Sea Girls - Great Hall - 22/11/22

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It’s a funny story how I discovered Sea Girls. I was driving along the narrow roads between Betws-y-Coed and Bala in the summer of 2021. My playlist had come to an end and there was nowhere to pull over in sight. Spotify began to play my recommended songs – which never seem to be of any interest to me – when ‘All I Want to Hear You Say’ came on. 

In the coming months, I became completely infatuated with the song – I’d listen to it in the shower; when walking around; before I went to sleep. It was like nothing I’d really heard before and I loved it. 

The London-based band sold out Cardiff Uni Great Hall on Tuesday evening, with a crowd of varied ages and genders hanging onto every word they sang and every chord they struck. 

Lauran Hibberd, whose monthly listeners on Spotify equate to 88,000 at the time of writing, opened for the band. Her charismatic approach got the crowd engaged, while her stage presence demanded the attention. ‘Average Joe’ off her 2022 album ‘Garageband Superstar’ was the standout anthem. 

The four-piece indie-rock band opened with 2019 single ‘Damage Done’ and followed up with ‘Lucky’ off their 2022 album ‘Homesick’ before addressing the crowd for the first time to the pandemonium of onlookers.  

It was the first time I’ve been to a gig and seen the majority of the crowd being loyal supporters. You couldn’t move for Sea Girls t-shirts and people screaming as they recognise the next song from the first chord played.

Captivating frontman Henry Camamile was idolised by the flock of avid supporters, who repeated most lyrics back to him. Lead guitarist Rory Young danced around the stage as though he was one of the crowd members. 

Arguably the most entertaining sequence of tracks were ‘Violent’, ‘Lonely’, ‘Sick’ and ‘Do You Really Wanna Know’, with each song gaining greater reaction than the last. 

Their encore included ‘Daisy Daisy’, ‘All I Want to Hear You Say’ and ‘Call Me Out’, ending with their two most popular songs in true indie-rock band fashion. 

If you haven’t witnessed one of their shows live, I’d really recommend you do. Their variety of melodic, dancey and mosh-pit-worthy songs is fantastic and I’m sure people of all ages would have a great time. 

Rachel Chinouriri Exclusive Interview

Rachel Chinouriri opens up about extra hurdles she faces as a black woman in the indie music scene, early memories around music & working with The Snuts.

Featured image: Alice Backham

indie-musician Rachel Chinouriri has opened up about being mislabelled as an ‘R&B and soul artist’ and how this has affected her career in an exclusive interview with Keep Cardiff Live. 

The 23-year-old from Croydon has taken to Twitter to voice the added hurdles she has faced in her music career as a black woman creating Alternative Indie Pop music. 

Chinouriri released her first single ‘What Have I Ever Done’ to Spotify in June 2018, and now has over 1.8 million monthly listeners on the streaming app. 

She is also a former student of the renowned Brit School of Performing Arts and Technology, whose past students include Adele, Amy Winehouse and Jessie J. 

While Chinouriri’s fans await her first album release, her latest EP ‘Better Off Without’ was released earlier this month.

Her collaboration with promising indie band ‘The Snuts’ has been praised by many music critics, while Chinouriri claims the collaboration has helped her in becoming identified correctly for the music she creates. 

Audio Interview and Words Lewis Sharpe

The Royston Club Interview

Here is a great Interview with The Royston Club and Lewis Sharpe for KCL.

Many thanks to Lewis and the band for taking the time to do the interview.

The Royston Club are a four-piece indie band from Wrexham, North Wales consisting of Tom Faithfull (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Ben Matthias (lead guitar and main song writer), Dave Tute (bass) and Sam Jones (drums). After becoming friends at secondary school, Tom, Ben and Dave started playing together in 2017 due to their shared passion for playing indie music, then added Sam on drums in 2019 to create The Royston Club. They were only together a few weeks when they recorded and released their debut single 'Shawshank’. Singles ‘Waster’ and ‘Kerosene’ followed, and in late 2019 the band headed to the famous Parr Street Studios in Liverpool to record their debut EP ‘This State I’m In’. The band went back to Parr Street Studios in August 2020 and teamed up with producer Alex Quinn (The Blinders, Spinn, SPQR), and recorded four new tracks. The first single and second single ‘Mrs Narcissistic’ and 'Coasting' are out now, with mastering duties by Robin Schmidt (Blossoms, Sports Team, Vaccines)