The Creative Crossroad

This week, for the first time in this series I'm joined by an author! My guest this week is an award winning writer that has written 12 novels, is a published poet and has a super popular Welsh language podcast series here in Wales called 'Does Dim Gair Cymraeg am Random! In the podcast we talk about his successful podcast series, how he discovered his passion for writing and his very unusual adventures in Northern Australia with one of the countries most notorious drug dealers.

My guest this week is easily my most multi talented guest yet. With many strings to her bow, over the last few years my guest today has shaped shifted her way incredibly through art, photography and music, becoming and experienced swiss army knife creative in the South Wales arts scene. Ani, talks about her experiences producing her own music for the first time, gaining vast amounts of experience from the likes of Martin Rushent, (producer of Human League, The Stranglers, The Buzzcocks) with former band The Pipettes, and her plans to study a PhD! Ani Glass, croeso.

My first guest of 2019 is an artist and singer from Cardiff, that isn’t just breaking, but smashing the mold for pop music from Wales. In 2018, Twitter Music, followed by nearly 12 million people cited her as an emerging artist to watch, and has now been playlisted by the likes of Dazed magazine and Radio 1Xtra. Her latest EP You are not a God is out now across all major download platforms. Marged, croeso.

My guest this week is my third song writer on-the-trot in this series, but unlike the last two, this songwriters work is deeply routed in the Evangelical church. 'Meiz' is a singer songwriter and runs a charity called Noiz Ministries, a project that quote "seeks to convey the love of God through music to people of all ages".

My guest today is arguably my most focused guest on this series yet. Violet Skies is a musical artist, songwriter, and business woman that back in 2017 launched ‘She Writes’- an all female writing camp, that brings some of the worlds best women writers, producers and engineers all under one roof, for an intense week of high energy collaboration.

Violet’s latest single ‘Cry for Me’ is out now across all your major download sites.

In this episode, we discuss the importance of women in music, dealing with creative ‘burnout’ and how Violet plans on winning a Grammy.

“No woman has ever won a Grammy for Producer for the year...I’d love first one to come through She Writes.”

The term ‘big break’ is one that often can be read in autobiographies of some of greatest creative talents to have ever lived- that one opportunity, that one chance that could potentially define the course of your career, propelling you to within touching distance of your greatest ambitions.

As we all know, big breaks aren’t easy to come by, especially in one of, if not the most competitive creative industry in the world, the music industry. But it's fair to say that recent developments for today's guest could most definitely class as a “big break”. announcing he’s just co-written a song for none other than 10 time grammy award winning singer/songwriter, John Legend.

Over the past few decades, Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff, Wales has played host to thousands of huge bands, artists and DJ’s, Coldplay, the Strokes, Manics and more, but every Saturday night, at 10.30 o’clock...for the past 10 years, the doors of clwb open for the quote “the best night out in Cardiff”.

Over the last decade, Dirty Pop Cardiff has been stalwart in the Saturday night club scene schedule, and quick search on social media will bring up quotes such as

“Dirty pop Cardiff is my religion.”

In an ever evolving music industry with artists, genres, trends and fads coming and going, this week's guests have kept the pop kids of cardiff dancing to their honest and eclectic collection of the some the biggest absolute bangers of the last 40 years.

This week Cai is joined by artist, musician and record label owner, Tom Winfield that operates and runs an incredible DIY creative brand ‘Neb’- fuelled by a passion for breaking and making, some truly unique art and product. Neb champions the alternative and celebrates the weird and unique, whilst at the same time dishes out a firm creative fuck you to the mainstream. Cai and Winf discuss the Welsh music scene, the importance of creating a strong brand image and the significance of Youtube as an influence on creators.

In the opening episode, Cai is joned by Harry Hambley, creator and founder of art and cartoon brand 'Ketnipz'. Followed by hundreds of thousands worldwide, Harry tells us about what it takes to create and run a hugely successful independent art brand. We find out how he gained traction so quickly on social media platforms and he discusses the influence of "luck" on his career, so far.

Head over to @HanshS4C to watch the documentary 'HANSH x KETNIPZ'.