Charlotte Church Artsnight

SHE INHALES

# Ah

# Ah

# Ah... #

A singing voice can bring joy, hope, anger...

It can connect people beyond language or geography.

It's an instrument of immense creative power.

# Ah

# Oh-oh-oh

# Oh... #

Wales is famous for producing singers.

We are the land of song, but some of the traditional stereotypes,

of daffodils and male-voice choirs and Myfanwy,

are just too simplistic.

I've lived in Cardiff all my life and some of these traditional views

of what Welsh culture is just don't reflect the innovative

and forward-thinking music that I hear all around me.

This June sees the launch of the Festival Of Voice,

over ten days in venues across Cardiff.

The promise is to show a different side to singing in Wales.

Experimental and outward-looking, a programme combining acclaimed

Welsh singers, community-driven projects and international acts.

In my Artsnight, I'm looking at singers that are using

the voice not just to entertain, but also to question and challenge

and really push the boundaries of what a human voice can do.

This is my Artsnight.

What I like most about the new festival is that,

although it's distinctly Welsh and has all the established names

you might expect, it is also hugely ambitious in its scale,

and it's bringing new international singers into the city.

And we're on our way to meet one of my personal favourites,

Laura Mvula, in London before she comes to Wales for the festival.

I first met Laura a couple of years ago

and we did a songwriting session together, which was wonderful.

We wrote a cracking verse and chorus

and then we had a bit of a red wine-y lunch

and that was the end of that song.

But we've been firm friends ever since

and I think she's an amazing artist.

# Dance in my garden

# Like we used to... #

Laura's first album Sing To The Moon saw her become

-one of the breakout British singers of 2013.

-# Like we used to... #

Now she's about to return with a second album, The Dreaming Room,

and she's told me that she's been exploring a new musical direction,

moving away from the soul-influenced debut that made her name.

I'm so intrigued to find out about her process and her writing

and her vocal stylings, and how she's developed all of that.

'So I've brought her to the Wellcome Collection,

'to the exhibition This Is A Voice.'

FAINT VOICES GROAN

-When you had your babies, did you make this kind of noise?

-Mental.

-Really?

-It was low and guttural.

-Low?

SHE GROANS Yeah, I can't do it.

'The exhibition combines pieces presenting

'experimental vocal techniques...'

-Are we allowed to do it together?

-I reckon.

It's not going to break it, is it?

-# Ah

-Ah. #

CHARLOTTE LAUGHS Good breath control, babes.

'..as well as art exploring the science and psychology

'of why we sing.'

WOMAN SINGS TWO PITCHES AT ONCE

-Oh, my gosh. That's nuts. Is that real?

-Yeah.

She's not doing that!

She's literally singing two different pitches at one time.

It's insane.

That's really moved me. I don't know...

That's really crazy. What?

'I've brought Laura here because I want to talk to her about her own

'vocal experiments and finding a new sound for her second album.'

-I've been on a really funny journey with my voice.

-Mmm.

When I was a kid, a lot of family members were singers,

performers, so I was always at gospel concerts or whatever.

But I do think that the way that I understood singing was,

sort of, narrow, because I thought it was about vocal gymnastics...

-Yeah.

-..and wooing your audience.

And so I was racked with insecurity, cos I was like,

-"Well, I don't have that in my voice. I can't do that..."

-Yeah.

-"..so I'm not a singer."

-That's crazy.

-Yeah, for real.

-That's crazy.

And I think it's so hard, in our day and age,

you know, we're born in the X Factor generation,

where singing has become...

Well, what we teach our children what singing has become

is very narrow. It's sort of...

-It's homogenised, like, autotuned.

-Yeah, yeah.

-I struggled... I struggle with that a lot.

-Yeah, me too.

Because, like, for me, the whole thing about the voice and hearing

a new voice for the first time,

-which is characterful and rich...

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All their range and the tonal information they can give you,

-it's just like, "Mmm, that's so juicy, I could eat it."

-Yeah.

Yes, that's what's delicious.

That's what we need

and also it's about the uniqueness of the individual human.

Like, nobody sounds like Charlotte Church.

Nobody sounds like Laura Mvula.

# I will never be what you want and that's all right

# I'll play my own damn tune

# I'll shine like the moon

# And very soon

# I'll soon fly over you... #

Tell me a little bit about The Dreaming Room.

I've heard the two singles, which are different and new

-and it's a progression...

-Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

It's a different sound.

Yeah, with this album,

I feel like I used it as a way of reaching somewhere else.

