Music Editor Alfie Warner interviews CVC, discussing creative changes for their second album, the state of grassroots music, and their experiences breaking out of their debut circuit in Cardiff
Hailing from just outside Cardiff, Welsh band CVC (Church Village Collective) were in Oxford at the beginning of December as part of a short, four show stint to round out the year. The band are comprised of six eclectic Welshmen: vocalist Francesco Orsi, lead guitarist David Bassey, Daniel Jones on keys, rhythm guitarist Elliot Bradfield, bassist Ben Thorne, and drummer Tom Fry.
CVC have been around since the late 2010’s, having plenty of success in Cardiff even before they officially released any material. CVC are a band spanning multiple genres, but their core sound has echoes of a West-Coast, psych-funk/rock fusion – quite the combo. Thorne described their sound as ‘if The Beatles and the Red Hot Chili Peppers had kids’; tracks such as ‘Docking The Pay’ have the crooning vocal harmonies of The Beatles with the groovy instrumentation of RHCP. Their current listening rotation was eclectic, including names such as Hall and Oates, Blondie, Talking Heads, Lindsey Buckingham, Baxter Dury, Fontaines D.C., and Kendrick Lamar.
Second Album and Creative Changes
CVC’s newest single ‘The Lowrider (Just About Meant To Be)’ is a particularly synth-heavy track, and is a benchmark of what to expect for the new album, but not the overall future of CVC. Bassey explained, ‘By the time we release the second album and we’re ready to write our next one, we’ll be in a totally different space again. I think ‘The Lowrider’ is a pretty good example of what’s to come, that’s kind of why we released it as the first single. It was the first song we wrote that we definitely knew was going to be on the second album.’
Their creative process has also drastically changed since teaming up with manager Jonny Bradshaw, morphing from individual writing to more structured, studio-based sessions: ‘The first album (Get Real) was more communal and relaxed, but the second album was worked on extensively in the studio between the four main songwriters, then developed with the producer and the engineer.’
We’ve been scientifically analysing almost every note of every song
Jones expanded: ‘It’s been a strange process, it’s not the way you would normally do it. Usually, you’d write the songs, and then spend two weeks in the studio – just smash it all out – but we’ve been there for nearly a year now. We’ve been scientifically analysing almost every note of every song.’
Quality was the name of the game, and production was revisionary rather than one-and-done takes. Bassey was content that attention to detail was their new normal, but he wished it happened sooner: ‘Refining is the word this time around. Get Real was just like “whatever we have is going on there” and that’s going to be the track, whereas now it’s more “How can we make the best of this tune?” I still have regrets about not going through that process for Get Real; I think a few songs on that album could have been a lot better if we sat down and put a little bit of effort into them. But we didn’t, our attitude was just “f*ck it,” like “yeah, one guitar track,” or “shall we stick a twelve-string guitar on there? Yeah, f*ck it.” But there’s beauty in both of them.’
Nearly all of the songs they had written at the time were released across the two LP’s Get Real and B-Real, giving them a nice clean slate for their second album. ‘That was pretty much all the songs we had at the time,’ Fry explained, ‘Like 15 of the 16 tracks we had at the time we released, but now we have nearly three extra albums worth of stuff.’
Closure of The Moon and Grassroots Music in 2024
The Moon was a staple of Cardiff’s grassroots music; a venue which encouraged collaboration and community. It is part of an ever-growing list of small venues which cannot afford to stay open, and The Moon’s closure came as a particularly personal blow to CVC. ‘We have history there; we played about five of our six first shows there – it was the one place that you were guaranteed to get a gig in Cardiff without any kudos or clout. They offered us a couple of gigs and we took them all.’
Orsi elaborated: ‘It was the only venue that was under 100 capacity, and now that’s gone. So when you’re starting out with gigs you’ve just got to jump up to trying to fill a room of 150 people, and if you’re an emerging band you just can’t do that. It’s very damning when you’re an emerging band and only 16 people come to a 200 cap room, but at The Moon if 16 people showed up you could still have a good night – it was that kind of place.’
