GWENNO
Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth
Sun 25 Mar
Gwenno Saunders has never been afraid of pursuing her own path. After releasing Y Dydd Olaf, her Welsh-language debut album in 2014, it is perhaps unsurprising that 2018’s follow-up Le Kov was recorded in Cornish. Yet the Cardiff-born musician had harboured doubts about exploring the language of her father, one with less than 300 native speakers left.
“For a long time, I didn’t write anything in Cornish because I felt it was so fragile that I shouldn’t touch it. But then you realise it will only survive if you use it, so there’s a practicality to using it. Part of it is taking ownership over something you’ve been given by one of your parents. I’m using it and I’ve got to make something out of it; lots of things form your identity and it forms part of mine. I would have to carry it round the rest of my life anyway.”
For Le Kov, Gwenno again returned to using a live band, having previously spent five years in indiepop group The Pipettes. With a nine-date UK tour this month, including an afternoon performance in Aberystwyth’s Ceredigion Museum, she admits to enjoying exploring that side of her music again.
“It’s been really nice to come back to a full band – the record uses a band and we wanted to do that for the tour as well. It’s much more pleasant when you’ve reached a place where you understand your own musicality better.
“Having more experience and knowing what you really love to hear and finding like-minded people to play along with you is amazing. I’m really excited to play with a live band again.”
Despite an already storied career, Gwenno believes she is constantly evolving as an artist.
“It is always moving on, and for me it is all about exploration. Music allows you to do that, to work things out and evolve. The sole driver of music is that you are never going to get to the bottom of it and it is so interchangeable and it belongs to everybody. How brilliant is that? You’re never going to work it out. It is amazing.”
Tickets: £8. Info: 01970 633088 JAMES AYLES