If you haven't heard of Swansea singer-songwriter Geraint Rhys, then you've really missed out on someone special.
   Like Thea Gilmore in England and Scotland's Karine Polwart Rhys has great variety to his work, but isn't afraid to tackle political issues, never resorting to simplistic sloganeering.
   He confronts alienation, austerity and the threat of factory closure in songs like 'Ta Ta Tata', 'Give it Up' and 'The Lost Generation'.
   In his latest single 'Old Age Don't Come Alone' he writes a gutsy blues song from the viewpoint of his Nan, a fitting elegy to her.
  The stirringly passionate single 'Visca la Terra' is a homage to the Catalan independence movement and his short, prize-winning film of the same name looks thoughtfully at the intimate connections between songs and liberation there.
   The music of 'Ta Ta Tata' and its iconoclastic video moves skillfully between punk and  slower more gentle sections , as if between steel and the sea.
   In a world of music where celebrity rules, Rhys is a unique voice who deserves to be heard far more widely : an intelligent and musically eclectic artist.
   As well as 'Ta Ta Tata' he has released other singles yn Cymraeg including 'Dilyn' and 'Ble Mae'r Haul?' which illustrate the sheer power of his vocals.
   Just as the Indie movement seems on the verge of a breakthrough, so too the remarkable music of Geraint Rhys.

   I conducted this interview with him recently...........


​1. How long have you been writing and singing songs and what inspired you to start?

I’ve always been fascinated with words and have written from a very young age. Whether it be poems or short stories I’ve always had an active imagination which has been expressed some way or another.
Music is something that connects with us all and is often beyond something we can explain. It often saves me, so I started writing songs about 6 years ago and since then haven’t stopped.  

2. What place do your excellent videos have and are you mainly responsible for producing them?

An imperative part of my work is to couple my songs with a strong visual narrative. When it comes to making the videos, I’ll have an idea of what I want to convey in relation to the track then I will find videographers, directors etc whose work I like and approach them and see if we can work something out. I am lucky to have worked with so many talented people.
As an independent artist I am solely responsible for every creative decision I make which is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand I control everything so I don’t have anyone else trying to manipulate my vision, but it would be nice for someone else to take control of many of the practical things when making a music video so that I didn’t have to. It is hard work but always worth it and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

3. What are your politics and are these views vital to your songs?

I’ve never pledged allegiance to any political party so I guess I am a political nomad in that sense. I would say I am on the left of the spectrum, but I don’t even know what that means in the context of Wales or the UK anymore. What does piss me off though is how we live in a society of immediate outrage . I am guilty of it too, but no one has much time for context these days. Once something happens it's like a race to see who can get their opinions out there first without spending time to understand the whole picture . That’s what’s great about writing a song, you really have time to sit down and shape your thoughts.

4. Do you prefer to record in Welsh or English and why?

I don’t have a preference, whenever I sit down to write it will come out in either language and then I will just go with it. What I won’t do though is release a track in English then release it in Welsh just to get a royalties cheque or to appear on Heno. It annoys me when artists do that.

5. What do you think of Yes is More and would you take part in such events?

I think the visibility of Welsh Independence is only a positive thing. I sang at a solidarity rally for Catalunya that Yes for Wales organised so it’s great to see a social movement which is vibrant and seems to be gaining support. For a healthy political debate we need as many dissenting voices as possible. If there was a vote for independence tomorrow I would vote yes

6. ‘Visca la Terra’ was both a song and prize-winning film. How did this come about and what was the impact in Catalunya?

I have a long-standing relationship with Catalunya. I have very good friends over there who I’ve known for almost ten years who are very active in the pro-independence movement. So I’ve visited quite a lot and have been over to play some gigs. I wrote the song and released it a few weeks before the independence referendum and didn’t expect to get the response I did. It was featured on many radio stations and playlists and made it on to many of the news blogs and channels. It currently has over 100,000 views on you-tube so I couldn’t be happier with the response it's had.

7. Like me you’re a big football fan. Does this influence your work at all?

I have yet to write a football song yet, but who knows. Maybe I’ll leave that to John Barnes. Football is political. Take my beloved Swans for example. We have gone from being a soviet type club ran by the fans and local businessmen to a capitalist venture ran by two Americans. It is a cross section of the best and worst of society.

8. Your latest single is ‘Old age don’t come alone’(featuring Eadyth from my hometown of Merthyr). What’s the background to this?

