Gwenno interview: Her 'beautiful' new record Tresor and championing the Cornish language
"It’s not only the place and the landscape that makes a place - it's predominantly the people" says Gwenno Saunders.
We're discussing her forthcoming record 'Tresor' - her third full length solo album and the second performed almost entirely in Cornish (Kernewek).
2018's acclaimed 'Le Kov' put the language firmly in the spotlight.
"I really wanted to know how I'd feel trying to record music in Cornwall, almost feeling like an alien there" says Gwenno.
"It was quite an emotional experience and I was on my own. But obviously, I met friends as soon as I landed because Cornwall is such a small place!
"Tresor means treasure. I really was interested in the idea of it being a sort of an artefact" she explains.
"There are huge parallels between rural Wales and rural Cornwall in terms of second homes, economic disadvantages. Identities and languages all come in as well."
"Everything is political and I think all art is and, but I was interested in trying to create something that was just really, really beautiful."
'Tresor', as with Gwenno's previous two records, was recorded at home with her co-producer and husband Rhys Edwards.
"We felt that there was a peacefulness that had happened and a clarity in terms of kindness and beauty that we were really trying to pursue" she says.
"We come from a very DIY ethos and community. I think you do when you come from Wales anyway, because if you don't make it it's not made!"
I've always been really, really inspired by what other people are doing around me. It's like coming back to Wales. It was such a hot bed, and still is, of creativity.
"That's what excited me, because I just knew that I was only tapping into an expression that existed and it's the same thing with with Cornwall and Cornish language."
"I also wanted to create something very emotional" says Gwenno.
"I'm a mother and I think that becoming a mum takes a lot of years to process and psychologically regardless of the experience"
"It was about trying to express very basic and universal emotions in the language. 'Le Kov' was a sort of a light essay about a lot of historical things that had happened with the Cornish language.
"This was far more just trying to express an emotion that was direct".
The interview with Gwenno features in the first episode of ITV Wales' new arts and entertainment show 'Backstage'.
'Backstage' airs at 10:45pm on June 16 on ITV Wales - the first in a series of six programmes. It'll also be available to view online at www.itv.com/walesprogrammes after broadcast.