After rocking the Welsh metal scene with their excellent single “ME DELECTA” in September, CELAVI are now back with their current track titled “NIGHTMARE”. We have sat down with Gwion Griffiths and Sarah Wynne to discuss the new song, working with the legendary producer Romesh Dodangoda (Bring Me The Horizon, Motorhead, Bullet For My Valentine) and what they are truly afraid of! And while we were talking, “NIGHTMARE” has been played on almost every BBC radio station! We don’t think there is anything that can stop the band in their quest for musical world domination!
CELAVI are described as the loudest thing to come from North Wales. Please introduce the band and tell us something about yourselves.
Gwion Griffiths: I’m Gwion and I compose the songs for CELAVI and I play guitar live.
Sarah Wynn: The loudest thing to come from North Wales! Love it! I’m Sarah and I’m the lyricist and vocalist for CELAVI.
We know that Sarah used to be a member of a pop band while in school while you Gwion maintained a strong presence on the local scene by being involved in many musical projects. Do you think your wide and extensive experiences in this industry helped you to build your own brand so efficiently?
Gwion Griffiths: It certainly helped that our musical upbringings were so different to each other. I’ve always had an interest in the production side of things and how music is made. I think being able to play some drums helped especially in the demo-ing stages. It was easier to flesh ideas out so that Sarah had more to work with than a bunch of riffs. We both bring something different that makes CELAVI so special.
Sarah Wynn: I think our different musical backgrounds as well as our shared inspirations is what has caused the natural creation of CELAVI. We’ve had a few people tell us at our gigs that they’ve never heard anything like us before, which to me is the best compliment. It’s important for us to be authentic and to express ourselves through our music.
You only released your first single in 2018 (“Pan!c”) and your debut EP followed up in 2019. Then there was pandemic when everything stopped for a lot of bands. And yet you kept going, releasing more material and landing major radio airplays such as 6 Music. Does it surprise you to see the speed at which this band develops?
Gwion Griffiths: It all seems pretty surreal when you take a minute to look back on it all. We only know one speed which is 100mph so we just keep grinding and no matter what the world throws at us. But when we do stop to smell the roses, it’s quite overwhelming because the music we make means everything to us. The fact that so many people want to come along for this crazy ride with us is very exciting! We’re incredibly grateful for every single person who takes the time to listen to us.
Sarah Wynn: During the pandemic, we worked really hard on our music and concentrated on doing what we love in such an uncertain time. Writing to us is a catharsis and something that we adore. We managed to continue to release music and record in the studio when possible. I think our hard work and self-belief has definitely helped towards our career progression.
In November 2021 you reached a different milestone – so badly desired by unsigned artists – over 1 million streams on Spotify. With listeners flocking from all over Europe, US and even Asia. It seems CELAVI music has become a common language for many people in the world. What do you think makes your music so universal?
Gwion Griffiths: It still freaks me out a little to be honest. As a geeky kid who grew up noodling on his guitar in the Welsh mountains, to have people in places from Estonia to El Salvador listening to your music, is just crazy! I think a lot of it is that our music is genuine. We’ve never written a song to please anyone other than ourselves first and foremost and that comes across in what we do, especially in Sarah’s lyrics. You can tell they come from the heart.
Sarah Wynn: It’s really emotional to us when people listen and support our music! We’re just really so grateful for the support. I don’t think it will ever sink in that our music has reached over 1 million streams! Getting teary thinking about it again! I think our songs are authentic, we write about personal experiences and personal thoughts and that makes our listeners relate to us. We’re being real. Getting this response to our music is such a wonderful feeling. It really means so much to us.
You have worked with Romesh Dodangoda – famous record producer mostly associated with Bring Me the Horizon and Motorhead. Tell us how this collaboration came to be. Did you have a chance to record at Romesh`s Cardiff studios?
