With a debut album out this month and a clutch of Welsh and London shows, Celyn Of Gwent talks to Jason Machlab about the creative journey from their hometown of Torfaen; discovering their identity whilst studying classical singing; and facing challenging questions about humanity’s self-perception and our stewardship of the Earth.
What pushes you to create music?
I’ve always been interested in music and different types of performance. When I left Wales at 18, I went to a music conservatoire in London and was doing a classical singing degree. I felt a bit uneasy in that context almost from the get-go, but also had that kind of drive, in training a skill in a very high level. I’ve always had that drive to be making my own work as an artist.
It was a gradual process of developing my own voice, my own kind of performance. I incorporate music and sound, but also experimental theatre and performance art, with obviously a huge deal of influences from the queer scene – clubbing, cabaret and drag. I have some tracks that are kind of spoken word, with field recording and more like soundscape composition, as opposed to some that are more traditional songs, with regular key signatures.
Are there any major artistic blueprints for the way you’re marrying quite heavy social themes with pop styles in your work?
There’s a work kind of encapsulating the same idea that’s had a big influence on me. So, the singer Anohni – she’s amazing – her 2016 album Hopelessness, particularly, was very much about using pop bangers and high-end electronic production as a kind of Trojan horse to bring these political and sociopolitical themes to audiences, and somehow try and present them in a way that lands differently. I think dance music and things and electronic music definitely can be a vehicle for these larger themes, and I think they actually marry quite well as opposed to there being too much of a friction.
On one of your videos, someone left a comment about feeling uncomfortable – to which you responded, “I’m glad to hear about the discomfort!” Why is it important for someone to feel discomfort when looking at art?
I think it’s important to hold up a mirror to the society we’re living in. Sometimes the things we have an initial negative reaction against are the things that actually we end up loving. There’s also so much work that is done to smooth over these uncomfortable realities that underpin the world in which we operate. The world of advertising presents products as if they will make you so happy, says this is all so normal. But once you unpick it, that product was actually made in really grotesque circumstances. Like the fast fashion industry – it’s just destroying us… but we’ll have great skincare.
Among your live shows in the next few weeks is an audiovisual one at Cultvr in Cardiff. Can you give us a preview of what to expect?
That’s a really exciting one – it’s part of a broader album tour show which has an audiovisual aspect running throughout the whole piece. The Cultvr gig will be special because I’m adapting that show for a fulldome presentation. The audience will be completely immersed in those projected visuals, and also the soundsystem is going to be particularly all-encompassing. For my costume I worked with an artist called Mudslide, and there’s a whole AV show with text in both English and Cymraeg.
And just ahead of this, your debut album is finally out too… tell us about the themes on it.
The album – and the live show – is called Dying And Rising. It’s looking at us, and at the fork in the road we have, to either make a huge societal shift and truly recognise the situation that we’re in: a rebirth, and moving away from fossil fuel use, consumption and individuality. If we don’t do that, the planet will make that decision for us.
Celyn Of Gwent, The Globe At Hay, Hay-On-Wye, Sat 19 Sept (tickets: £8. Info: here); Cultvr Lab, Cardiff, Fri 25 Sept (tickets: £14. Info: here); Volcano, Swansea, Thurs 8 Oct (tickets: £8-£20. Info: here); New River Studios, London, Sat 10 Oct (tickets: £13. Info: here).
Dying And Rising is released on Mon 14 Sept.
Info: Linktree
words JASON MACHLAB
