Rhys swiftly put together a band from local musicians, comprising former Flaming Lips drummer Kliph Scurlock, pianist Osian Gwynedd and bassist Stephen Black.

Over three days of recording in Bristol, the new songs were laid down live in the studio – a working method he'd been developing across the American Interior album and his soundtrack for Set Fire to the Stars.

I didn’t play them to anyone – the songs in their raw state reflected the gloom for me and I was worried they would age badly and seem dated.”[10] The delay in releasing the songs was partly down to Rhys’ decision to give them some uplift by bringing in orchestral composer Stephen McNeff, with whom he'd been working on an opera about the World War I poet Hedd Wyn.

He also wrote an extra song, “Selfies In The Sunset”, which was initially recorded with just Rhys on vocals before being reworked as a duet with Lily Cole.

By the time the accompaniment from the BBC National Orchestra Of Wales was recorded, “the world was still pretty bad,”[12] so Rhys felt the songs still stood up.