People and parties
THE ENIGMATIC AND TALENTED CERYS MATTHEWS HAS A NEW ALBUM OUT.
BUT FORGET CATATONIA – THE DIRECTION AND SOUND OF THIS REMARKABLE SINGER
SONGWRITER HAVE MOVED ONTO BETTER THINGS. BY ED GLEAVE
It’s probably safe to say most singers love
Cerys Matthews.
music. But few could possibly love it more
than Cerys Matthews. Once you get her
talking about it, there’s little or no way of
stopping her.
While many singers are often preoccupied
with the fame and fortune that accompanies
the spotlight, Cerys’s main focus rarely strays
from her infectious passion for music.
“Everything else I do is fun, but music is
my fi rst love,” says Cerys. “This is my most
perfect period in terms of the variety of
music I’m able to play and sing and release.
Everything I do revolves around music, and
all sorts of music. At the moment I am
enjoying fl amenco, Jamaican and Greek. It’s
great to enjoy this music and have people
celebrate it with you.”
And just when you think Cerys has fi nished
talking about music, she continues.
“All the songs I release, I have written and
produced myself. Music is my fi rst love. I’ve
been involved with songwriting and collecting
traditional songs for a long time now. I started
some interesting themes. It’s been said that surprising, that she is also launching a Welsh
writing songs when I was nine. Music is the
it’s the best album I’ve made, even including language version of the album, called Paid
heartbeat of anything I do.”
the Catatanoia stuff. So it’s an exciting time.” Edrych I Lawr, at the same time.
MORE THAN CATATONIA
Comparisons with Cerys’s work as the band’s “I like challenges so I decided to make two
frontwoman are inevitable. But eight years full-length albums. I’ve got one in English and
Cerys is best known for her time fronting
after they split, Cerys stresses things have we’re simultaneously releasing a version in
indie band Catatonia, who set the charts
very much moved on. Welsh. I believe that’s the fi rst time in history
alight in the late 1990s. After they split
that’s been done.
in 2001, Cerys went solo and has since “I’ve been doing stuff as a solo artist for as
released a string of albums. long now as when I was in Catatonia, so “I love languages and I love the difference
I don’t really compare and contrast,” she in culture I’m chronically curious. I don’t
With a new release in the shops, it seems
want to forget anything that makes life more
she’s as much in demand as ever.
“It’s busy at the moment. With the album
“THIS IS A NEW
interesting and having differences is one of
those things.
coming out, there’s a lot of exictement,” she
says. “It’s got a lot of Radio 2 play. I’ve been
JOURNEY. AND
Accompanying the release of both her albums
has been a theatre tour, including a date at
on Jools Holland’s show and on radio with
Dermot O’Leary.
IT’S AS EXCITING
Swansea’s Taliesin Arts Centre.
“With the live show, I’m playing with
“I’ve also got my regular show on BBC Six
Music. And I’m doing a documentary for
AS EVER.”
musicians from Nashville and New York.
We play Catatonia stuff, my solo stuff and
BBC2 on Maida Vale, which has housed the
different versions of very well-known classic
BBC sessions studios for the past 75 years.
We’re riffl ing through the archives of the likes
says. “Having those songs has been kind to
songs like Elvis Presley’s Love Me Tender.
of Bing Crosby and Sarah Vaughan, BB King,
me. It’s just a journey and that was an early
Rolling Stones, The Smiths – right up to the
part. This is a new journey. It’s almost 10
“I had a great show not that long ago in the
modern day. That keeps me quite busy.”
years now and it’s as exciting as ever. I got
Grand [on her 2007 theatre tour] and I have
to do collaborations all those years ago with
got to say it was one of my favorite gigs ever.
Cerys is now based in London, with her
Space and Tom Jones. I’ve sung with Larry
I grew up near Swansea, so it meant a lot
long-term partner Mark Roberts. She has
Adler. I sang on a porch in Mississipi with the
for me to come back and fi ll it. It is also great
two children. “We straddle Pembrokeshire
living delta legend Honeyboy Edwards. And it
to have a date at the Taliesin so close to the
and London. We have the best of both
continues that way.
Dylan Thomas anniversary; it’s exciting.”
worlds,” says Cerys. “We work in London
and then every time the children have time
“On my radio show on BBC Six music I get
While Cerys loves to chat about music, she
off school we hotfoot it up the M4 and have
to meet Beth Ditto from Gossip and Robin
does not like to chat about her private life.
the wildness of Pembrokeshire. They balance
Hitchcock and Tito Jackson. I’m so immersed
Perhaps surprisingly for a woman who went
each other nicely.”
with music at the moment and I’m really
into the I’m A Celebrity jungle a few years
enjoying it.”
ago, it seems being pregnant with her third
child is not something she wants to discuss
For now though, it’s likely Cerys will be fi rmly
based in the capital promoting her latest
THANK THE LORD…
in any depth. It seems while Cerys is without
solo release, Don’t Look Down. “It’s a lot
Brought up in Swansea and educated in
doubt one of Wales’s brightest music stars,
more cinematic. We’ve got some really huge
Llanelli, Cerys’s pride in her Welsh roots
one thing you won’t catch her shouting from
sounds on it with a new vibe going on,” she
and the Welsh language has been well
the rooftops is “I’m a celebrity.”
documented. So it’s unusual, but not that
xxx xxx xxx xxx
says. “There are some beautiful songs with Don’t Look Down is out now.
swansealife August 2009 37
CerysMathews.indd 37 19/10/2009 17:56:34
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164