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Speaker 1
Right, so we’ll start with question section one, beginnings and personal journey. So what first got you into music?
Speaker 2
You’re recording that. Right, okay. So I was really lucky in Ysgol Dewi Sant because I had an amazing teacher called Mrs Gwen who was really musical and obviously in the school she did a lot of choirs and solos and got me into the Eisteddfod and things like that and she did a lot of like performances in the school, like shows and stuff. So we did like Wizard of Oz, you know, all of that lot. So I always threw myself into all of that because I just loved performing. And I think through her and her being so amazing that I got into music. And I was, I danced and stuff as well, so that always kind of helps with performing, I suppose. And doing steddfods and things like that is a great platform for young kids as well to, I suppose, get the confidence to actually get up on a stage and perform. And I think as well you become like a character and it’s a good way of hiding yourself, but expressing yourself. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1
That’s very cool. Yeah, makes sense. And what’s your earliest memories of music and what made you realise you wanted to be a performer?
Speaker 2
Again, my earliest memory of music was just being in school, about five years old, in a Eisteddfod, in a ysgol dewi sant, where everybody in the class had to try for the Eisteddfod because the school did loads and loads of things in the Eisteddfod and just standing on that stage and just singing.
Speaker 1
Love it. Any famous musicians that you admire?
Speaker 2
When I was growing up, I really admired Carol Parry-Jones, who is a Welsh composer, singer, a massive Welsh personality. She’s an all-rounder, she can act, she can write songs, she’s so musical. And it was her mum, Mrs Gwen, who taught me in school. So I absolutely admired Carol and you know, over the years I’ve been really lucky to work with her and now she’s one of my best friends. So I think when you’re younger and you get the opportunity to meet kind of like your idol that wasn’t kind of like banana rama or something like that and doing it in a language that You know, is… Hold on, what am I trying to say here? That… You know, even though Welsh is my second language, it helped me connect more with the language and it makes it more possible. I’m like personal. Personal, yeah. I’m not making any sense. I’m sorry, Kayla. I’m bloody waffling on here.
Speaker 1
No, I think that makes sense. Yeah, it makes it more personal and like.
Speaker 2
Yeah, and achievable, maybe, because I had that connection.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Speaker 2
You know, even though I didn’t get to know Carol until I was like twenty-one, you know, I’ve met her a few times and Mrs. Glare themselves and all of that. Yeah, like… and it goes back to being bilingual, it’s that it opens up so many more doors and more possibilities if you can do it in another language.
Speaker 1
I like that. Love it. And then, so we’re moving on to friendship and collaboration with Band Dynamics next. So Eden’s been part of Welsh music since 1996. How did the three of you first come together?
Speaker 2
So, true story. My brother saw an advert in the Rhyl Journal from this guy looking to put a Welsh, like a girl band together and he said, I dare you to do that and me being me, you’ve got to take a dare, haven’t you? So I applied for this thing did an audition and he was like yeah great and then I and he said yeah I want you to be part of this band and then I said well I’ll only do it if my mate Non does it with me so um I asked Non and she was like yay great because it was it was some holidays and Non was home from uni and I I was still in school at that time well no I was in Llanddresa College at that time And funnily enough, we decided we wanted a three. So my sister, Jenny, she stepped in and we were called Cola. And what was bizarre about this whole experience is that the guy had never heard us sing, but like said, yeah, I’ll do something with the three of you. So there was a lot of press and that about the three of us. And then my sister was like, I’m not doing this, it’s not for me. So she went and then Nonna and I were talking and we were really close friends with Emma. And we were like, she was coming home from York University and we were like, do you want to do this with us? And she was like, yeah, why not? I’ve got nothing going on. So yeah, that’s the story of Eden coming together really. This guy, he took us to London. We went to London and we were told to go to certain places and he still hadn’t heard us sing at this point. We had to go to certain places, talk to certain people and I just got really, really uncomfortable and I was like, this doesn’t feel right at all. So when we came home from there, we decided to not have anything to do with him. So that was kind of like the end of Cola. So lucky for us, Carol, Parry Jones, Mrs. Gwen’s daughter, is Non’s cousin. So it’s so complicated. Mrs. Gwen is Non’s auntie. So Non and Emma had just finished uni and were looking for work. So she offered them a job doing backing vocals for one of her series. And when they came up to record that series, an act had pulled out of the series. So Cariel said, oh, I know you three sing together. So if I write a song for the three of you, can you fill that spot? And we were like, whatever. just write us a song. And that song that she wrote was Pied by Dovin. And we filled the slot and that was the beginning of her then.
