BBC Music Day: Land of song ready to 'explode'

HMS Morris has sailed a long way from home. In the early hours of Friday morning, the port of call is Montreal in Canada.

But HMS Morris is not a ship - it is an art pop outfit from Cardiff.

They are in the vanguard of a new wave of emerging bands from Wales taking on the world.

From North America to south-east Asia - Welsh bands are "rumbling" and about to "explode", another act proclaimed.

"Different audiences in different countries like different types of music, so it is important to get what you are doing out there," said Heledd Watkins, who fronts HMS Morris along with Sam Roberts.

"There might be a particular country that absolutely loves what you are doing - the 'Big in Japan' thing might happen somewhere along the line."

This week they have been one of three Welsh acts taken out to showcase their talents at the Pop Montreal International Music Festival, alongside Cardiff's electro-pop artist Ani Glass, and Art School Girlfriend, the alter-ego of Wrexham-raised Polly Mackey.

In a few weeks time, another two acts are heading to North America - Llangollen's Campfire Social and Wrexham's Kidsmoke.

They are playing the Breakout West showcase in British Columbia - a chance to meet record companies, publishers and concert promoters from across Canada and the US.

It has already been an incredible year for the four-piece Kidsmoke, who saw one of their tracks chosen to play on the hit Netflix series Black Mirror, in a flagship episode directed by Hollywood A-lister Jodie Foster.

"It's pretty much our favourite programme, Black Mirror," said the band's vocalist Lance Williams.

"People think I'm lying when I say that - but between the four of us, if we'd had to pick a programme, it would have been that one.

"Since that, we've started to pick-up a bit of momentum.

"We feel like it is the right time for us, to start to go over and play to different people, different audiences."

The global assault of these new Welsh bands is being marshalled by the team behind Wales' own international showcase festival, Focus Wales.

It hosts hundreds of bands and industry insiders over a three-day event in Wrexham in May.

But with the backing of the likes of Wales Arts International, which partners Arts Council for Wales and British Council, the Focus Wales organisers have been able to take Wales to the world.

"The international strand of our work has developed significantly over the last couple of years," said Focus Wales co-founder Andy Jones.

"It's happened organically, because we've been hosting all these international bands from various parts of the world.

"We thought we can reciprocate this, and open up that route for Welsh bands to go the other way.

"These showcase events can really help an artist's career. They stretch themselves when they go to play a festival in South-East Asia or North America.

"They are real career-defining opportunities to play to talent buyers - it's an opportunity to connect."

The first band to get the Focus Wales treatment was Campfire Social, who went to South Korea last year, and will be at Breakout West in Canada in October.

They have also been championed as one of the 2018 BBC Wales' Horizons project with the Arts Council for Wales.

"I think there is so much good music coming from Wales at the moment - it would be a shame for it not to be given to the world," said Thomas Hyndman, the band's lead singer.

"It does feel more so than ever that there is a big buzz about music from Wales, especially on the underground level - there's something rumbling."

Is Wales about to repeat the success of Cool Cymru in the late nineties and early noughties, when acts such as the Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia, Super Furry Animals and the Stereophonics seemed to rule the music charts?

Campfire Social keyboard player Carrie Hyndman is convinced something is happening.

"I think in the past, there has been some really big Welsh acts out in mainstream, commercial music," she said.

"That took a bit of dip, but I think in that dip it has been brewing and all these acts are starting to come out."

Some critics decried last week's Mercury Music Prize for not shortlisting Welsh electronic artist Gwenno for her last album Le Kov - recorded entirely in Cornish - while Cardiff's Boy Azooga are hotly tipped as the next breakthrough act from Wales, following appearances on TV shows such as Later... with Jools Holland.

"It's just so good to see bands that we know and we interact with getting on that platform and starting to get higher and higher," added Carrie.

"It is a rumbling - something, it's just going to explode soon."