Adwaith

History

Hollie Singer and Gwenllian Anthony have been friends since they were three years old, growing up together in Carmarthen. They started a band and played shows locally but needed a drummer. At their first gig, they met Heledd Owen, who then joined them on drums. The band was signed by Gruff Wyn Owen, the head of Libertino Records. Singer studies music at a university in south Wales, Owen studies music in London, and Anthony works at the Parrot, a venue in Carmarthen. The name Adwaith is the Welsh word for reaction. Singer explained that one of their mothers asked what the Welsh word for reaction was, and they thought it would make a cool band name.

Adwaith first reached a wider audience on Welsh Language Music Day 2017, playing at Castle Emporium on Womanby Street. That July, they were part of the lineup for Festival N°6 in Portmeirion, included in the Horizons Gorwelion project backed by BBC Wales and the Arts Council of Wales. They also performed on the BBC Music Introducing stage at Latitude Festival in 2017. In September, they played the Discovery Day at Swn Festival in Cardiff. December 2017 brought news that they had received funding from BBC Cymru Wales and the Wales Arts Council through Horizons Gorwelion, sharing part of a £35,000 pot for independent Welsh musicians. That same month, they released their first music video, “FEMME.” The band was also named to the 12-artist shortlist for the 2018 edition of Horizons Gorwelion.