Gruff Rhys is back with his sixth solo album, Seeking New Gods, which will be out May 21 via Rough Trade.
Seeking New Gods started off as a biography of active East Asian volcano Mount Paektu, but as he investigated it, his ideas for songs became more personal, taking on themes he's explored since at least Super Furry Animals' "Slow Life." “The album is about people and the civilizations, and the spaces people inhabit over periods of time," says Gruff. "How people come and go but the geology sticks around and changes more slowly. I think it’s about memory and time. It’s still a biography of a mountain, but now it’s a Mount Paektu of the mind. You won’t learn much about the real mountain from listening to this record but you will feel something, hopefully.”