The folk-tinged alt-rock/postpunk sounds of Hollie Singer, Gwenllian Anthony and Heledd Owen, aka Carmarthen trio Adwaith, have reached larger and more appreciative audiences in the last few years, with second album Bato Mato and a rash of summer festival gigs on the horizon. Buzz’s Emma Way spoke to the three as they gear up for those…
Listen, watch or read the full conversation below
Going into the studio this time around, to record Bato Mato, did you feel more assured in your creative process?
Heledd Owen, drums: Yeah, I think we trusted it a bit more. You had the time to experiment and play around with weird sounds, which I probably would have been a bit scared to do before.
Gwenllian Anthony, bass: I could definitely sense the development.
Hollie Singer, vocals/guitar: We were a bit more confident in ourselves as musicians this time around as well.
“The first album was about your teens and the things that you go through. This album is the next step – being in your 20s and hitting reality”
Gwenllian Anthony, Adwaith
Did you feel restricted on the first album, 2018’s Melyn, because you were so new to it?
Gwenllian: With the first album, we had already played a lot of those songs live. We’d wrote them a few years before we recorded them. So, I guess it was harder to experiment with things – we were just so used to hearing it one way. This time, we wrote it apart from each other because of lockdown, and then we went to the studio and could feel free to experiment.
What themes did you want to explore on Bato Mato?
Gwenllian: We were inspired by our trip to Siberia. That trip, and the landscape, was kind of the main theme for us. We felt like we needed to write about it. The first album was about growing up when you’re in your teens, and the things that you go through – this album is like, the next step. Being in your 20s, realising things are not so positive all the time and hitting reality.
How do you go about getting a landscape, or a location, into a sound?
Hollie: [The recording] is quite open, airy and cold and vast. We wanted it to be bigger, and a bit weirder. Slightly putting you on edge.
Heledd: A lot of the sounds are quite anxious sounds. The lyrics are as well – quite anxiety-induced.
Did you scrap a lot of songs when you came back from Siberia?
Hollie: I feel like we knew those songs weren’t really good enough for the album, maybe?
Gwenllian: Yeah, there was an element of, you know, we’ve worked on these songs and then we’d thrown them away. But yeah, we just knew it wasn’t right.
Heledd: We hadn’t really had time before to do loads of writing, so those songs were quite rushed in a way.
Gwenllian: Lockdown gave us time to concentrate on writing, and no gigs really helped because it’s quite hard to write when you’re gigging all the time.
Was there any pressure following up Melyn?
Gwenllian: I think there was more pressure – it was more fuel to us.
Hollie: When we won the Welsh Music Prize that was confirmation for us that we’re doing the right thing.
What are your personal favourite tracks on Bato Mato?
Gwenllian: It changes all the time. There’s Cwympo, which I think is a metal track – it’s spacey and vast and quite an emotional song. That’s probably my favourite.
Heledd: The first track, Cuddio, I like. It’s a really good opener.
Hollie: This track called Bywyd Syml? It’s hard [to choose]!
Gwenllian: It’s like choosing your kids!
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What are your favourite things about Welsh festivals?
Heledd: They’re welcoming, they’re not pressurising. Nice crowds.
Gwenllian: In the past couple of days [at the time of the interview] there have been a lot of bands talking about their experience of The Great Escape. There’s no water, and they don’t get food tokens or drink tokens or anything like that. Then you get FOCUS Wales, who are so accommodating and always on hand to help you if you need something. I think FOCUS is one of our favourite festivals to play. A lot of people from the Welsh scene are there; everyone’s supporting each other – it’s a really nice atmosphere.
Do you mind that it’s that sort of environment where there are people who haven’t come to see you necessarily, and you have to kind of persuade them to stay and watch you play?
Hollie: That’s how you get new fans, I suppose. When we were walking on the street of Wrexham [during FOCUS Wales] we had these flyers we were handing out and some random guy asked, “do you know if there’s any music on?” We were like, “come see us!”. It’s nice to meet new people and introduce them to our music. Whether that bloke came or not, who knows…
Adwaith’s summer of festival gigs starts on Fri 3 June at In It Together, Old Park Farm, Margam. Info: here
Bato Mato is released on Fri 1 July via Libertino. They play Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff that same day; info: here
More info: Adwaith on Facebook
words EMMA WAY
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