Gruff Rhys
tames tedium
with his Candylion

“It’s what I found exciting, in a way,” Rhys says, peering at a sheet of freshly-printed Candylion stickers, as if for inspiration. “It’s freer – it may be set in the future, but it might apply today and in the past. I’ve fallen into a weird biographical phase, somehow, before this anyway – and it’s definitely healthy to walk free of history. We’ve been wildly imagining. It’s a healthy change.”

‘Wildly imagining’ seems to be an understatement. The show is about Candylion (“sometimes she’s a he and sometimes he’s a she,” says Gruff), a pink inflatable lion who lives so far in the past that it’s actually the future. She, or he, lives in Pixel Valley, in a co-operative society – but as Gruff explains, “Candylion starts to get out of control, and gets greedy and starts eating objects, and eating his friends and grows bigger and bigger – can his friends get him back down to size?”

The show is an allegorical tale, meant for all ages, but this tag by no means equals ‘just for kids’. “I’ve got no interest in writing music for children, or adults, you know – I just wanted the music to be pure,” he explains. “Not patronising people by writing things directed at an age group. I spent lots of time with [director] Wils and [playwright] Tim, trying to figure out the right tone, and how to turn the story into something that makes sense. We’ve been working together and getting drunk for quite a long time.”

When I ask if this allegory could potentially be political, he is thoughtful. “It works on lots of different levels,” he says, after a pause. “A child can appreciate it on vibrant colours and narrative alone, but there’s plenty there for people to read into. We’re living in quite extreme times politically, and sometimes things are more powerful when they’re said by a bright pink balloon.”

While the show will feature music from Gruff’s 2007 album Candylion amongst “four or five’” brand new songs he’ll perform himself, please don’t call it a musical. In fact, try not to categorise it at all. “I’m working with a team who are pretty turned off by musicals in general, but we love music,” says Gruff. “I like a lot of records that have been created for theatrical reasons that are never called music, like The History of Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg. I’m hoping this is part of some tradition that’s outside that kind of strait- jacket of tedium.” Other inspirations he notes are Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle (originally named Hywel’s Moving Castle and made by renowned Welshophile Hayao Miyazaki), Jean Claude Vannier’s L’Enfant assassin des mouches, and the Tropicália movement that revitalised late 60s Brazil.

Despite Gruff’s obvious dedication to theatre and its musical offshoots, when it’s put to him that he might be adding to the same kind of canon his theatrical heroes inhabit, he’s very clear on his role in the proceedings. “I’m a songwriter,” he says. “I’m not very agile, or much of an exhibitionist, you know, and that’s why I’m excited to put these songs in a different medium. It’s great being able to see these songs fully performed, without needing to become someone who I’m not.” Gruff, with something as madly magical as this on the horizon, we’d never ask you to be anything else.