Interview with Ffredi Blino: ‘A few constraints make it easier because you have to focus’

Aussie-born, Wales-based singer-songwriter Ffredi Blino will release his debut album, The Dishwasher Tapes, next week.

Ffredi Blino is an invented name which reflects Blino’s love of linguistic word play, giving a big nod to his adopted homeland. In Welsh, ‘wedi blino’ means ‘tired’ – you might say it in the middle of a yawn. ‘Ffredi Blino’ turns that phrase into a name – and one that a non-Welsh-speaker can have a good chance of pronouncing right!

‘The theme of the album is no consistency!,’ he laughed. ‘There are dancey, heavy rock and gentler ones on there.’ The album comprises 10 tracks, including some singles that he’s already released: ‘Dwwwi’ (in Welsh), ‘Comfort Zone’ and ‘Pedestrian Motion’. New tracks include ‘(Take me back to) Honolulu’ and ‘(I wanna be a) Rock’n’roll star’.

The album name came about after he recorded it at home in September and October and references one of the new tracks on the album, ‘Dishwasher: Reloaded’ whereby he recorded loading the dishwasher with his son and turned the noise into a drum beat. ‘There’s another song, ‘Hey Dishcloth’ that I really like, it has a Pavementy vibe to it,’ he laughed.

‘I’ve always enjoyed mucking around with languages’

The first track on the album is Blino’s incredibly catchy, dancey and multilingual track, ‘Roken in de Kamer’, which he released as a single last month: ‘I’ve always enjoyed mucking around with languages,’ he explained. ‘I enjoy getting the basics in a language. I studied Mandarin at uni and I worked for a company where I spent some time in Belgium – even people in East and West Flanders can’t always understand each other! The Flemish phrase ‘Roken in de Kamer’ (‘smoking in the room’) stuck. The other Flemish phrase in the song ‘enkele ogenblikken te wachten’ (please hold a while) is the on hold message I heard a lot at work! It has great syncopation, great rhythm’.

‘Roken in de Kamer’ effortlessly mixes up English, Flemish, Mandarin, French and Welsh to such an extent that if you’re not listening really closely, you barely notice the change of language. For example, in the line ‘Wǒmen dōu shì fēicháng hǎo péngyǒumen in de Kamer, niet Roken in de Kamer’, the Mandarin seamlessly transitions into Flemish and translates as ‘we are all extremely good friends in the room, not smoking in the room!’

His next single off the album will be ‘(Take me back to) Honolulu’. ‘It’s a friendly, boppy one,’ he said. ‘We shot the video for it last week. We came up with the fantasy story about a guy who wins a ticket to Honolulu through a karaoke competition and wants a girl to go with him. She has another boyfriend and regrets it.’

Another track ‘Comfort Zone;’ is a reworking of an older version. ‘It’s a reworking of what was a rock song,’ he said. ‘ I got a new guitar and rewrote some of the words.’

He describes his upcoming album as defined by the limited tools available: ‘A single mic, a creaking Windows Vista laptop and no bandmates! The ethos is lo-fi, the drums are (mostly) electronic, happy mistakes are kept in, and experiments are everywhere! A few constraints make it easier because you have to focus, you’re forced to work with those constraints. ‘Comfort Zone’ is the only song I’ve drummed on myself.’

As frontman of various bands, he has performed at a range of gigs and festivals around mid-Wales for the last 10 years, including Radnor Fringe, MachFest, Workhouse and his Llanidloes hometown offerings: KINGSfest and Sesiwn:Session. His debut gig is scheduled for December 28, as part of the live streaming KINGSfest Xmas show.

Big influences have been Pavement, Prince, Mozart and Miles Davies. ‘I can’t get attracted to one genre,’ he said. ‘Some people are attached to a sub-genre, which is cool, but I get really excited by an album or an artist. I’d love to have time to listen to more new music.’

However, his biggest inspiration has been Talking Heads: ‘As a kid, they were the band that grabbed me. David Byrne (lead vocals, guitar) could write songs about anything, not corny love songs. It was observational stuff and he wasn’t trying to be cool but of course they were super cool. I was lucky to see their American Utopia tour last year. I really admire him as a songwriter and as an artist. When you think they started off in the 70’s, he’s got an undefeatable spirit.’