Music interview: Amy Wadge at St Bonaventure's

Thursday 17th December 2009

Struggling for that perfect Christmas gift and can’t face another last-minute dash around the 24-hour garage on December 24? Well, singer-songwriter Amy Wadge may just have the answer in your hour of need. STEVE HARNELL finds out more.

In these days of free downloads and streams, it’s tough for your honest to goodness tunesmith to make a living. So Backwell-born folkie Amy Wadge has hit upon a clever new scheme – a bespoke songwriting service for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and even the odd bar mitzvah.

The commissions are now flooding in and Amy is hoping to knock out a few more songs before Christmas morning after finishing her latest tour with a homecoming date at St Bonaventure’s tonight.

“I’ve kind of been doing it for a while unofficially,” Amy tells me. “We’ve had quite a lot of take-up and it’s nice for me as it provides a focus for my songwriting.

“Let’s face it, nowadays any avenue of making money in the music business is worth exploring.

“I’m just about to write a song where a couple are having to leave each other as the guy is going abroad and his partner can’t go with him.

“He’s asked me to write a song to say goodbye and also how much he loves her. So far, they’ve all been very emotional.”

So will people have time to get a Christmas-themed song squeezed into her schedule?

“You know, every year I try to write a Christmas song and every year I fail. It just comes out like a cliché. I just can’t do it! Try as we might, you can’t just rewrite Fairytale In New York – that’s the best Christmas song of all time!“

Amy’s gig at St Bons’ tonight will be a homecoming of sorts. But over the past decade you could say she’s taken on a dual nationality.

Although still proud of her North Somerset roots, Amy has been embraced by the Welsh public since moving over the Severn Bridge to study at Cardiff’s Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in the mid-nineties.

In an acclaimed career she has also won the Best Female Solo Act gong twice at the Welsh Music Awards, beating the likes of Charlotte Church and Cerys Matthews into the bargain.

So is she looking forward to her next Bristol show?

“It’s a weird thing. When I tour, I consider Cardiff and Bristol both as hometown gigs.

“The difference is that the people who come and see me in Bristol are ones that have known me since I was a child, whereas in Cardiff it’s a 15-year relationship.

“In Bristol, it puts a whole load more pressure on me. I always care about the shows obviously, but when friends and family are in it brings a whole other dimension to it.

“It’s probably my third time playing at St Bonaventure’s. It’s one of my favourite venues – it’s just fantastic. There’s such a great vibe there.”

You have been adopted over in Wales haven’t you?

“Oh yes, loads of people think that I’m Welsh. I suppose it’s because I very much launched my career while living in Wales. I’m still very proud of my Bristol roots though.”

In the past decade, Wadge has built up a formidable fanbase. But it isn’t her first stab at success – that came when she was a teenager.

“When I was 14, I was in a school band with three other friends and played at this big gig in Keynsham in the summer holidays.

“We naively invited a local record label to the show – unfortunately they only wanted two of us and didn’t want the others. We kind of got signed there and then but it was never going to be a big deal. I very much cut my teeth gigging later on in Bristol playing places like the Louisiana and the Mauritania.”

As part of the band Two of a Kind, Amy released a cover of the Platters classic The Great Pretender, but it only managed to make a slight dent at the lower end of the singles chart. Back to the drawing board then...

“I’m quite glad it didn’t work out when I was that young though. Now I’ve got a daughter of my own it fills me with dread that in a few years time she’d want to start a career in music. It was the best lesson I could have had when it didn’t work out.

“We released something and it didn’t shoot me to superstardom.

“I soon realised that the music industry wasn’t this ridiculous kind of dream-maker thing. It taught me that I’d have to struggle and carve out a career instead.”

Fast forward several years and Wadge threw herself into the burgeoning Cardiff music scene which spawned bands such as the Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Super Furry Animals and Catatonia.

“It was a really exciting place to be in the mid-nineties.” Amy adds. “When I first moved there it was incredible. It was quick to build a reputation.

“We’ve not had that surge again with loads of bands. But like Bristol, the mid-nineties was a time where the city was defined by its music. I’m not sure if it will ever happen again.”

Wadge then made her home in Pontypridd and has even travelled Down Under with the national rugby team as a Welsh cultural ambassador. So what exactly does a cultural ambassador do?

“I have no idea!“, Amy laughs. “But I had an incredible trip over there for a month. I was basically promoting Wales and my music at the same time.”

After marrying Welsh actor Alun ap Brinley and having a daughter, Amy has been keen to learn the native tongue. Her new single Hold Me comes in both English and Welsh language versions.

“I’ve just done the single in both languages at the moment, but I’m about to go into the studio and record my first full-length album in Welsh. I’m not fluent yet but I’ve been learning for years.

“The demand for me to record in Welsh has got to the point that I’ve got to do it. I’ve been submerged in it for years – it’s my partner’s first language.”

Amy’s latest tour is to promote her fourth studio album Acoustig where she took a back-to-basics approach to its recording.

“I wanted to revisit how I worked years ago and it seemed to be the right time. There is one song on there called Long Way To Go which is inspired by the recession but overall they’re a little slice of what’s going on in my life at any given time. I’m never going to be particularly political.”

And she traces her love of acoustic music back to the Los Angeles singer-songwriter movement of the mid-Seventies.

“James Taylor has always been just about my biggest influence, I’m a massive fan” Amy adds.

“I do a show on BBC Radio Wales and it means that I’ve got a very eclectic music collection.

“Not everything I listen may come out in my songs – I’m quite into hip-hop for example – but obviously I love Americana and the alt-country scene. That’s my real passion.”

Amy Wadge plays St Bonaventure’s tonight (Thurs). Tickets are priced £10 and available by ringing 0117 929 9008.