Gruff Rhys

Rake and Balcony seating in the Auditorium.

Shetland Arts presents Gruff Rhys live in concert, debuting his new album ‘American Interior,’ as part of Screenplay 2014.

Mareel will be the opening venue for the September tour by multi-talented Welsh musician, composer, & filmmaker Gruff Rhys (of Super Furry Animals, Neon Neon, & solo fame). Taking advantage of the cinema and music venue under one roof, Gruff’s new film ‘American Interior’ will be screened with an accompanying Q&A from the man himself, followed by a live performance in Mareel’s Main Auditorium. Both events will take place as part of Screenplay 2014, Shetland Arts annual film festival.

Through nine albums with Super Furry Animals, two with Neon Neon and handful of solo LPs, Gruff Rhys has distinctively documented the lives of others. Each time, those stories have been set to pop music heavily seeped in timeless melody and wide-eyed wonder.

‘American Interior’ may well be Gruff’s most fully realised character study yet. A warm and moving study of a true outsider life, it tells a story so far-fetched, it could only ever be true. The album, along with the complimentary film, follows the path set by John Evans, a North Walian who set off on a quest to find the Madogwys – a legendary tribe of light skinned, Welsh speaking native Americans.

An untrained cartographer, the map Evans made of his journey went beyond the known borders of the United States and ended up becoming the guide for Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery Expedition (1804 – 1806).

Gruff’s own exploration of Evans’ life took him from a Native American sagebrush ceremony in an arts centre in Canton,Cardiff to the heart of Mandan country in North Dakota. Along the way, he undertook an ‘investigative concert tour’ that wound its way from Yale University all the way to Memphis; a tour that would help cement his reputation as a social historian and master storyteller. As a direct result of that nine-date tour and extensive research undertaken on the way, Gruff returned home as arguably the world’s leading authority on Evans’ incredible life.

All ages are welcomed.

Tickets for the cinema screening of American Interior + Q&A will go on sale later this month after the special Screenplay preview screening of Doc of the Dead on Tuesday 24 June, where an exclusive Screenplay 2014 announcement will be made.