According to the Music Venue Trust (MVT), by November at least 125 grassroots venues had closed for good in 2024, with a further 350 at immediate risk of closure. ‘Loads of venues are closing: Goody Hoo, The Moon Club, NosDa, The Big Top – these places were all there five/six years ago when we were gigging; they were the only places we could gig because they were the only places we could get them. They were also the only free places where people could go – it’s expensive you know! Pints cost a lot of money these days, and that’s all gone. Bands coming through now don’t have the opportunity unless they want to go and rent a venue for £200, and then try and sell enough tickets to pay the support band, cover the cost of fees – it’s a real problem.’
We’d all go to the same places even if we weren’t playing and it’d be a massive community. But now, it’s few and far between
‘Obviously we aren’t in the Cardiff circuit anymore, but when we were there was loads of bands,’ Jones adds, ‘We’d all go to the same places even if we weren’t playing and it’d be a massive community. But now, it’s few and far between.’
The loss of a community is one of many things that the country loses as live music becomes more unaffordable. For CVC, Cardiff’s music scene has transformed since they left: ‘Back in the day when these places were still open, you’d go on a night out and mingle with these other bands, you’d know each other’s names, you’d recognise the bands. But now we feel like no one has any places to meet up, no one knows what the f*cks going on – their could be another couple bands in Cardiff that we’ve never even heard of or seen. It’s just unheard of – we used to know everyone. But places like the O2, you don’t come here for a pint, you come here to see a band; it’s not a place to meet people really.’
CVC are involved with grassroots music: next year they are doing a tour for Independent Venue’s week, and are headlining the MVT’s fundraiser charity show at Swansea Arena. But as Bradfield rightly points out, there’s only so much that CVC can do: ‘What can band’s like us do? We’re not above it by any means, we came from that scene, but we just feel helpless. It’s not our problem to fix but there’s only so much influence we have.’
Leaving Cardiff as a Small Band
A lot of new artists get stuck in the city that they started in, and for CVC this was no different: ‘We had maybe five or six gigs outside of Cardiff in about five years, until we met Jonny Bradshaw,’ Bassey relates, ‘It was us emailing venues basically begging for gigs. And the ones that did respond it was going to cost £100 in petrol, and they were going to pay us £16 each. Unless you’re an established band, it is just sh*t.’
Bradfield reminisced on one of their first gigs outside of Cardiff: ‘One of our first gigs beyond Cardiff was in London: it probably cost us around £100 in petrol, and we played to maybe 15 people at this venue, seven of who were the bar staff.’
‘There are a few hotspots in the UK; like there are quite a few bands from the North – like Sheffield and Leeds – and South London that are breaking out of their local scenes. But towards Wales and Swansea, there are barely any bands that have managed to escape their debut scene. Royston Club are f*cking kinging it, but apart from them, there’s not really anyone.’
But within like one song of the set everyone had sacked off the rules – everyone was standing up and getting on the chairs and dancing
Unsurprisingly, viral TikTok songs came up as a way to secure a bigger platform quickly, but all six of them unanimously agreed it felt like a sellout move: ‘The landscape of music has changed, but maybe the best way to get gigs is to come up with TikTok hits nowadays – God that’s depressing. But maybe if you get a million streams on a TikTok song then you’d probably get booked.’
Escaping Cardiff was largely down to being introduced and taken on by manager Jonny Bradshaw; Thorne related the story of their near disastrous post-COVID-19 gig that Bradshaw came to see. ‘He loved the album, so they came to our first gig after lockdown which got moved from a 250 cap standing venue to a 50 cap seated venue because the COVID guidelines got stricter again. People had to stay seated at their tables and we were gutted; they’re coming to see us, and this is the setting that we’re stuck with. But within like one song of the set everyone had sacked off the rules – everyone was standing up and getting on the chairs and dancing. The landlady was going mental; I remember the landlady and the bar staff pelting ice cubes at everyone, trying to get them to sit down. But that was the first gig they saw us at, so clearly we made a good impression.’
Persistence was what mattered, as it took nearly five years for CVC to land with Bradshaw. Orsi described how disheartening a lot of the process was: ‘Before all that, it was just a case of emailing countless people with no replies, nothing. A lot of trial and error, luck… and skill obviously!’
CVC’s second album will be released in 2025, but in the meantime stream ‘The Lowrider (Just About Meant To Be)’ here!
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