Adwaith tonight – recorded live at the 2023 Eursonic Festival in Groningen Netherlands on January 20, 2023 and broadcast by VPRO and relayed to KEXP.
Adwaith (translated: ‘Reaction’) are a Welsh language indie rock group from Carmarthen in West Wales, formed in 2015. The group consists of Hollie Singer (vocals, guitar), Gwenllian Anthony (bass, keys, mandolin) and Heledd Owen (drums). Signed to Libertino Records, they released their first album Melyn in 2018. Both Melyn and its follow-up Bato Mato (2022) won Welsh Music Prize awarded for the best album from Wales, making Adwaith the first act to receive the award twice. A third album, Solas, was released in February 2025.
Band members Hollie Singer and Gwenllian Anthony grew up together in Carmarthen and have known each other since the age of three. After forming a band and performing in the town, they remained without a drummer, and met current drummer Heledd Owen at their first performance. The band were taken on by head of Libertino Records, Gruff Wyn Owen. Singer and Owen study music at universities in south Wales and London respectively, while Anthony works at Carmarthen venue the Parrot. “Adwaith” means reaction in Welsh. In an interview, Singer said, “One of our mothers asked what reaction was in Welsh, and we just thought ‘Oh, that would make a cool band name!'”
Adwaith first appeared on the Welsh language music scene to a wide audience at Welsh Language Music Day 2017, where the group performed at Womanby Street‘s Castle Emporium, releasing new music and joining a number of other up and coming Welsh artists as part of the organisation’s promotional campaign. As part of the day, Wales Online author David Owens names the band in his “75 songs to celebrate Welsh Language Music Day” list.
In July 2017, the group were named in the lineup for the 2017 Festival N°6 in Portmeirion. The “post-rock girl group” were billed as part of the BBC Wales and Arts Council Wales’ music project Horizons Gorwelion which each year promotes 12 selected contemporary independent musicians in Wales. The group also appeared on the BBC Music Introducing stage at Latitude Festival in 2017.
The group were again listed in September 2017, this time for Swn Festival in Cardiff. The band played the event’s Discovery Day at an event which included names such as Courtney Barnett and Boy Azooga. David Owens of Wales Online again praised the band with inclusion in his “The 57 greatest songs from Wales in 2017” list.
Big thanks to Wikipedia for the background.
Adwaith’s popularity is growing leaps and bounds and it tickles me no-end to hear they are getting played in the U.S. – further evidence language is not the barrier it once was and it only proves music is universal; it’s the vibe that counts. And Adwaith’s vibe is humming along quite nicely.
Plug in – press play and crank it up – while you’re at it, head over to their website and their Facebook page to stay informed, support the band and grab goodies.
