Sywel Nyw is Lewys Wyn, and vice versa. Already known as a member of north Wales wonky guitar-poppers Yr Eira, this project’s premise has found Wyn releasing a song a month throughout 2021, each with a different Welsh vocalist (among them: Catatonia’s Mark Roberts, Cardiff soul fave Dionne Bennett and Gwenllian Anthony from Adwaith) and spanning a wealth of styles. January 2022 will see the release of them all in album form as Deuddeg (Twelve).

You’ve said that this song-a-month concept was inspired by Welsh-language indie group Creision Hud in 2011 – was there something special about them as a band or was it just that concept that you mainly liked?

Did you set out trying to include as many styles as you could on the album or did that wide variety come naturally? Were these songs written for the singers?

It was a mixture – the songs that Creision Hud released are brilliant, melodically and structurally well built, genuinely great pop songs. I was also only 15 in 2011, so I was finding myself musically, and this project was exciting and different. I found myself genuinely excited for each month. I’ve been thinking about doing something similar ever since they did their series, and the pandemic was the perfect timing.

“Releasing a song – not to mention 12 of them! – is more complicated than people think…”

Sywel Nyw, aka Lewys Wyn

I wanted each song to be different to each other. It isn’t an album in its traditional sense, so I had room to experiment. Bonsai was the only song that was written specifically to an artist [Glyn Rhys James]; the rest of the songs were real gambles. It was also up to the guest artist to put their own stamp on the songs so a lot of the credit goes to them. 

Were any vocalists tricky to pin down?

I don’t think he’ll mind my saying this – Steff [Breichiau Hir vocalist, who features on Y Meddwl Lliwgar Yma] was a tough one. To be fair, he is such a busy artist, and was in the middle of recording an album!

I guess recording the vocals remotely was necessary, but did it work as you hoped – would you do it that way again if you had the chance?

Yeah, to be honest recording remotely worked much better for me. I might’ve been able to give the artist a little more direction if we recorded in the same room, but all of the artists are so professional, and creatively, they know exactly what they wanted out of the song. We were also able to share ideas over email before the final take, so there was a lot of back and forth.

Were all these songs recorded in advance of the project launching, or month by month?

That was the initial plan! Musically, most of the songs were recorded by November 2020, but the artists needed time to get to know the song and write their melodies and lyrics. Releasing a song – not to mention 12 of them! – is much more complicated than people think…

Compared to how you’ve written and recorded in Yr Eira, was any of Deuddeg outside your comfort zone?

Songwriting techniques are the same, whatever the genre. The main difference to Yr Eira is my adaptability and willingness to experiment. I wasn’t trying to prove anything with these songs so I really didn’t care if I wasn’t applying certain rules or following a proven structural path.

What can we expect from you in 2022?

I’ve got another musical project lined up in the new year which I’m really excited about – and I’ll definitely be writing more Sywel Nyw material in the new year. That’s the beauty of recording everything from home, there aren’t any time constraints.

Sywel Nyw’s Deuddeg is released by Lwcus T on Fri 21 Jan. Info: Facebook

words NOEL GARDNER