Like all my tracks I never start off with a genre, it’s something that develops over time. So with this track, after my grandmother passed away I started to write some words as a dedication to her life and when I picked up the guitar, the riff came naturally and seemed to resonate with the words perfectly. Losing someone is such an intimate and emotional experience and always produces intense forms of expression. In this song, I tried to capture that intensity. The track is completely an ode to her and for the artwork I had to pick one of my favourite photos of her playing my old drum kit.
 
9. Your music draws from all kinds of forms from the punk in ‘Ta Ta Tata’ to Blues in the new single. Do you relish this eclecticism?

It’s what keeps me interested. Important to me is that my music tells a story and I blur genres to reflect the diversity of topics that I sing about. I would get very bored if I just wrote 12 folk songs, or 10 country songs. I have to enjoy making music otherwise what’s the point? Because my own choice of music is so eclectic this is naturally reflected in the songs I sing.
 
10. To me your voice is powerful and distinctive. Does it suit certain types of songs, or would you like to do more slower ballads for example?

I have written slower songs and will likely to do so in the future. I wouldn’t want to restrict myself by saying no.

11. Place is also important to your work - especially the videos - do you identify with your home town, or working-class areas generally?

I think place plays an important role in so many creative people’s work, no matter the art-form. Growing up in Swansea where the grittiness of the urban streets collides with the beauty of Swansea bay, there is inspiration on every corner.



12. Is social media your main platform, or do you prefer videos or live shows?

Well, you must do all of it to remain relevant. I’ve played hundreds of gigs over the years and do love that feeling when you really connect with an attentive audience. Nothing beats it. Last year I played some amazing gigs which were packed with the audience completely engaged. But you can easily go from playing a gig like that to a gig in a pub with a handful of half-interested punters. So it’s always hit or miss.



13. Are you planning a new album which brings together all the singles in Welsh and English and tour to accompany it?

The reality for an independent artist is that if you want to keep on producing high quality music something must give. It’s not cheap to record music and then to distribute it. Equally, hardly anyone buys music anymore so you have to compete with that. I will definitely be releasing another single in the next few months with a new video so keep your eyes peeled!



                                         BETWEEN STEEL & LEARNING
                                             for Geraint Rhys

On Aberafan beach
the long slim penstroke
not yet a 'C'
between bilging chimneys
and postcode towers -
I am 66 today
and bones go clickety-click
like so many stones
in the rising sea
yet here it's calm
in the January sun
as we walk together
my wife, daughter and I
in a place forgotten and found -
where there are shells
like ones I'd collect and sketch
so meticulously
I name them like a spell
'razor , oyster and mussel'
they're not relics though
but sculptures of the times
of waters clear again
of my daughter gathering them
of the sea whispering
the choices between
steel and learning.
     

    The six images here are all recent examples of graffiti art in Merthyr Tudful, my home town; a form which seems to have proliferated since the infamous Banksy in Taibach, Port Talbot, with its commentary on pollution and innocence.
   Not a Banksy in sight of course, but my garage wall is available should your man from Brizzle decide to do a picture of a pijin like Wayne-O Pijin (sadly deceased).
   The first one's situated by the walkway over the weir, not far from the College and , assuming the little lad could be holding a gun, its politics could be construed as dubious. Having said that, it certainly stands out and the scruffy urchin is seemingly androgynous! 
   The second is tiny and just to the left of the iron heart where the Merthyr Rising Festival holds its main events. On this gable-end was once a mural celebrating the festival, which was then graffitied over with 'FE GODWN NI ETO' ( we will rise again), a statement which berated the distinct lack of Welsh or , indeed, blatantly revolutionary material at the Festival. Fascists then responded and added 'NF' in black below this.
   More recently was a red flag mural which redressed the balance and placed the Festival very much as a remembrance of 1831; but this was sadly removed.
   What the small graffiti here does is to link a heavy metal gesture with the festival, rock with politics, and to keep it in our minds till it begins again in May this year.
   The 19th century gent doing a Mary Poppins impression is the infamous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the man who made the old railway station in Merthyr, now immortalised on the outside wall of Tesco.Strange choice in Pontmorlais, so close to an engine commemorating the achievements of Richard Trevithick.
   The Lennon and 'Trainspotting' ones are very different and take their place on the boarded-up windows of the long derelict YMCA building, which promises to be something.....one day, maybe.
   And finally, the one on a bus-station window......black and white like the two-tone music of the 1980s. Even though they are Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta from 'Pulp Fiction', I like to think of them as symbols of solidarity.
   I notice the blurry couple behind them waiting for the bus to Troedyrhiw and beyond, keeping their distance though.
   Graffiti has always played a role in my writing and the protagonist of my totally unacclaimed adult novel ('The Fugitive Three') Shell is an aspiring graffiti artist. She's only beginning to have visions of what she can do.
   My first book in Merthyr dialect was 'Graffiti Narratives' and the long title poem is split into two sections with verbal graffiti as headings. These two sets of graffiti were well-known in the town and were either side of the railway bridge as you leave High Street towards Pentrebach.
   On one side was ' UP TO £50,000 GO FISH' and the other ' STRIP HAIR,I, JUNK ROT PLACEBO'.
   Our Council years ago were only too happy to rid the place of these messages which fired my imagination so.
   They were certainly two of the strangest and most thought-provoking sets of graffiti anywhere , though I don't think CADW were interested in preserving them!  


