The Joy Formidable ask to Share My Heat for rescheduled Wedgewood Rooms gig | Big Interview

But a week before the band were due to kick off the tour, they made an announcement that the past year “had taken its toll” on frontwoman Ritzy Bryan’s health.

Happily Ritzy was able to step back, get herself back on track and the band rescheduled the tour – their first full UK tour in four years.​

The tour was originally a belated jaunt in support of their 2021 album Into The Blue, but they have since released a trio of singles – more on those later.

Speaking from her home in north Wales, when asked about what happened at the start of the year, Ritzy explains: ” I don't mind talking about, it's something that has been happening with a lot of people at the moment.

"I can only go by what I feel and what it's like to be a musician, but I think there has been a lot of having to adapt, or seeing everything that you've built over, for us, it's nearly 15 years now...” she tails off but is clearly referring to the devastating impact of the pandemic on the music business.

“There was a lot of pressure to try and keep things buoyant. We put a lot into our music club (an online fanclub with exclusive songs, streaming gigs and all kinds of other goodies) that we started in 2019 . Over Covid there was quite a lot of uncertainty and a lot going on for everybody. There was a lot of loss and things that stretch you as a human, and as an artist there's been a lot of pressure to adapt. Even post-Covid, there’s dealing with how the stage is somewhat different to what it was before. It's kind of accelerated things that already weren't that great for independent artists anyway.”

Like many acts, the three-piece (completed by bassist Rhydian Dafydd and drummer Matt Thomas) rushed to catch-up with rescheduled dates, including a lengthy US tour.

“I didn't even feel it coming on,” she says of her impending collapse. “I thought I was okay. I'm used to wearing lots of different hats and doing different things, and I didn't even feel it, but I had some sort of, I don't even know what to call it, I guess it was some sort of burnout or breakdown, or something that crept up on me.

“It really made me self-assess how much I'd been looking after myself and giving myself some space.

“I love touring but we went out and probably did the most we've ever done in such a short space of time – we did 77 days out in America with 58 shows or something like that.

"It was a good wake up call for me to look after myself better. Sometimes you put that to one side when you're doing what you love without realising what's happening.

“I never tested positive for Covid, but I don't know if I had been sick at one point – there'd been an accumulation of things. I wasn't feeling physically that well at the start of the year, and I suppose that's part of the problem as a performer, you're going out and mixing with a lot of people...”

Ever the optimist, though, Ritzy can see the silver-lining in the experience: “It's probably, in some ways, been a really positive thing for me moving forward because I feel like I've balanced myself better than I ever have now.

“We had this big gap as artists over Covid where there was no touring, but we were still so busy making music and doing the music club, that it was a stop in terms of touring, but it ramped up in terms of other things. I don't think I'd taken a proper break since the band started! It's been just ‘on’, and then you get conditioned to think that's the way it's meant to be.”

There was also an outpouring of support for the frontwoman when it was announced she had been advised to take a break.

“I'm doing a lot better now and everyone was so kind when we postponed that March tour – they were very understanding. We were so worried about moving it, because I didn't want to let anyone down, but the response from people was so, so kind.”

The band burst onto the scene with their 2011 debut, the aptly named, The Big Roar, and have built a reputation for their hard-rocking anthems, entwined with shoegaze atmospherics.

Their most recent album, their fifth, Into The Blue was released in October 2021, featuring plenty of the alt-rock their fans have come to expect. Like so many albums of recent times, its release was delayed by the pandemic.

“It was demoed in 2019, and then the pandemic happened. We'd come to America because we were leaving stuff all over the place and we had some stuff in a lock-up in LA we wanted to pick up, and then they shut everything down and cancelled all of the flights, so we were like: “Okay... let's stay here for a bit”. We ended up making the record quite differently from how we originally planned. We had hoped to all be in a room together but we ended up doing the drums remotely – I wouldn't change it though, it was made the way it was meant to be made in a lot of ways.”

For the past decade or so Ritzy has split her time between her home in north Wales and a bolthole in Utah, near the stunning Zion National Park.

"I've been there for nearly 10 years now, which is insane to me. It was a very spontaneous decision at the time because I drove through there and loved it. I'm from north Wales so I'm very drawn to the wilderness – anywhere that's rugged and beautiful, and I like to be outdoors, I like to hike a lot. I thought this looks like a nice sanctuary for when I'm off tour – somewhere that I can come and write.

“I settled in Utah, thinking it would be temporary, somewhere nice between record cycles and then ended up making some really beautiful connections here.

“I feel very grateful, because I love where I am in north Wales as well – it's very green, and then I have a lot of colour and sunlight in Utah. It's stunning there and it's on a scale of vastness that's difficult to comprehend. Even when you go off in north Wales, you can still see a house in the distance, maybe, or you’ve got the sense that there's a road somewhere. In Utah, it's like: “Hold on, where am I..?!”

“And we have little studios in both, so I'm very grateful, we can work on music in both places.”

Over recent weeks, the band have released a trio of singles under the banner of the Share My Heat collection – Cut My Face, The Hat and the title track came out on Tuesday this week. The latter is a 15 minute epic of swirling psychedelic rock, rolling guitar riffs and pulsing synths.

“There's just those three songs in the collection. It kind of sums up wanting to reconnect in lots of different ways. Like I was saying about wanting to reconnect with myself instead of distracting myself by always being busy. And there has also been bit of analysis of my relationships, I suppose, and also a universal sense of wanting real connection – authentic, real, truthful connection over some of the more shallow rubbish that sometimes happens.

"My search for that is definitely an element of that when you're sensitive and you're a musician and you want great, authentic connections – it can be harder to find. Sometimes you can end up being a lot more introverted and I think that's where I've gone over the years – I've ended up becoming more introverted,” she laughs. “It's a little bit of a reminder for us all to come together as well – and reminding myself that too.”

The band are now out on the tour, the first in four years, following a handful of festival slots and a couple of warm-up shows in Scotland.

“It's crazy isn't it? I don't know where the time has gone – it doesn't feel like that at all.

“We've only done a handful of headlining shows here – we've just come back from Scotland where we did a couple of warm-ups for the tour which were really lovely shows, and it dawned on me more there that we haven't played in the UK for a long while. I'd forgotten what a good old Scottish heckle sounds like!

“It's going to be lovely to revisit some of these places we haven't seen in a while. We've been dabbling with all sorts of tracks and going right through the back catalogue.

“These shows have made me even more geared up for the tour.

“Some of these festivals we've been playing quite short sets – they're a different vibe to doing your own shows.” Given their love of jamming out some of their songs in a live setting, Ritzy adds with a laugh: “Some of them we could literally play two songs and we're finished...”

They are at The Wedgewood Rooms in Southsea on Saturday, September 30, supported by The People Versus and Fake Empire. Tickets £18.50. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.