-Expansion!

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Because I was using a lot of distorted guitar,

there was a lot of funk now.

There was a different rhythmic element to it.

-I had to find another colour.

-Mmm.

But it wasn't like, "Oh, let me..."

-I wasn't sitting at the piano, like, "Ah, ah, ah!"

-"Ah, ah, ah!"

-It wasn't like that.

-Yeah.

A lot of it came from the meat of the songs.

-Yeah.

-For the first time, I'm singing about heartbreak.

-Mmm.

-For the first time, I'm singing in a way that makes me feel sexy.

-Mmm.

And, for the first time, I'm singing in a way where I'm pissed off.

Mmm, yeah!

Yeah, so it makes you...

All of a sudden, I'm like,

"Oh, yeah, I'm singing up in the rafters," you know?

Yeah, totally.

But I'm finding my way of doing that.

# With the world up on your shoulders

# Nowhere left to hide

# Keep your head up Carry on

# Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah... #

The beauty of it, for me, is that I've grown up insecure about

my vocal range, so I'd say, "No, no, no, no, I can't sing up there."

-Mmm.

-"No, no, no, I won't sing..."

-So many people do that.

-Oh, gosh.

-Because I had, like, a classical training...

-Mmm.

..I feel like I've, to a certain extent, had to undo all of that.

-Yeah.

-Like you were saying about, like, belting high and stuff,

I was always, you know, a similar thing.

Like, "I can't really belt very high."

Yeah, that's interesting.

Yeah, but then it's just like, now I embrace it.

-Yeah.

-Embrace it.

-That's right.

-It's an uncontrollable beast.

-Find ways in which to tame that beast.

-Yes, Ma'am. Mmm-hmm.

And I remember hearing you on Jonathan Ross

and you had that incredible, like, a headdress on,

-and I was just like...

-Yeah, that.

Someone was like, "That's Charlotte Church."

I was like, "No, it's not Charlie Church."

-That chat show to me.

-Yeah.

# I've got glitter

# In my wounds... #

-And I was like, "What the hell?"

-Yeah.

-That sound, it was the whole world that you created.

-Yeah.

And I have to say, actually, now I'm thinking about it, subconsciously,

-that really inspired me to the point where...

-Aw.

I think of The Dreaming Room -

-if I think about a lot of the visuals...

-Thanks, babes.

# Round the mountain

# All God's children run

# All God's children run round the mountain

# Run round the mountain

# All God's children

# All God's children run... #

So your new single, Phenomenal Woman, sounds to me

to be like a massive feminist, kickass, empowering song for women.

I remember wanting to create a vocal sound in the chorus

-that would feel uncomfortable at first to do.

-Yeah.

So I wouldn't naturally...

# Oh, my, my

# Oh, my, she flies. #

That, for me, is quite exposing.

It's like, "All right."

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-It's a big sound. Calm down, love.

Yum, yum, yum. Lovely.

# Oh, my, my

# Oh, my, she flies

# Oh, my, my

# Oh, my, she flies

# Oh, my, my

# Oh, my, she flies... #

-I had a conversation with my nan when I was doing the album.

-OK.

To be honest, to this day, I don't even know she listens to my music.

-Like, sneaky.

-I feel like she's watched me on Songs Of Praise.

Yeah, fair enough.

-That's about it.

-Fair enough.

My nan is always like, "Why can't you go back

"and do all those old lovely classical ones you used to do?

-"I don't know about this new stuff. It's just weird."

-That's lovely.

-Yeah, I totally relate to that.

-Yeah.

And she said, "How's the music, Laura?"

And I said, "Yeah, it's good. I'm just trying to work hard. It's...

"It's tough, though."

And then she said, "Write a song.

"Write a song where I can jig my foot."

-And I was like, "She's right."

-Yeah.

This needs to be, like, a real something that you can, like...

Yeah.

# Oh, my, my

# Fly Oh, my, she flies

# She flies

# Phenomenal woman. #

So, just to finish up,

how has singing aided you in your life thus far?

Singing, to me, is a way of surviving.

Mmm-hmm.

I remember my ex-husband, we used to run lots of choirs together.

Now, every time it came to a Tuesday night, I used to feel,

-"Oh, I can't. You know, I'm just not in the mood."

-Yeah.

But every time this happened, we'd arrive at the rehearsal

and, within about five to seven minutes into the session,

witnessing these ordinary folk just opening their mouths to sing

together, it would transform my whole perspective

and my whole feeling. My whole mood.

-That's pretty magical.