Gwion Griffiths: We were fortunate enough to be selected as part of the Gorwelion/Horizons project here in Wales for 2022. We got to spend a week in Romesh’ in Cardiff studio which was absolutely incredible! To be able to work with the person who made so many of the albums I grew up listening to, was definitely a bucket list moment for me!
Sarah Wynn: Working with Romesh was a dream come true! I’m a huge fan of Bring Me The Horizon and “amo” is one of my favourite albums. It’s so surreal – a few years ago, we went to have the album signed in Cardiff, and now, we worked with Romesh who actually produced it! There was even a gold disk on the wall of the studio! He’s such a legend and we can’t wait to go back to record more tracks with him!
Living in Wales makes everything seems to be far away. All the cool things happen in London or Manchester. Does it bother you to be “side-lined” or maybe it keeps you grounded to be a bit away from all the madness of the music industry?
Gwion Griffiths: I don’t like to think of us as being “side-lined” as such because we’re only about 90 minutes away from cities like Manchester. We’ve been very fortunate to have been invited to Liverpool, Whitchurch or Leeds to play shows which is ace. But in terms of closer to home, things are bound to be a little bit sparse, as the population isn’t as dense. But those of us that are here, we bring the noise! There’s a wealth of great bands and artists here and we feel very honoured to be a part of it. They don’t call Wales the Land of Song for nothing!
Single Cover
You admitted in an interview that every song you compose tells a specific story. What inspired you to write your new single “Nightmare?
Sarah Wynn: “NIGHTMARE” is a reminder that everyone has their own NIGHTMARE in life, their own stresses, heartbreak and battles. I guess we wrote it as a gentle reminder to be kind. Be mindful of what someone might be going through.
“Nightmare” came out just in time for Halloween. We need to ask, what’s your personal nightmare?
Gwion Griffiths: There are three things that terrify me. Spiders, needles and spiders with needles for teeth. So, anything involving any of them would mean I’m not going to sleep easy!
Sarah Wynn: I’m very similar to G actually – spiders! They make me cry! Ha! I’m really afraid of them. Needles too, not a fan at all!
You will be going on tour soon. Where can we see you playing live?
Gwion Griffiths: Our next show is going to be as part of Swansea Fringe Festival on the 6th of November at Hangar 18. We’ve got some other cool stuff lined up which we can’t disclose quite yet. But if you keep an eye on our socials, you’ll know as soon as we’re allowed to say!
Last questions are fun at Indieterria. Let’s say you have a chance to travel to the US to play a big, loud scary Halloween show. Who’s supporting you and what are your costumes for the night?
Gwion Griffiths: This is such a hard question! There are so many possibilities here! I’d love to do a Halloween show with Wednesday 13. He’s such a brilliant artist and I love how he blends the horror aesthetic into his art. I think together we’d be able to make something pretty magical happen! I can picture it now!
Sarah Wynn: I’d love to do a Halloween show with Bring Me The Horizon, Mimi Barks and Rammstein. Very loud and very goth! Ohhh, the costumes! Awesome question! Lots of vinyl, a massive tutu and sick heels!
Please follow the band on social media:
https://www.wearecelavi.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WEARECELAVI/
https://www.instagram.com/wearecelavi/
https://twitter.com/wearecelavi
https://soundcloud.com/wearecelavi
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4OEzNJIkgsH8PTw0y86ATx?si=bo7MdX3-Q1O_nfbhpgAziw&nd=1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVqtR652vnb9pwo89ek2Y2g
https://www.tiktok.com/@wearecelavi
Sarah Wynn:
http://www.sarah-wynn.com
https://www.facebook.com/SarahWynnOfficial
https://soundcloud.com/sarah-wynn
https://twitter.com/SarahWynn1
Label: https://twitter.com/musicbymeraki
Contact: celavimusic@gmail.com
“NIGHTMARE” is out on 28th of October 2022
Pictures by CELAVI
Rita and Malicia Dabrowicz
Indieterria 
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