Back in 2019, 9Bach, Andy Gangadeen and actress Maxine Peake collaborated as the YN DY LAIS – IN YOUR VOICE project, premiered at Focus Wales. The band and Gangadeen, an artist with extensive experience working with leading bands among them Chase & Status and Lava La Rue, have come together once more to release a new single ‘Llaw 101 Mix’. This marks the first opportunity to hear their exciting musical partnership, bringing ‘powerful big beats and up-tempo grooves’ to 9Bach’s unique sound.
9Bach was formed by Lisa Jen Brown and Martin Hoyland in 2005. The name is a play on numbers and words. Lisa: “9 is as in Nain, (pronounced nine), which means grandmother in the North of Wales; Bach means little and is also a term of endearment in Welsh. In one language 9 is something so mundane as a number, but in Welsh Nain is a cozy, family-orientated, lovely thing. Your grandmother is a person we can relate to and visualise.”
The band line up is: Lisa Jen Brown: vocals, Martin Hoyland: guitars, Dan Swain: bass guitar, Mirain Haf Roberts: vocals, piano and Andy Gangadeen: drums, musical director.
We asked Lisa Jen Brown probing questions about this new phase of 9Bach following a five year hiatus.
Five years though? That’s 25% of 9Bach’s existence!
It is! Well.. things just kept getting in the way. From pet deaths and losing loved ones to era’s of internal crisis, from transitions and family chaos, all sorts! But also I trained as an Intimacy Coordinator for TV and Film and was busy in the background creating and surviving – as we all do.
How did the relationship with Andy Gangadeen come about?
What really brought us together and fuelled a determination to make music together was the loss of our mutual friend Alan James. He had brought us and Andy together for YDL- IYV project, but tragically we lost him suddenly as it was starting. Alan or “AJ” as we called him was 9Bach’s manager and family friend, and was also a close friend of Andy, and so he was like this beautiful bridge.
Andy, Martin and I, along with Alan’s closest friends and loved ones were with Alan at the end of his life. It was intense, and we certainly formed a close bond during that sad time. We were determined to make it work, to honour the legacy of AJ.
Connecting and marrying traditions with the new is a very 9Bach approach so to what extent is this new work a logical extension of that?
I always long for the past, and during the lockdown I listened to the podcast Ecstacy- The Battle of Rave during my midnight walks up and down the Bethesda windy paths. Oh! It just made me ‘feel’ something again. I was crying and laughing and back there again. I’m always banging on about raves in quarries and it’s because it was the happiest time of my life really.
I’m not saying our new music compares to that but it definitely stems from wanting to move a bit more, and wanting something with bigger beats. We are blending some familiar 9Bach vocals and marrying them with Andy’s hybrid drumming vibes, it’s often ahh yes.. That’s very 9Bach to… Shitin’ hell that’s bangin’!!
It’s interesting during Acid house how similar vibes were happening spontaneously in very different spaces. Similarly, this new work sounds to be created in a similar way.
Yes, it has been recorded and written spontaneously! And similar back then all that diversity in the music where you had the chill out room for the ambient stuff, the dark industrial room for the techno.. Some lovely fluffy vibes where the house music was… I was always in the club toilets singing though! But that’s another story. And Mart, Andy and I’s music background is VERY different,l so it’s created with bits and bobs of everyone’s strengths I think.
Andy came to Bethesda a lot and some of his bits of writing are inspired by the landscape here! Just as I’ve clocked off that, and gone searching for beats in Andy’s hard drive – hahaha. Mart always consistently has such an amazing feel for texture and atmospheric stuff, and he’s been working more on the midi. The creative process has been a sonic rebellion for me as I’ve tried to peel off some old 9Bach skin… but sometimes it’s just meant to stick isn’t it… I think there’s a bit of necessary progress in the music but still a bit of us still there.
How did you approach working from Andy’s drum beats rather than the more familiar piano?
Ah, it was so liberating. I’d listen to some AG drum patterns, find the ones that made me nod and stand up and feel good, I’d loop it on the ableton and then just start singing. Andy would then add some arrangements and chords. It’s a complete reverse way of working for me.
What were the freedoms and restrictions attached to that, if any?
The freedoms were that it didn’t feel stagnant and I wasn’t by the piano agonising about where to put my fingers. It was much more of a ‘feel’ approach. Andy’s way of working also pushed Mart and I to self teach ourselves and each other on the digital audio workstation front.
If you think the last 3 9Bach albums have all been recorded live! This isn’t anywhere near that… and that’s such a different and brilliant alternative approach. With a portfolio career / multi-hyphenate career like mine, it’s definitely freeing to do it like this, it just has to slot in.
What’s the main springboard for the songwriting on these new recordings?
Like my brain it’s very scattered and disorganised in that sense it doesn’t have a linear theme this time! It’s definitely written instinctively and without searching for a particular concept. But actually, they are big subjects of Women, Sisterhood, Revenge, Water, Moons and simply finding the path again and feeling the rhythm of return.
‘My imagination is very vivid and I often make stories up and convince myself they are true.’ What’s your wildest story?
Lovely question! I’d be way too embarrassed to admit to any of my really wild ones! I guess what I do well is embellish beyond belief on a single line or hint of a narrative! My friends and family say – ‘Why do you always take it too far’
And I do. I can fluff out a story and make it triple the size it should be!
What can we expect from you at FOCUS Wales?
We love Focus Wales and it’ll be amazing to play again. I guess what you can expect is… It’s kind of the same vibe, just with some growth and moving things up a level.
‘Llaw 101 Mix’ is out now via Real World.
Live dates:
09/05 – Tafarn Y Plu – Llanystumdwy
10/05 – FOCUS Wales Wrexham – Llwyn Isaf
06/06 – Neuadd Ogwen – Bethesda
10/06 – The Grace – London