Speaker 1
Awesome. So cool. You’ve been best friends since school and your choir days. How has that friendship shaped the music you make?
Speaker 2
I think if you’re going to be in a band, friend, Friendship always comes first, I think, with the three of us, because that is the most important thing. But also, I think the friendship has helped us last this long, I suppose, because we’re always very honest with each other. We’ll not do anything that one of us is uncomfortable doing. And music-wise, We love the same type of music. We love pop. So it’s a no-brainer, really, that it’s going to work, I suppose.
Speaker 1
It’s a fact. I can vouch for it. Yeah. How… where am I going? In your new album, well, latest album, how much of the band’s personal experiences influenced the songs?
Speaker 2
So the new album Have You, that was really like important for us to get right because it was the first time we’d released anything in 25 years which is a long time and a lot of has happened in our lives over that 25 years and I think we had more say in what we wanted than we had back in the day because back in the day basically in the 90s we were so lucky we were given a TV series so the songs were catered for that and we were just giving them and we were like yeah okay we’ll record them, we’ll perform them and that was that. So in this one it was really important that it was more personal to us and our journey in life and A lot has happened over the years, but I think the main thing was in 2023, Non was diagnosed as being autistic and also she has been very vocal since, I think, 2020, 21, something like that, of her mental health. She suffers really, really bad with depression. and she’s been very vocal with that over the years. So we wanted to take our audience on a journey of our life experiences thing and so many people can relate to those songs. It’s like when we were discussing the album and how we were going to name the tracks in the album. We just wanted them to be one word because they’re punchy. So you’ve got Caredig, so a song about being kind. You’ve got fi, a song about like Non’s personal journey with her mental health, how she saw, how depression kind of controlled her. And basically she’s telling that person, not now, leave me alone. You’ve got Heddiw, which is about live for the moment, live for today, live for the 24 hours that you’ve got ahead of you. You’ve got Poi, which a lot of people think is like a breakup song, but it’s more like about that little voice in your head. Telling it to **** *** basically. Sorry, don’t put **** *** in your face out. I love it.
Speaker 1
How would you describe the music that you typically create?
Speaker 2
Obviously, it’s pop. Pop music, but again, as I’ve just mentioned,
Speaker 2
I think pop’s great for connecting with your audience because it’s a bop, but also there’s always a strong message within the songs that we’ve got. Like in 1996, obviously all the songs were about copping off the boys, you know, meeting boys, meeting the love of your life, heartbreak songs and all of that lot, where now they are just life experiences. and like I said that a lot of the songs our audience can connect, relate with I suppose, because during lockdown we recorded ‘Sanev Lt’ and this is where the whole kind of ‘are we gonna record an album again?’ came from because we asked Carol to write a song for us that just let people express themselves and not to be afraid of the person that they are and to live the life that they deserve to live.
Speaker 1
Good answer.
Speaker 2
Is it? I feel like I’m waffling. Sorry, Kayla. You know, if you want to ring me, that’s fine. I just go on and on and on.
Speaker 1
I think you’re overthinking it.
Speaker 2
Am I?
Speaker 1
Yeah. No, really don’t.
Speaker 2
You should put it in ChatGPT and it’ll put it in order for you.
Speaker 1
What is your creative process like?
Speaker 2
Our creative process is so much fun. So what happens is we have… Because it had to be a downwind, didn’t it? We’re just… Sorry, what’s the question?
Speaker 1
I went interrupting.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Speaker 1
What’s your creative process like?
Speaker 2
Get out my own ice ice. Creative, yeah, it’s so much fun. So basically when we did this last album, we briefed Carol on the kind of vibe that we wanted. And what’s brilliant with our relationship with her is that she just gets it instantly because the four of us have such a good relationship. Like she’s definitely the 4th member of the band. So then we filmed a lot of it in North Wales and obviously we have a lot of discussions about who we want to produce it. Carol usually writes all of our songs, but we got two, well, three really great musicians to help with this album. So one of them is Yws Gwynedd and he’s an artist himself and Ivan, he’s in two bands himself, he’s in Tsunami and he performs with Yws Gwynedd’s band and Rich, he has a studio in North Wales and he was our producer for most of the songs. So they’ve written some songs for us. So off we went to North Wales and we had always had like a routine. So We’d tell Carol what we wanted. She’d kind of do like little voice notes in her phone and send them to us. Then we’d travel to North Wales on a Friday, usually after I finished work. And then we’d stay in an Airbnb and we’d always make sure there was a hot tub there. And we’d have cauliflower curry on the Friday night. And then we’d have that and Carol would write the lyrics to the songs, then she would go through the lyrics with us, make sure that we’re happy. Then the next day, on the Saturday morning, we’d turn up to the studio in Verlas and we’d start building the track then. So Rich and Carol had worked closely together to build the track while the three of us are sat there, which is an amazing experience just to watch how they do that. And then vocally, Non is, because she’s the main vocalist, she always lays her track first. And then Emma, who’s the higher soprano, desk answers that, I don’t know what that is in English. she lays her vocal and then as an alto I’ll always lay my vocal last and then we all do BVs together and usually Carol loves joining in the BVs so usually we could nail a song in a day it depends how um how vocally heavy it is because obviously we learn the harmonies on the spot And then with the songs that Osgwen, Evan and Rich had written to us, they’d always send voice notes to us with like a little demo. So then we’d get there and then we’d record it really straight away because they’d prepared the backing tracks already. And then Carol would give us our harmonies and then we’d just record it. in our order. I’m so superstitious that if we did do it out of order, it’d freak me out because I think something would go wrong or it’s going to be a **** song. But I’m always laughing. It’s like I always have to stand on my…
Speaker 1
Your spot.
