Gruff Rhys: ‘Welsh is still being invented as a pop language’

The Super Furry Animals frontman is back with his ninth solo album. Before a tour of regional village halls in Wales, he talks creating songs in his first language – and why English is the best for swearing

You can’t swear properly in Welsh. I know this, because I’m having a swearing lesson yn Gymraeg from 55-year-old Super Furry Animals frontman, and solo artist, Gruff Rhys. Gruffudd Maredudd Bowen Rhys was born in Haverfordwest in west Wales, grew up in the Welsh-speaking town of Bethesda in north Wales, and has lived in Cardiff since the 90s. His first band, aged 16, were called Ffa Coffi Pawb. The translation is “Everybody’s coffee beans”. But say it phonetically in Welsh and it sounds quite rude.

“Swearing in Welsh is a bit like swearing in Spanish, where you describe terrible things about someone’s mother or something,” Rhys explains. For example, in Spanish, “la madre que te parió” translates as “the woman that birthed you” which means, well, the MF word. “You can create offence for sure, but English is special, in that there’s all these taboo swearwords,” says Rhys. “So Welsh uses English swearwords because they are instantly offensive.”