By Katherine Witts & Tate Powell

With elements of 60s and 70s rock, soul and a hint of charm, CVC are a band to keep your eyes on. The indie psych-rock band is an example of the talent offered within Wales, so it’s no surprise they were nominated for the Welsh Music Prize this year.

A personal favourite of mine from their 2023 album ‘Get Real’ which was shortlisted for the prize, has to be the opening song ‘Hail Mary’.

Ahead of the event on the on the 10th of October, we had the pleasure of interviewing the Welsh band.

Tate: Tell us a bit about yourselves?

“We are CVC, we are a band, and we make music. CVC stands for Church Village Collection.”

Tate: How did you guys feel and what were your thoughts about being shortlisted for the Welsh Music Prize award this year?

‘We thought ‘wow this is fantasic’! But seriously, we’ve been in the game for a while now and have seen this award going on so to be nominated is great news. We’re very thankful to whoever gets to choose, we don’t know who that is, but thanks to the big Man up in the sky, thank you God.

It’s great to be nominated with such great acts, especially ‘Mace the Great’ which is my personal favourite. Fingers crossed to everyone at home, toes crossed too.”

Kath: So, do you have any other Welsh artists you look up to that are currently in the Welsh music scene?

“Definitely ‘Mace the Great’. All the classics; Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, you’ve got to put some respect on Stereophonics, Manic Street Preachers – they paved the way for grass roots bands like us coming out of the Valleys. We’re hoping to follow in their footsteps and hopefully tonight is the first step in that.

Have to put some respect on Duffy, we can’t forget Duffy. That’s an obvious one though, we don’t even have to say that it goes without saying.”

Tate: What’s the creative process like for you guys writing your lyrics and for the album nominated?

“[Jokingly] Well we’ll get told what to do or we get kicked out the band. We’re told “boys play this or your out of the band”.

But nah, we only write songs individually, and play them to the crew, and if they like them, it’s pretty much it. It’s not much more exciting than that, no magic formula, its either good or bad – we then give the bad ones a shot.”

Kath: Do you guys speak Welsh then?

“Unfortunately, not. We come from a part of Wales where it’s not really pushed hard in schools, but I think it is now but when we were just leaving school. I think when we were in school, even the Welsh teachers hated speaking Welsh. So, I’m blaming them, and any responsibility is their fault.”

Tate: So, you guys have been quite busy this year then.

“Yes, we have indeed, we’ve been touring a lot. Think it’s something like, how many? Maybe over 50 gigs this year, something like that. When we were counting the other day, it’ll be over 60 by the end of the year. It’s been relentless, really fun.”

Tate: What would you say has been the highlight this year then?

“Probably ‘Bonnaroo Festival’ we played in Tennessee as part of the tour. The whole tour was sublime, but we finished in Tennessee and had this amazing crowd out there for us. It was a big spectacle for us.

Since then, the adrenaline hasn’t worn off and we’ve kept going. We’re looking forward to the tours ahead, we’ve got Texas tomorrow (October 11th) and then December our ‘Hail Mary Tour’.

We’ve got a couple of big gigs coming up. There’s one in the Tramshed (Cardiff) that’s pretty much sold out, only four tickets left. But yeah, we
can’t wait for them.”

Kath: What would you say is your dream venue to play?

“Wembley, yeah definitely Wembley. Ever since we’ve known Dave, a young child, he’s had a sort of dream to play at Wembley stadium. Before every Gig, even when he wakes up in the morning, he’s like ‘THANK YOU
WEMBLEY’! One day we will though, we love it.

Probably the Principality too, gotta tick that one from the bucket [list].

Maybe even the five thousand cap venue, the CIA? The one that changes their name constantly, once was the Motorpoint Arena.”

You can listen to CVC’s recent album ‘Get Real’ here!

The piece was written for Quench Magazine and is being displayed as a portfolio piece here.