Henwlad

Sion of Hen Wlad Fy Mamau/Land of My Mothers
Interview for Glitter, summer '97

Glitter: What do you sing about?

Sion: I�d say in general we sing about what goes on in Wales. Partly protest songs,
partly songs just explaining about culture, all sorts of aspects about Wales
�cos that�s where we live. In a way, it�s a form of education, giving people
the chance to hear about Wales and what�s going on.

Glitter: What are your influences?

Sion: We�re mainly into club/dance music but we�re influenced by all sorts of
stuff, bands like Prodigy and Leftfield, but also there�s the Welsh aspect. We
sample traditional Welsh instruments like harps and violins and come up with
quite a new sound. It�s not as we�re influenced by any particular band or anything,
we just grab a whole load of influences or anything that we think �oh, that�s quite
good� and use it to create something new.

Glitter: Is image important?

Sion: I think that depends on what sort of a band you are or what exactly you�re
trying to do. If you�re just a four-piece guitar band who play �go for it rock n� roll�
then it doesn�t matter so much, you can just turn up in jeans and a t-shirt, plug
in and away you go! But for ourselves there�s more to it than just the music. We�ve got a visual show as well, which involves video mixing, projectors, lighting, etc. So obviously then for us how we look on stage is quite important in how it fits into the overall show. It�s not that it�s a drama show or anything but it all links up. So it is fairly important but obviously what we wear when we record in the studio is completely different to what we might wear on stage. So I�d say yes and no.

Glitter: Do you speak Welsh to each other all the time and do you sing in Welsh?

Sion: It�s our first language, we speak Welsh to each other all the time, at work, at play, wherever. We think in Welsh. In Wales it�s a naturally bilingual society so it�s quite easy to swap from Welsh to English or from English to Welsh, even in mid sentence depending on who you�re talking to. We sing mostly in Welsh, yeah. Some things might be little vocal snip bits that are almost like sound effects, some songs have full vocals which are usually in Welsh. But it�s not exclusively Welsh, because again we wish to portray Wales as it is now and same as everywhere else it�s a multicultural society, so we�ve got bits of Welsh and occasional bits in English. In the past we�ve worked with a guy who raps in Punjabi, which is an Indian language, �cos he was living in Wales. He spoke English, a little bit of Welsh and quite a lot of Punjabi. Myself, Sion the singer, I�m more likely to sing in Welsh.

Glitter: Is there such a thing as a �Welsh scene�?

Sion: Yes and no. There are a lot of bands now who�re starting to get successful throughout Britain and Europe who�ve all started out in Wales, but because Wales is such a small country everyone knows everyone, almost. If you live up in North Wales you�ve probably got a cousin in South Wales who�s in college or whatever. So there�s a connection throughout Wales and wherever you go you�re gonna know someone, or someone who knows someone. So it�s quite easy for bands to get gigs in Wales, there are five or six places that are always putting on gigs. One thing that�s really good is that bands of different styles of music will play together, if there�s a gig on they�ll go and do it. So in a way that does create a Welsh scene �cos everyone�s played with everyone and different people have been in different bands. There�s not so much bitchiness in between bands, when someone does well everyone�s glad for them.

Glitter: Who do you regard as cool?

Sion: No one really. I don�t think anyone should go around thinking someone else is cool because everyone�s an individual and everyone�s probably quite cool in their own way.

Glitter: What makes you happy?

Sion: Creating music and giving people the chance to listen to it even if they like it or not. That you can successfully produce what you feel is good music and get it in the shops, get it on the radio, get it played, do the gigs. In a way you�re trying to give people a bit of happiness in their lives just by giving them music.

Glitter: What do you dream about?

Sion: Being as successful as possible, get as many people to hear our music as possible. Given the choice if you were to say �would you like everyone in Wales to have heard your music or everyone throughout the world,� I�d go, yeah, everyone throughout the world �cos then you get the chance to travel around the world, meet people, see different cultures. You learn so much through that, it�s a fantastic experience. We�ve done that quite a lot in the past and it�s the best education we�ve ever had, just seeing things, meeting people.

Glitter: Do you have any phobias?

Sion: I suppose of heights and wasps and the other to in the band must have phobias about doing interviews �cos they�ve legged it!

Glitter: Name three records that changed your life!

Sion: That�s absolutely impossible to answer, simply because all the time, every week, every month, every year there�s new records coming out, there�s new bands being formed, so you�re continuously hearing songs that make you think �oh that�s brilliant!� So that�s a thing that just changes all the time and that again, is what�s good about music, that you�ve continuously got new things, people creating new music. So in a way it�s good that I can�t answer that question.

Glitter: Have you ever done a fanzine?

Sion: Yes, about 10-12 years ago when we started off doing music. We had the band going and we were also putting on gigs, we did a couple of different fanzines, started a little record label�which at the time was a way of doing as many things as possible. It�s a good way of contacting people, making new contacts, getting to hear about what people have been doing.

Land of My Mothers / Hen Wlad Fy Mamau are a collective of different people. The core members are Sion Sebon, Rhys Mwyn and Meryl who take care of recording work, overall plans and concepts. A single Tra Di Di was released on March 24th and some copies are still out there looking for friends. Rhys and Sion used to run Ahnrefn Records, set up in 1983.

(C) Glitter Fanzine 1997

Update 2001: "Hen Wlad is no more but we have a new band called Mangre which is more rock'n roll - similar to what we did before with Anhrefn - at the moment we are doing gigs around Wales and have recorded a couple of cover versions of Meic Stevens tracks for a compilation that Sain are releasing next year," says Rhys.