atlantic. And Rich Costey has produced the likes of the Foo Fighters and Muse. Again, rather than suggesting insincerity, I think what The Joy Formidable are doing is continuing to try to reach people, live and on record, with their music; they’re just doing it on a larger scale now. As Bryan said, “the ethic of the recording process hadn’t changed whatsoever… it’s maybe just the final bit of execution that makes a bit of a difference”, and I think this tells the story of the band.