Yr Anghysur release Welsh and English versions of touching new track

Stephen Price

New Welsh folk band Yr Anghysur have released a touching and hopeful new single about the loss of lead singer Hedd’s brother, Cai.

The track is a dual release, and the English language version is the first to receive an official release, with the Cymraeg version soon to follow.

The band was formed in 2022 by Hedd, his brother Aran Fôn, Sam Roberts and Mark Kendall, who was the drummer of the Conwy Valley’s most famous band, Y Cyrff. Recently, Osian Glyn has joined as the fifth member of the group.

The band played their first gig at the very height of Welsh music echelons, supporting Dafydd Iwan at the Llanast Llanrwst festival.

Since then, the band have played gigs over the past few years, playing a part in contributing to the local scene in the Conwy Valley, with events such as Llanast Llanrwst and having held a few gigs ourselves at Clwb Llanrwst and Nant Conwy Rugby Club.

Hope

Lead singer-songwriter, Hedd told us: “Keep me a Seat in Paradise was one of the first songs I wrote in full, apart from some other songs half written as a teen.

“I’m not exactly sure on the date from when the first idea came to me, but I have vague memory of seeing either a headline or the quote :”I’d hope you’d keep me a seat in paradise one day” ( or something along those lines) from a video during lockdown.

“We lost our brother (Cai Fon) suddenly in early 2018, so the loss of Cai was still fresh to me during lockdown. I had a lot of time on my hands so naturally I would pick up the guitar often to play and write.”

“The song is a sort of message to Cai, asking about what happens after, in Paradise.

“Cai was a keen surfer, this is reflected in some of the lyrics of the song, for example the line ‘Keep me a spot with a view of the break, i’ll be joining you one day’.

“The verses to the song came quite naturally to me, but I was struggling with the chorus.

“The last verse of the song is a few lyrics from the song “forever young” by Bob Dylan which we played at Cai’s funeral.”

Upcoming album

Hedd shared: “I remember showing the song to Mam, possibly early 2021 and she suggested we could work on it and translate it to Welsh. It was important for me to have it in Welsh, being a Welsh speaking family.

“Mam did most of the work with the translating and eventually I finished it in early 2022.

“I would play the Welsh version of the song in open mics and gigs with a previous band for a while before Yr Anghysur came around and we’ve played the Welsh version in all of our gigs in the last 2 years..

“The Welsh version will be on our up-coming album Er Gwaetha’ Pob Dim.”

Cymraeg

Whilst compiling songs for the album, Hedd remembered about the English version of the song.

At this point, many of the band’s English speaking only fans would often ask about the song and the meaning behind it, and the idea formed to release the song in both languages.

Hedd said: “After reconstructing the English version to match the Welsh song, we decided that we would have the full Welsh version of the song on the album, as well as the English, acoustic live version.

“We released the live version, recorded in my place of work, TAPE Community Music and Film on September 8th (Cai’s Birthday) and since then it has been received very well.

“The video has amassed over 35k views over all platforms and we’ve had many lovely comments from friends and fans. We plan to release the song on all streaming platforms soon.”

And for those who’d like to hear more, the band’s future releases will be proudly in their first language. Hedd shared: “I think it’s unlikely we’ll release any more English songs as Yr Anghysur, as our roots are Welsh and a Welsh language rock band is what we set out to create.”

Listen to more of Yr Anghysur on Spotify and Bandcamp.

Follow their Facebook and Instagram accounts for more updates on live performances and releases.