-Yeah.

It's pretty miraculous to, like...

And I think that is the power of the human voice.

It can't be underestimated.

# Ah-ah-ah-ah

# Ah-ah-ah

# Ah-ah. #

The sound of choral singing has always fascinated me.

The Festival Of Voice includes choirs both classical

and contemporary, gospel and traditional.

Caritas Choir will perform in Choir Clock, a project that will

see 17 choirs perform across 18 hours in locations around Cardiff.

THEY SING

I started my vocal journey as a classical singer

but, since then, I have experimented with a multitude of styles

as I've explored the possibilities of my own voice.

MACHINE HISSES

I've been in the business for about 18 years now, which is insane,

and I've just turned 30 this year.

# Pie Jesu... #

Throughout my career, I have done all different sorts of music.

# Yeah, you're making me a crazy chick

# You're driving me to insanity... #

For me, my main love has always been singing,

and it's just something that's in my blood. It's in my bones.

# Darling, you leave me amazed... #

Nowadays, I'm only interested in taking on projects that

really stretch me as a singer.

# Oh-oh... #

Today, I'm almost exclusively, almost psychopathically,

looking for projects which are challenging,

and as original and as innovative as I could possibly make them.

My contribution to the Festival Of Voice is a new musical piece

called The Last Mermaid.

It's an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid,

which updates the story to incorporate modern themes

of ocean pollution, as well as how we connect in the modern world,

with music mixing contemporary classical and electronica,

performed by a 12-strong choir.

Taking on such a massive project,

that's something that I've never been a part of before, is...

Yeah, it's really scary.

# Da... #

But I hate the idea of stagnating or of not wanting to play,

cos that's what we should be doing.

And I want to talk to Welsh singers who are also trying to

use their voices to pioneer new kinds of music.

So I've brought you here to Womanby Street,

which is the heart of the alternative music scene in Cardiff,

and today I'm going to take you to a place called Clwb Ifor Bach.

The two singers I've come to see

have found critical acclaim internationally,

but ruffled feathers of Welsh culture purists

by blurring the boundaries between historical tradition

and contemporary experimentation,

redefining what it means to make Welsh music.

'One of them is Welsh-language sci-fi synth musician Gwenno.

'The other is Lisa Jen Brown, lead singer of folk group 9Bach.'

So you're both Welsh-language musicians.

Has it always been a point to always sing in the Welsh language?

We both get asked quite a lot,

"When did you decide to sing in the Welsh language?"

There is no answer because it's an instinctive thing.

-It's from the heart. It's just what comes vomiting out of you.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-And that's...

Yeah, cos that's quite interesting,

cos I think I did make more of a conscious choice.

What singing in Welsh gave me was

a power to express myself in a way

that had no commercial potential,

and it empowered me to know that I was expressing myself honestly.

MUSIC: Chwyldro by Gwenno

SHE SINGS IN WELSH

My album was based on a sci-fi novel.

There's loads of dystopian fiction in Welsh,

and I came across this novel by Owain Owain,

who was a nuclear scientist.

I think he started writing it mid-'60s,

and it was published mid-'70s, but it's written from

the perspective of a normal person living in Wales, and all of a sudden

everyone is gradually getting turned into clones by robot overlords.

I enjoy the contrast of the fact that,

sonically, you wouldn't think it was about a dystopian future where we're

-all getting turned into clones...

-Yeah.

Cos it's like, "Oh, this is a nice, breezy pop album. This is lovely."

SHE SINGS IN WELSH

And, Lisa, I mean, how long have you been,

like, making albums with 9Bach?

-For ten years, yeah.

-Yes?

-Yeah, we're ten years old now so...

And I'm.. You know, I'm not from, like, a musical background.

That's debatable because, in the schools,

at three years old, you're put on the stage

to compete in the eisteddfod,

and, you know, that culture of Sunday school and stuff -

you were always performing in front of someone.

TRUMPET FANFARE

I am a bit anarchic about it because that's how 9Bach formed.

Me, looking back at my childhood and going,

"Hang on, I was disqualified in every eisteddfod."

I would get adjudication saying I was breathing in the wrong place.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-"OK voice, but she's breaking all the rules."

-I was like, "What rules? These are folk songs."

-Yeah.

These are our songs. These are, like, our soul music.

MUSIC: Heno by 9Bach

THEY SING IN WELSH

Yeah, so that was Heno that we performed,

and it was a version of a Cerdd Dant song, which is a very...

I was thinking it was. I was like,

"Oh, that's really clever how they're doing that."

