“Bad Friend” By Gruff Rhys

Gruff Rhys is pleased to share a new track and video “Bad Friend,” the final single from his forthcoming album Sadness Sets Me Free, out January 26 via Rough Trade Records.Gruff announced a March US tour including a stop at SXSW in addition to a previously announced full UK tour. Gruff has also confirmed North American festival appearances for Summer 2024.

Gruff says of his new track: “People always refer to ‘good friends’. This song is toying with the idea of the ‘bad friend’. Maybe a bad friend is still better than not being a friend at all. Some friends function better than others, but they’re not enemies. Within the structures of 21st-century life, the pressure on people’s time – and what we are expected to be able to perform in daily life – is so kaleidoscopic. If I could shorten the sentiments to one line, it would be ‘all in good time’. It’s me reaching out to friends through song because maybe I haven’t had the chance to go to their house or talk to them on the phone.”

The video was directed by Gruff’s long term co-creative and visual artist Mark James, and filmed on location through Wales and at Hard Lines Coffee in Canton, Cardiff, Wales.

In a career that has taken him from the slate-mining towns of north-west Wales, down to the expat communities of Patagonia, up to the Mandan tribe of the Great Plains of North America and across to the Tuareg rock groups of the Saharan Desert, Gruff Rhys, one of Britain’s most beloved and successful singer-songwriters, has always been willing to follow an opportunity, wherever it may lead him. “At this point I quite like working with serendipity,” he says. “Not in a cosmic way, [but] I try and leave things open to chance encounters and chance geography. As I’m around 25 albums in I’m always looking for ways to make a different-sounding record.”

Gruff Rhys
Sadness Sets Me Free
Track Listing
Rough Trade Records

01) Sadness Sets Me Free
02) Bad Friend
03) Celestial Candyfloss
04) Silver Lining Lead Balloons
05) On The Far Side of the Dollar
06) They Sold My Home to Build a skyscraper
07) Peace Signs
08) Cover up the Cover up
09) I Tended My Resignation
10) I’ll Keep Singing

Gruff Rhys 2024 Tour Dates

February 2nd – Aberystwyth, Arts Centre
February 7th – London, Kings Place (Sold Out)
February 8th – London, Kings Place
February 10th – Manchester, New Century Hall (Sold Out)
February 14th – Belfast, Empire Music Hall
February 15th – Dublin, Sugar Club (Sold Out)
February 16th – Dublin, Sugar Club
February 17th – Liverpool, Hanger 34
February 19th – Glasgow, St Lukes
February 22nd – Bristol, Strange Brew (Sold Out)
February 23rd – Bristol, Strange Brew (Sold Out)
February 24th – Narberth, Queens Hall.
February 28th – Berlin, Badehaus
February 29th – Hamburg, Nachtasyl
March 2nd – Koln, Theater De Wogngemeinschaft
March 3rd – Amsterdam, Zonzij
March 5th– Paris, Solaris
March 8th – Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool
March 9th – Washington, DC @ DC9
March 10th – Raleigh, NC @ Kings
March 11th – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
March 13th – Austin, TX @ SXSW
March 14th – Austin, TX @ SXSW
March 15th – Austin, TX @ SXSW
March 18th – Phoenix, AZ @ Dirty Drummer
March 19th – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room
March 20th – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
March 23rd – Sacramento, CA @ Starlet Room
March 24th – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
March 26th – Portland, OR @ Mission Theatre
March 27th – Seattle, WA @ Barboza