Category: Interviews

Y Pencadlys in Conversation

I caught up with Haydon Hughes, Y Pencadlys, at Gwdihw on Thursday night. He was playing with Kizzy Crawford and Endaf Gremlin at the opening night of Maes b’s warm up tour.

It was a superb night, Kizzy Crawford, blew everyone away, again, with her masterful use of a complicated looking looping pedal.

Endaf Gremlin proved that contrary to popular belief, super groups really can be super. Some great tunes that we hope will be released.

While their set was getting started, Haydon and I discussed how he got into electronic music, his abstract lyrics and his plans for the summer. Apologies for the poor recording- an opportunistic interview on my phone was the best I could do.

A transcript will emerge soon.

Lessons on Eos / Radio Cymru with Gruff Rhys

Lessons on Eos / Radio Cymru with Gruff Rhys

Gruff Rhys talks to MTV about the ongoing dispute between Eos and Radio Cymru.

Halley Bondy is right to say that this issue, although primarily (and most importantly, in my humble opinion) to do with how much an artist should be paid for their work, has raised many other related issues.

Subsidising Welsh music culture by what is effectively the state, the validity of marginalised cultures in general and the devolution of broadcasting to Wales are some of the broader discussions that have been taking place alongside the debate between Eos and BBC Radio Cymru.

One heartening side-effect of this seemingly never-ending loggerheads between Eos and the BBC is that a real debate about the arts and their worth to society is finally taking place on a very public platform. That is a very good thing.

Spotlight on: Al Lewis

Surround Swn has blogged about Al Lewis so I don’t have to. good huh! A great blog to take a look at when you have a moment.

Surround Swn

Swiftly on his way to becoming one of our finest exports, Al Lewis has the knack of writing infectiously catchy songs which have a blurred hue of recognition, as though you already knew them. This is no accident. Drawing on the gentle yet forceful techniques of the traditional singer-songwriters of the 60’s and 70’s, most notably the deep melancholia of Nick Drake and keen warble of Paul Simon, he wanders a well-trodden path of folk-pop while bulking it out with a few modern advances.

Although it was his Welsh Music Prize nominated 2011 LP ‘In the Wake’ that propelled him to widespread critical acclaim, Lewis is fiercely proud of his bilingualism. Originally from Pwlheli on the coast of North Wales, Lewis first began to make his name on the scene after coming second in the Cân I Gymru (Song for Wales) contest in 2007. His first two EP’s ‘Byw Mewn…

View original post 210 more words