Speaker 2
My spot. Weird, aren’t I?
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Speaker 2
I think that’s autistic as well, isn’t it? Probably. Definitely. Sorry, I’ve waffled on there. Anyway, next?
Speaker 1
Really cool. No. Where have you performed?
Speaker 2
Oh my gosh. You know, we’ve performed, I think, in every nook and cranny part of Wales over the past 30, 29 years. We’ve been really, really lucky. We’ve performed in the Steddord many times, we’ve performed in Caernarfon and Millennium, we’ve performed in Pontiobangor, the Gallery, Caernarfon, Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
Speaker 1
In a church recently.
Speaker 2
In a church recently. Acoustic as well. Yeah, in schools we’ve performed, back in the day in the 90s there was like a radio programme called Ram Jam and they used to do like school tours so that was a great platform for us in the beginning to get like kids to like our music and I think as well because we were like the first like pop Welsh girl band everybody just got really excited and we just gigged and that’s the most important thing is that you gig because that gets you really tight as a unit as well and try not to say anything no to anything um but yeah like you said the last year we’ve been like doing everything with our um Heddiw cd where now we’re concentrating on the acoustic side of things because this shows I think how vocally strong we are because a lot of people think oh yeah they can’t really sing but I think we can.
Speaker 1
I think you can too. You don’t need to prove yourself either.
Speaker 2
Like harmonies or Eden. We could never sing a song without harmonies and because we were in a girl choir as well together, we kind of, we’re in sync and our vibratos are kind of in sync as well. We’ve learned to listen to each other so it’s just like, it just kind of works.
Speaker 1
It does. Any favourite venues or memories?
Speaker 2
I think one of my favourite memories is has to be when we did Pontypridd in 2024.
peaker 2
That was a massive highlight because we’d worked so hard for two years on creating this album, Heddi2, and there was a big hype about it. And then we did Pontio then with the Welsh National Orchestra, which was just insane and quite emotional, I think, to hear an orchestra playing your songs and just to have the chance to do that, it was massive, scary, but massive and we did it. We’re really lucky that we’ve got a very supportive network around us and we’ve got this, oh God, Iolo, Epic, sorry. This is my life. My head’s gone now.
Speaker 1
What was the talk about? You’ve got a very supportive network around you.
Speaker 2
Yeah, we’ve got a very… Eden is not just a three-piece. Eden is more than that. You know, when we’ve got the band with us, they’re so, supportive. We’ve got Carol, obviously. There would not be and Eden without Carol and then because we’re pop we do dance moves, we’ve got Elan, she does all our choreography and it’s quite family based because Elan is Carol’s daughter and then vocally we have vocal sessions sometimes with Miriam who’s Carol’s other daughter just to make sure that we’re using our voices in the right way when we’re gigging a lot because it can get tired.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Perfect. And how important is singing in Welsh to your identity as a band?
Speaker 2
Singing in Welsh is really important for the three of us because like I mentioned earlier on, way down there, back in the day there was no girl groups so we came out at the same time as um Eternal and then on the back of that obviously the Spice Girls were a massive thing so then we were always compared to like the Spice Girls we were known as the Welsh language Spice Girls um so it was really important for us that Welsh speakers because you do have parts in Wales where actually they can’t speak English and they don’t want to listen to English music so that they had a girl band that was just as good, if not better, to the Spice Girls and Eternal who were singing in English. Why should there not be a Welsh girl band in your language?
Speaker 1
Yeah. And have you ever felt a responsibility to represent Welsh culture through your music?