Yeah, it's a modern Cerdd Dant,

-cos Cerdd Dant is so unique to Wales.

-Mmm.

Will you explain a little bit about Cerdd Dant?

Cerdd Dant is singing poetry,

so rather than reciting it, you sing it.

HE SINGS IN WELSH

Every verse has to be different, so you can't do the same melody line.

Melodic, OK.

The backing is completely different to the melody,

-so it's sort of like...

-A countermelody.

-Yeah.

-OK.

So the harpist in 9Bach would not touch it.

Es was like, "I am... Are you kidding me?

"A Cerdd Dant song in 9Bach?"

Is that just cos it's so structured?

And it's a tradition that you love or hate.

-It's so sacred, you know?

-Yeah, and you love or hate it.

THEY SING IN WELSH

Purists in Wales certainly would absolutely hate

what we've done with that song.

It's just not the done thing, really.

-Which was all the more reason to do it.

-Exactly.

Yeah, totally, but why do you think it is important to do that

and what would you say to those purists?

I would say, "Fair enough, I totally understand how this must make

"you really feel sick in the mouth,

"but I want my children to feel it.

-Yeah.

-"I want my children to really get it and to be inspired by it."

Totally, and not make it like a museum piece.

When you come from a smaller culture that's,

you know, it's a minority culture, you're like...

-You're trying to preserve everything in a glass box.

-Mm-hmm.

But I think it integral to the survival of a culture that

-it's adaptable.

-It evolves, yeah.

Well, I think, fundamentally, it's about keeping it alive, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-So in order to keep it alive, you're going to have to breathe...

-And relevant.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, keep breathing new life into

a lot of these incredible traditions that we have.

I think it's essential.

I'm sometimes frustrated when people mistakenly think

singing in Wales is just about male-voice choirs.

The festival is helping to right this misconception

by highlighting the lives of a very different kind of choir -

one with ideas of social cohesion at its core -

the dementia choir.

-GUITAR STRUMS

-Two, three, four...

# Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag

# And smile, smile, smile

# While you've a Lucifer to light your fag

# Smile, boys, that's the style... #

This choir, based in Barry, just outside Cardiff,

is one of three groups that have been collaborating with

the National Theatre of Wales on a project called I'll Sing This Song.

# And smile... #

I love singing. I love all music.

-It helps you...

-And I love to listen to other people singing.

-It helps you remember, doesn't it?

-Yes.

By coming here, I've noticed in the time she has been coming here,

there's a big difference.

-We did do well, didn't we?

-You did brilliant.

You were the resident singer in the Savoy in Barry,

-when the Savoy was a dance hall.

-Yes, yes.

That's where we met, actually.

I just asked her, did she want a drink? I enjoyed the song and...

And he asked me out and that's how it started.

And, 60 years later, here we are.

Marvellous, isn't it?

# A-wa-ba-ba-loo-bop A-wa-bom-bom

# Tutti frutti Oh, Rudi... #

with the choir, it's bringing it all back, which is...

-I want to sing again.

-Yeah.

# Oh, Rudi

# Tutti frutti

# Oh, Rudi

# A-wa-ba-ba-loo-ba A-wa-bom-bom... #

With 850,000 dementia sufferers in Britain today,

the disease has become a crisis of our times but, in recent years,

scientists have discovered a significant breakthrough.

The act of singing in choirs has been proven to lower stress,

anxiety, and elevate endorphin levels.

# Tutti frutti Oh, Rudi

# Tutti frutti Oh, Rudi... #

'You've always been... Rock and roll was a big thing for us.'

-Oh, I liked my rock and roll and jiving.

-We think that...

It was great when I was jiving, because I'd just stand still

and push them round, you know?

I noticed a change four years ago

and it's about past 18 months,

-two years since you got the diagnosis, isn't it?

-Mmm.

But you've always enjoyed singing.

Oh, aye, yeah. It makes you up a bit, doesn't it? It lifts you.

# I've got a girl named Sue

# She knows just what to do... #

It's about not writing people off.

If you've got dementia, it's not the end,

and people can still live a life,

and music does an incredible amount to help that.

It's been a reaffirmation of how important music is.

# A-wa-ba-ba-loo-bop A-wa-bom-bom. #

-CHEERING

-Well done. Well done.

The choir project is the most recent in a string of

community-driven productions for National Theatre of Wales,

including the celebrated The Passion in Port Talbot,

starring Michael Sheen,

and De Gabay, a citywide poetry festival exploring

the culture of Cardiff's Somali population.

