On the second day of Showcase Scotland 2022, international delegates take part in a day of discussion, exploring the current challenges facing the music industry across the globe.
We speak about some of those challenges with the Wales Festivals and Venues Representative at Showcase Scotland, and Chief Executive at Clwb Ifor Bach, Clwb Music and Sŵn Festival - Guto Brychan.
What are your favourite Welsh festivals and why?
Other than of course Maes B, on which I’ve worked almost 20 years, and Sŵn Festival that I’ve been developing with Clwb Ifor Bach, I’ve not had much chance to go to and enjoy other festivals, especially with Maes B in the middle of summer. But I have enjoyed going to Green Man to see bands over the last few years. When I was younger, Roc Ystwyth was great for getting to know Welsh bands better. It would be nice to see more of them.
Why do you think there aren’t more festivals in Wales?
We have some great venues but maybe a lack of infrastructure for events and to get people in, and it’s difficult to try and develop that infrastructure. There is definitely potential to see more festivals here, if we look at what Brecon Jazz was able to do, there was so much buy-in from the local people and communities, as well as attracting a lot of people in with the acts that were playing and so forth.
What are your favourite venues in Wales and why?
Other than Clwb Ifor Bach of course, when I was growing up in Aberystwyth, there were so many opportunities to see bands. Before the arrival of O2 Academies, the bands were more likely to tour around the country through the student’s unions, so I had the opportunity to see bands like Stone Roses playing in Aberystwyth, which doesn’t exist now.
What is it about the Welsh language music scene that sets it apart?
The Welsh language music scene is developing in its own right. Without the infrastructure, it develops more independently, idiosyncratically with a different feel to it. THere is so much creativity here, so much independence, but we have a challenge of transferring that, and a challenge of finding pathways to allow artists to continue to develop.
How has the Welsh language music landscape changed or developed over the last 2 decades?
There are far fewer promoters and it’s a lot harder now to put events on. It would be nice to have a circuit for touring bands, there is a big challenge for us to put live performances on outside of the large towns.
What is one word you’d use to describe the Welsh language music scene currently?
Independent.
Welsh language music is gaining more and more recognition on national broadcast media in recent years, with names like Huw Stephens and Sian Eleri championing artists on national stations, is this the key to developing awareness more globally?
Not necessarily, especially when there are so many ways to discover music. For example, Alffa reaching a million streams with a huge audience in South America. The type of artist is what decides the type of circuits they need to feed into. For example, with folk music, they’re able to play at festivals across the world whilst indie or electronic music is more of a natural stepping stone to play across the UK.
Independent music venues and festivals have had a more challenging pandemic than most industries, have there been any positives? A chance to take stock? Innovate?
It was an opportunity for Clwb Ifor Bach to take a step back and think about what exactly we wanted to do as an organisation. As a venue, we were more or less closed from March 2020 to August 2021. We were fortunate because the support for the creative sector in Wales has been a lot better than in other regions, the open dialogue with Government departments has been essential.
We’ve had the opportunity to develop Clwb Music, a label/management/publishing project we started before the pandemic, as one of the building blocks of the infrastructure needed to strengthen the music community in Wales, and to help artists find pathways into the industry. We’ve seen some success too, with organising for Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard to play in SXSW and Panic Shack are currently on tour around the UK.
Global artists are making changes in how they tour in light of the climate emergency, how can we support smaller artists and their teams to engage in more sustainable ways of touring?
Riders have been a big one that we’ve managed to change, we send bands out on tour with less now so they can procure locally but also at our level the footprint is much smaller, you have a band travelling in a car or a van as most of the infrastructure they need is at the venue already.
Venues in Wales have been in the limelight for difficult reasons in recent years, with so many closures across the country. Clwb Ifor Bach is one of those who has been resilient in these difficulties, what can we do for independent live music that will enable resilience now and in the future?
One organisation that has been essential during this is Music Venue Trust. They have been at the forefront, with a clear and coherent plan to target Government departments. We’re very lucky at Clwb that we own the building that we’re in, and it’s likely that we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for this. If you think about the venues that have closed in Cardiff like 10 Feet Tall and Gwdihw, the reason for their closure was due to landlords, and Music Venue Trust raises money to create a fund that that allows venus to buy the buildings.
Venues create connections with their communities and they’re places that people have shown that they want to use, so it is important that they’re able to stay in those buildings.
As a venue, and a newly established label/publishing and management company, how can we support artists beyond buying tickets to live shows, or buying their music?
We need to ensure that the building blocks are there. There is a correspondence between good organisations existing and supporting artists, with Wales’ music thriving. We need more managers, more promoters, and more publishers. There is a good enough audience here in terms of numbers, we need to develop it just like the ffilm and television industry have managed to develop in Wales across the last few years.
We need opportunities within the industry for people to support themselves and sustain their development. Connections within the industry have improved in the past few years, and people are working in less of an insular way now.
Dydd Miwsig Cymru has become a global celebration of Welsh language music, whys is it important that we promote Welsh language music internationally – and what does it mean to the arts communities in Wales?
Dydd Miwsig Cymru has done good work in getting Welsh language music in places that it wouldn’t be played usually, and have normalised it and made people more aware of it. It shows that Welsh language music being created reflects what is being created everywhere else, and shows that it is a modern language and that people live their lives through the language.
This text is a transcript of an audio recording.