Five Minutes Alone Ritzy Bryan

The hard-rocking frontwoman of Welsh trio The Joy Formidable talks pedals, lessons and the time she nearly drowned in mud...

I got my first real six-string...

“It was a classical guitar, a nylon guitar. I don’t really know why I started like that. I think maybe it was just because we had a lady who gave lessons who lived in the little Welsh town that I come from.”

The kids are alright...

“I started off having classical guitar lessons but I got bored of that quite fast. Around about the age of nine, I started going to see a lot of gigs with my mum and dad. So I went to see Elvis Costello at the Royal Court, and Bruce Springsteen... I loved the fact that the classical element gave me an insight into some of the technical side, like being able to read music; I don’t think I loved the restrictive element that sometimes comes from having lessons.”

A loaded six-string on my back...