Speaker 2
I think we do have a responsibility because we’ve put ourselves out there and I think that’s what’s great about, you know, Eden. We do feel responsible for any decisions that we make and any gigs that we take on because We, the Welsh language, unfortunately, is, well, it’s not dying, but we’re trying, we’re really trying now to connect with people that maybe aren’t Welsh. The amount of Welsh learners that listen to our music is unbelievable and it kind of helps them on their Welsh learning journey. And if you can get any focus on the Welsh language in a certain way, whether it’s going to the theatre to watch a drama, through music. People connect more with the arts, I think, doesn’t it?
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Speaker 2
You know? you can go to the opera and not bloody understand the word, but you can feel the emotion.
Speaker 1
You can permit it through the music.
Speaker 2
Yeah, and that’s the same thing with Eden. Yeah. You can feel the emotion, you can still connect No matter what. with no matter what, no matter what language it is. If it’s a good bloody song, it’s a good bloody song.
Speaker 1
That’s true. That’s a fact. Almost there now. So if you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
Speaker 2
That’s a good question, isn’t it?
Speaker 1
There’s a lot of different things you could choose.
Speaker 2
Yeah, I think if I could, that there was more support financially for young groups. Like I said, back in the day, the platform for the three of us was amazing because they had so much like Welsh language entertainment programmes where you could go and perform on that they did like S4C did loads of summer tours and stuff and we were always invited to that where you’d go to different shows around Wales and then you know the budget has got so small now that all of those things have stopped because you don’t go out to your audience anymore. We were out like for six weeks on a tour with the summer and it was flipping brilliant, so much fun. But because the money’s not there, you can’t reach that audience and the only audience that you do reach is the Eisteddfod or the era. Not everybody likes that and not everybody can afford to go to that. So I think it’s really, important to try and get funding back into music and the arts so that people can go out to their audience and meet them and, you know, and for people to have the chance to see the people who are part of their lives. Music is a part of people’s everyday lives. And it’s amazing, we meet all kinds of people who just say how we have had such an impact on their life when they’ve, and it’s bloody mental. people say, you saved my life with this song. And I’m like, I’m not a surgeon, I’m just a singer. Yeah. You know, but because That song has really picked them up or made them feel that they’re not the only person that has felt like that. I’m jibbering on again. I’m going to stop.
Speaker 1
Not at all. And what’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Speaker 2
Oh, enjoy it.
Speaker 1
Enjoy it.
Speaker 2
That is the best. Also, I think what we’ve learned over the years, like back in the day, in the 90s, We cared. We had a **** time of people, because we were so different to any other kind of Welsh music, because it was all like cool Cymru music. And then we came on pop and they were like, who the hell are these three girls doing dance routines, singing and harmonies? Who do they think they are? What’s the question again?
Speaker 1
Best advice?
Speaker 2
Oh yeah, And we cared, you know, people didn’t like us. We performed on stage with people throwing many bottles at us because they didn’t, we were sent to these places to sing and we cared. What I’d say to Rachel or Eden now, 30 years ago, don’t care, don’t let it upset you, just go for it. I think that’s where we’re at now. I wish I could say to the young Eden, we did enjoy it, but…
Speaker 1
Don’t listen to them.
Speaker 2
Don’t listen to them. And I think that’s my, maybe why we’re stronger now, because we’re older. We are just like… Let’s just do it for the fun, for the thrills. It’s our playing golf, even though I still get stressed about it, but I think because we’re perfectionists, we want it to be right. We’re a brand, you know, and we work hard and we’ve created this ourselves and, you know, we’re not gonna change our act because we’re older. If anything, it’s brilliant. We have women who are 50 who come up to us and say, it’s amazing that you’re still doing what you’re doing. You know, you make me feel like I can do what I want to do. Age is just an age, you know. So.
Speaker 1
On that note, what’s next for Eden?
Speaker 2
So Eden is 30 next year, so they’re all There’s going to be big plans in place. We’re going to have a meeting hopefully next week to how we work as Eden is we have a meeting and we work on what is our goal? What do we want to achieve? So it’ll be a matter of what do we want to achieve in 2027 to celebrate the 30 years of releasing Paeda Bodovan album. so we will discuss what we want and then we will work backwards for that so we’ll have a 12-month plan so it’ll be Paid a bod ofn will be 30 in August 2027 so um yeah I’m kind of hoping a tour that would be awesome um let’s see tour bus let’s see tour bus I’d love a tour bus Yeah, with the band. I love it. And if you want anything else, and I’m sorry, I waffle on, honest to God, I hate myself sometimes, just let me know and I’ll do a voice note and I’ll try and make it a bit rounder for you.
Speaker 1
Perfect.