                                ANONYMOUS  BOSCH
 
 
When Banksy come t Merthyr
nobuddy bleeved it woz im –
why would ee come yer
when ee’d done P’Talbot las year?
 
It woz a picture of an ewge pijin
cackin on this grey pointy tower,
a bird with attitude
flown straight from-a bus station.
 
It woz on-a wall up Swonzee Road
on-a way t Trago,
perfectly picked s people knew –
it caused a right commotion.
 
Thousands visited, took selfies,
Council done fuckall as always –
it woz on-a News
an front page of-a ‘Merthyr’.
 
One landowner sayd-a wall woz is,
but-a Council claimed it,
put up a screen an fencin,
CCTV an ev’rythin.
 
Till this local graffiti artist
sayd ee done it, Anonymous Bosch
ee called isself……
then nobuddy give a toss.
 
Council withdrew, telly disappeared,
it’s still there jest as clear  -
owner o Trago wan’s it covered up,
‘Filthy disgustin muck!’  

   Looking out the window at midnight and seeing the stillness of settled snow, it glows with a light which brings back many memories....
    Of my children haring down the slopes of the Waun at the back of our house on toboggans.
   ( Now the place is eerily deserted despite the schools being off).
   Of my friend and fellow 'loopy' English teacher Pete Smith taking every descent with total abandon on only a black rubbish bag.
   Of the Beacons and my older daughter Bethan speeding all the way downhill through an open gate and onto the A470 below, whilst myself and my son tumbled half way down.
   Above all, of the times when my two girls were born, both December days of heavy snowfall.
   Bethan over the mountain in so-called 'snake country' of Aberdare and Niamh ( as befits a Bluebird) in the Heath.
   The first in notorious 1982, when it was the biggest fall of my lifetime and a neighbour kindly came over with blow-torch to unfreeze our ancient, inefficient central heating vent.
   Even last year was memorable, as we returned from Bethan's wedding in India to blizzards at Heathrow , but somehow made it home thanks to my wife's single-mindedness, only for our combi boiler to go on the blink and a frantic search for a suitable engineer despite the white-out.
   Despite such calamities I've always loved the snow and even at a writing course I once tutored at Totleigh Barton in Devon, we took time out between stanzas to borrow trays from the kitchen and slide down empty country roads.
   As a teacher, a single flake whispered the promise of a day off.
   One Head who regularly refused to close soon regretted it when he left his car in the school car park overnight only to find the very expensive sports car trashed the next day! After that, he'd close up after a couple of flakes!
   Growing up in Aber I've no memories of early childhood snow whatsoever and then in Cambridge and its Shire there was a distinct lack of hills nearby, though we did play risky football on a frozen pond.
   Only since living up here on Aberdare mountain have we all appreciated the seasonal playground.
   It's a chance to become one with memories: to roll the years into a tight ball and hurl them with joy and mischief. A chance to watch them break up into tiny particles of laughter.

                         JOINING  THE  V

Her back's bent
she stares groundwards,
the old border collie
tugs her hubby round
Bryn Bach is mostly frozen
as mallards balance
on thin ice,
a flock of Canada geese
root out food below snow -
her two Nordic sticks
are vital extra arms,
she's determined as moorhens
finding warmer pools.

In her dreams she flies
south to her grandchildren
many continents away
from treacherous paths, 
towards suns of smiles
she swims and glides
watching the grey glaze
of the lake disappear,
joining the V, higher and higher.