'I've come to talk to playwright Patrick Jones

'who, over the past year, has spent time with the Barry choir

'and two other groups.

'His experiences have formed the basis of a new musical play

'for National Theatre of Wales, called Before I Leave,

'which will premiere within the festival.'

It's not all about you, you know?

The choir is made up of more than one person.

So, Patrick, how did it come about that you decided to

write about dementia choirs?

I have visited a choir -

Cwm Taf Choir in Merthyr Tydfil -

to do a writing workshop.

And I just sat in and listened,

and I just started to fill up with tears and just feel so...

I don't know, there was just this soaring sense of communal singing.

You don't shy away from, sort of, political ideas

and there are some political themes running through there about,

sort of, social cohesion and...

Yeah, one member of the choir was an ex-miner, diagnosed with dementia.

I thought it was really interesting to explore that,

sort of, 30 years from the miners' strike, obviously.

Not living in the past,

but trying to work out, perhaps, what that period taught us.

Oh, yes, I forgot. Look, everyone!

I brought these in for you.

-I don't like beans.

-Yeah, but I had them free from Tesco.

I complained, as I had a tin of beans that were off,

so I took them in and they...

They gave me all these.

I'm taking another tray down to the distribution centre

for the families.

The kids are starving.

Bastard Tories.

It's not fair.

Rocky, love, it's 2016.

The strike is over. It's OK. You can relax.

-Nicky Wire from the Manic Street Preachers is your brother...

-Yeah.

..and the Manics are involved. They've written a track.

It's called Before I Leave and it was...

Nick and James responded to the play

and came up with this beautiful song. I think it's the best thing

-they've written for a while, actually.

-Yeah, go on!

The line is in it, "I'll sing the song until I die."

-Oh.

-So, to get people living with Alzheimer's disease to say,

"I'll sing this song until I die,"

it certainly takes a whole different context...

-Different meaning.

-..to Nick and James singing it.

# I'll sing this song until I die

# Sing it slowly with sunrise

# Sing it back to me if you want

# Sing it back to me with some

# Love. #

Oh, yeah.

And there is definitely something which happens neurologically,

scientifically, in the body and in the brain,

erm, which makes us feel comforted and more connected

-when we sing together.

-Yeah.

When I was doing the research for the play,

I found out that with the brain cells with Alzheimer's disease,

they are stopped from connecting.

The proteins, sort of, stop that connection

so they can't send messages, and then they die.

And I thought, that is a beautiful, sort of,

metaphor for the play, in a way, and indeed society, I think,

that, how, if we can't connect with each other and we can't communicate,

-we could die.

-Yeah.

And I think, you know, certain political parties want us to not

-connect, and I think we're seeing the fallout for that.

-Individualism.

In society, definitely, you know?

So I think it's a very hopeful piece at the end

and I hope people will go away and want to phone,

perhaps a member of their family and say, "Are you OK?"

-Yeah. Wonderful. Beautiful sentiment.

-Is that right?

# Walk on Walk on

# With hope in your heart

# And you'll never... #

The final singer from the festival I want to introduce is Meilyr Jones,

who I believe is one of the most exciting new Welsh voices, and whose

debut album 2013 came out earlier this year to rave reviews.

# Gotta switch off

# Switch off your television

# Start talking

# You've been a long time looking

# How do you speak

# With a voice that's true? #

I'm Welsh and I'm from Wales, but it's not something

I feel the need to be explicit about in a, like, a self-conscious way.

# I hear the birds sing back

# With all of the courage that I lack

# Go, get up

# Switch off

# Switch off your television

# Start talking

# Tell your boyfriend the news... #

I went to Italy for a holiday in spring 2013, and...

and then I started to write songs on my own, just in my head really.

# Ah... #

I kind of immersed myself. I went...

I was going to churches every day to see frescoes and sculptures.

The kind of lightness and the joy in the art of that period

went into my own music.

# There's work to be done

# Then come the fun. #

I think, from the amazing singers that I've spoken to today,

hopefully you'll have gotten the sense that singing is

an incredible tool for emotional, social, psychological wellbeing.

If you are at all interested in singing,

go and find whatever form of group singing that you can,

cos I promise you, it will be a helpful tool for life.

# So you can give

# To each brand-new bright tomorrow

# Make me happy through the years

# Never bring me any tears

# Let your arms be as warm

# As the sun from up above

# Bring me sun

# Bring me sunshine

# Bring me love. #

-Lovely.

-Thank you.

-LAUGHTER