From Cardiff’s music scene to Green Man: casual smart find their community

Amelia Jones

Cardiff five-piece casual smart have found a natural home at Green Man, where the festival’s eclectic line-up reflects the music scene that helped shape the band.

Taking their name from the ultimate dress-code paradox, the group turn the absurdities of modern life and confusing social expectations into atmospheric post-rock, combining intricate instrumentation with unpredictable songwriting.

The band is made up of Peter Martin on piano and vocals, Brooke Thomas on guitar and vocals, Emily Beal on guitar, bass and vocals, Rowan Phillips on saxophone and Oliver Goddard on drums and percussion.

Three members of casual smart spoke to Nation.Cymru ahead of their Green Man set about the community surrounding Cardiff’s music scene, meeting at college and the unexpected reaction to fan favourite “Cranes”.

You’ve mentioned that Cardiff’s music scene played a massive part in welcoming you as a band, do you feel the same about the community at Green Man? 

Brooke: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it probably helps that I’ve come to Green Man like five years in a row now.

But I feel like the kind of music genre-ish that plays here is very big in the Cardiff music scene.

There’s a lot of Cardiff bands here, so we’re camping with all our friends who’ve also come up through the Cardiff music scene.

Emily: Even just in the artist camp, there’s so many artists signed to BWGiBWGAN, which is pretty local to Cardiff.

I feel like for all of us, this has been THE festival.

Just going around, there’s so many different genres of music, so many different styles that inspire us. I feel like the lineup is pretty representative of the music scene in Cardiff as well. There’s so many Cardiff bands here every year.

I’m excited to see them on bigger stages and I think it’s a really good opportunity for south Wales and just Welsh people in general to come play here. Everyone seems very proud of Wales here.

Who would you say your main influences are? 

Brooke: We get asked this a lot. I always say Porridge Radio and Belle and Sebastian. Pete thinks Big Thief.

Emily: Yeah, Big Thief and Black Country Road.

I mean, when we write the songs, I don’t think there’s much thought about who we’re trying to be inspired from, but it really just comes from the people that listen to us, who they think we sound like.

Do you remember the moment you first met each other?

Brooke: I mean, me, Emily and Pete met in college.

Well, me and Pete were friends before college, like we’ve been friends forever.

Then we started writing music, and one day I was like to Emily, do you want to come to the studio with me and Pete?

Rowan: I met Pete while I was still at Whitchurch. We both realised we were going to the Big Thief gig.I met Brooke at that gig as well.

My first impression of Emily was her inviting me over to sit with them when I was on my own at college one time.

Emily: Then, when one of our members left the band. Our current drummer Oliver posted him playing on his Instagram story.

And I texted him. I was like, oh my god, you can drum! I was playing the drums before, and I really wanted to be unleashed from behind the drum kit.

He’s been such a good fit for us ever since. It feels like it was written in the stars. As soon as Oliver met everyone else, it was just like love at first sight, or love at first ear, maybe?

You come from a very DIY background, but recently you’ve moved to the recording studio. How does that feel different?

Emily: I mean, for me, personally, I’ve been recording music since I was like 13, 14, it is what I’ve always dreamed of, recording in a studio.

Recording in a studio sort of makes me more nostalgic to record in my bedroom. It kind of makes me so much more proud of what we’ve done together before, having the ability to do more.

Like for the first two of our singles, were recorded in my bedroom. Since paying like so much money recording, it makes me even more proud that we were able to make the two singles ourselves.

I remember for our first single, Brooke woke up from a nap and I was like, come over and record!

Brooke: No, I was napping in your bed and you woke me up saying ‘you have to sing right now.’

Emily: She sang through my laptop microphones, because the wires weren’t working.

Then Rowan came over in her lunch break from college and I was stood there for like 10 minutes holding the mic just above the sax.

Your single Cranes seems to be a fan favourite, what has that reaction been like?

Emily: I mean, that’s one of the songs that Pete’s written. Even when you just hear the lyrics, they’re so easy to sing along to.

I think it really connects with a lot of people. And I think they’re like, it’s quite catchy as well. I didn’t expect, I definitely didn’t expect it to be like, we’d go to a gig and people would be singing along.

Brooke: At our last London show, there were this like couple in the crowd. Just this random people.

They knew every single word to all of our songs that we had out. And they were like, why didn’t you play like this? And we were like, what the hell?

Like, how do you know that? It’s crazy.

Emily: No, especially since that was our first song recorded in a studio. We didn’t know how it was going to go. Chuffed is the word.

You can listen to the band here. 

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