Tell us about yourself and your creative background
I’ve been making music since I was a child but really got into it as I was finishing school. I decided to go to Falmouth University to study Popular Music, where I learnt a lot about the business and the behind-the-scenes stuff, especially recording.
While I was in Cornwall, I also started to connect more with my Welsh identity and what it meant to be a Welsh creative, so I knew after finishing my course I was going to move back to Cardiff and try to get into the Welsh music scene.
So, what’s your Creative First?
My Creative First is Beth Nawr, the album I released with my band Static Inc in October 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. After moving back to Cardiff and getting in touch with my bandmates (Siôn and Patrick), we started recording using the skills I'd learnt at University, developing more ideas as we were together. We spent all of 2019 recording and were about to finish at the start of 2020, but this was delayed by the pandemic. In summer 2020, we released the single, followed by the full album in October. I was furloughed from my part-time job during that period, so it was vitally important for me to have something to work on during that time and keep me motivated. It was essentially what I did for work every day, and it was really fun.
What was the biggest challenge you faced?
The pandemic- we've been making music together for 11 years and we know our creative impulses really well so the process of working together was just fun. We'd go to each other's houses, talk about what we wanted to do and just get on and do it, there was a lot of trust there too. That bit at the start was enjoyable and exciting, but then when it all came to a halt, we had to move everything online and it took a while to adjust to remote working and cloud sharing.
Can you share tips for others who want to release their own music
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Make sure you’re having fun – if you stop enjoying it, it’s going to be so hard to keep motivated.
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Plan your time – make sure you give it the time it needs, but also know when to stop and do other things. As a freelancer, it can be hard to structure my time, so we made a schedule and kept to it, which really helped us.
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Keep it relevant to you – work with what you know, it’s more likely to resonate with others and can be a powerful and cathartic experience.
Would you approach things differently if you were to start again?
Yes, I would. Since making the album, I’ve learnt so much about my craft, about engineering, production, song writing and performing, just from the practice of doing the first one. The next thing we’re working on is an EP and there’s definitely things that I would like to do differently this time. Having said that, the experience of doing it that way is how I learnt the things I'd do to improve. Making mistakes is a very important step, and just having finished a project, learning from it, and go onto the next thing is such an achievement. If you spend loads of time editing, then you just won’t release it.
Nobody is going to be as critical as you as you are to yourself, so sometimes it’s important to just roll with it.
Why choose Cardiff for your Creative First?
There’s a strong sense of solidarity in Cardiff, it’s such a special place, especially for creatives. Everyone is looking out for each other, it’s so supportive. I knew immediately it was where I wanted to go to be a creative.
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