Gwenno interview
Gwenno Saunders has never been afraid of pursuing her own path.
After releasing her full-length Welsh language debut album in 2015, it is perhaps unsurprising that 2018’s follow-up Le Kov was recorded in Cornish.
Yet the Cardiff-born musician had harboured doubts about exploring the language of her father, and one with less than 300 native speakers left.
“For a long time, I didn’t write anything in Cornish because I felt it was so fragile that I shouldn’t touch it.
“But then you realise it will only survive if you use it, so there’s a practicality to using it.
“Part of it is taking ownership over something you’ve been given by one of your parents.
“I’m using it and I’ve got to make something out of it.
“Lots of things form your identity and it forms part of mine. I would have to carry it round the rest of my life any way.”
For Le Kov, Gwenno again returned to using a live band, having previously spent five years in indie pop group The Pipettes.
With a nine-date UK tour set to start in March, she admitted to enjoying exploring that side of her music again.
“It’s been really nice to come back to a full band. The record uses a band and we wanted to do that for the tour as well.
“It is much more pleasant when you’ve reached a place where you understand your own musicality better.
“Having more experience and knowing what you really love to hear and finding like-minded people to play along with you is amazing. I’m really excited to play with a live band again.”
Despite an already storied career, Gwenno believes she is constantly evolving as an artist.
“It is always moving on, and for me it is all about exploration.
“Music allows you to do that, to work things out and evolve.
“The sole driver of music is that you are never going to get to the bottom of it and it is so interchangeable and it belongs to everybody.
“How brilliant is that? You’re never going to work it out. It is amazing.”
