Observations About Wales:

From Travel To Business & Politics

first published in   October 1998

Kiss Us, We’re Welsh!

Neil Young, internationally renowned singer, songwriter and record label founder, has with one swipe of his pen done more to popularize things Welsh in America (since Patrick McGoohan did so in the late 1960s) than any individual or organization charged with this task. How? Neil signed the Welsh band Catatonia to his prestigious Vapor Records earlier this year. Catatonia’s first American release for Vapor, International Velvet, was released in August. The release was augmented by a dozen Catatonia concert dates on the east and west coasts, where some American fans sang along with the band -- in Welsh.

Catatonia member Aled Richards amiably agrees with the observation. “And Neil’s not Welsh or American. He’s Canadian,” Aled comments, adding another fragment to the mosaic of the internationalism that is apparent in Catatonia’s story.

Born in Cardiff in 1992, Catatonia early in its career released songs with lyrics in English, Welsh, French and Spanish on the independent label Crai. Their charismatic lead singer, Cerys Matthews, who worked in Spain as a nanny, is fluent in Spanish and has a command of French. Every member of the band speaks Welsh.

International Velvet’s title cut is sung in Welsh, except for the refrain in English: “Everyday when I wake up/I thank the Lord I’m Welsh.”  Aled, the band’s soft-spoken drummer, is pleased to say that the band’s English fans “have taken the time to learn the [Welsh] lyrics. And we found some people here [in America] also who have as well.”

This is sweet, indeed, for Aled, who recalls being called a “Welsh leek” as a lad while on holidays in England. “Now,” he says, “you find that in England, people who years ago wouldn’t are coming up to the band and laying claim to their [own] Welsh background saying, ‘Oh, my grandparents are from Wales’, or ‘I have some cousins who are Welsh’. They’re proud to talk about it. Company people, also, who would never have signed a Welsh band earlier. They like to be a part of it.”

Listeners should bear in mind that, as lead singer Cerys stated, the song “International Velvet” “has more to do with the acceptance of other cultures” than with Welsh nationalism. What people think the lyric means is probably more meaningful that the lyric itself. Another cheerful inkblot test in the same song is the line “Darganfyddais gwir baradwys Rhyl” (“I discovered the true paradise of Rhyl”). Aled admits this is also a bit tongue-in-cheek. However, it seems to be done in a loving way. Besides, it rhymes well with “Gwledd o fedd gynhyrfodd Cymraes swil.” It should be noted that Cerys’s perfect enunciation of the Welsh syllables in the song go a long way in helping non-Welsh speakers easily learn the words. 

What makes Catatonia’s music so seductive that after hearing the band many listeners want to be a little bit Welsh? Well, the fundamental things apply in Catatonia’s approach to songwriting and performance. The band’s sound is ebullient, melodic, anthem-like rock with a dash of folksiness. For example there are at least three acoustic guitars humming along on “Don’t Need the Sunshine”, which was recorded without drums. So where was Aled while the rest of his bandmates were laying down this track?

“Oh, I went fishing,” he says. “There’s a river running past our studio in Monmouth.”

Forget Rhyl, Catatonia sounds as if they found their own paradise in South Wales, living as they do around Cardiff, and commuting to a lovely spot in Monmouth to record. They have no plans for leaving Wales.

Catatonia’s main instrument line up includes two guitars, drums, bass and Cerys’s voice, which ranges from sandpaper to honey. Many of the songs are about love. Even when they are not (such as “I Am the Mob”, which remembers the line “Lucca Brazzi, ah, he sleeps with the fishes/Missus”) the attractive Catatonia sound is still somehow romantic

Catatonia will likely include Welsh lyrics, along with whatever other languages they fancy, on future songs. After a rest this fall, they plan another CD and a tour of Wales and England, possibly with the Manic Street Preachers.

When your reporter mentions that the band should consider the grounds of Caernarfon Castle a nice place to do a show, Aled lights up and says “I think I’ll suggest that!”  You heard it here first. Catatonia is planning to return to America in early 1999.