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BIO
Ffredi Blino is the brainchild of Welsh/Aussie songwriter and performer Owen Jolly. Commencing as a lockdown, front-room solo recording project in 2020, an album’s worth of songs quickly materialised and went out as the debut release for Shag on a Rock Records. This was The Dishwasher Tapes, an eclectic mix of indie-funk-post-punk-rock-lounge-electronica-kitchen-appliance goodness, featuring the single (Take Me Back To) Honolulu which received great support from Cerys Matthews on BBC 6 Music, and the funky Welsh-language groove Dwwwi, which came in at #1 on Rhys Mwyn’s 2021 Siart Amgen (Alternative Chart) on BBC Radio Cymru.
Ffredi’s follow-up release, Tarmac Roads and Fences (2023) was recorded with longtime friend and collaborator Sophie Wozencraft on drums and took off towards acoustic/folky/country territory, without neglecting the rock and funk. The title track and its Welsh-language partner Ffyrdd Tarmac a Ffenses bookend the album and were released as a double-A-side single, offering two very different takes on the same concept. Funky love song for insects Fruitfly also received airplay from Cerys Matthews.
Ffredi Blino has performed live at numerous venues and festivals around Wales and England both as a 3-piece band and as a soloist. Highlights include Brecon Jazz Fringe, In The Sticks, KINGSfest, The Lost Arc Rhayader, Elysium Swansea, Bank Vault Aberystwyth, The Foundry Brecon.
Ffredi is currently assembling tracks for an upcoming third album release.
WHY FFREDI BLINO?
It’s an invented name which reflects a love of linguistic word-play, and gives 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 at first glance!
OTHER PROJECTS & EARLY DAYS:
You can find Owen performing as part of Lot.V, a duo featuring the fantastic young singer/songwriter Lily Deakin – gigs happening now around Wales and England, and releases coming soon. He is also drummer and lead vocalist for garage/trash/punk quartet The Legendary Bumtones.
Previous projects in mid-Wales include Kows (new releases from the vault planned soon!) and The Kryptics, which he fronted as OJ Kryptic.
Prior to his relocation to Wales in 2005, Owen was frontman of various Aussie bands including Spacejunk (whose lead guitarist Andy F. Hillhouse features on the Ffredi Blino single Tarmac Roads and Fences), and an early Australian incarnation of The Kryptics.
CONTACT: info@ffrediblino.com
