Buzz’s Emma Way caught up with 2022’s Green Man Rising winners, Cardiff’s Dactyl Terra, after they opened the Mountain Stage on Fri 19 Aug at the festival. Find out about their love of trees, their favourite bands and foil hats…
Joe Tobin: Hi I’m Joe! I play guitar, synth and a little cheeky bit of tambourine.
Erin Julian: I play bass and sing sometimes.
George Williams: I’m George – I play guitar and sing and play a little bit of synth.
Joe: We’re called Dactyl Terra.
George: We have got a drummer [Bailey Love] as well.
Joe: Bailey’s over there somewhere being flexible.
George: He’s got a foil hat on.
Erin: And a really cool sword, actually.
Joe: He’s like a little foil warrior. He was having the time of his life this morning making things out of foil. I think it might be his calling in life, making foil sculptures.
How did you find your performance at Green Man?
Erin: We played on the Mountain Stage. It was awesome! Surreal.
George: The biggest speakers we’ve ever played out of. It was really good.
Joe: Sometimes when you play a big stage, the sound gets a bit lost and it’s quite difficult because you feel like you’re miles away from everyone, but it didn’t really feel like that. There’s lots of really professional people working on it. It’s really laidback backstage and it was really nice.
What’s your favourite act you’ve caught over the weekend?
Erin: I loved Mdou Moctar, they were awesome.
George: I really liked WITCH.
Joe: Viagra Boys for me probably. They were really good.
Erin: I’m looking forward to Ty Segall and Parquet Courts.
Have you been to Green Man before?
Joe: We’ve all been here before. It’s probably collectively our favourite festival. Really good bands, everyone here you meet is really lovely and then a lot of the trees and greenery and stuff is really nice as well.
Erin: That’s one of the best things actually. It sounds stupid but if there’s no shade, if there’s no trees, it can get really uncomfortable.
Any plans for releasing new material?
Erin: We just put out Swordfish, our last single.
George: We thought it would be fun to just record one song and put it out without a plan, just for the satisfaction of having a song and then recording it.
Who produced it?
George: We recorded it ourselves.
Joe: George mixes it and sends it off to be mastered. They record it all in their living room. It’s not really a living room though. It’s like a studio basically. There’s a drum kit in there as well.
If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
Joe: Tom Jones… if you’re listening mate, give us a ring.
Dactyl Terra play Pontllanfraith Rugby Club on Sat 3 Sept. Tickets: £5. Info: here
words EMMA WAY
Discover how our brand new learning experience is giving young people in Wales the skills they need to get ahead.