Name: Huw Marc Bennett
Nationality: Welsh
Occupation: Musician
Current Release:Days Like Now on Albert's Favourites
Recommendations: The baseline for a lot of British folk, and the 1960’s folk revival, was Martin Carthy’s 1965 self-titled album / Satantango by Bela Tar, which is 7 hours long. I was sceptical at first but wow! It’s the most gripping film I’ve ever seen.

If you enjoyed this interview with Huw Marc Bennett you can find him on Bandcamp, Facebook and Instagram.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

Before the record goes on, the room has to feel settled and pleasing to be in. Lighting is important, it can be a bit ceremonial. If I’m making time to listen to someone like Alabaster Deplume or Arun Ghosh then that space can be transformed, even just for 3-4 mins. So I like to feel and look at the space when I'm making time to listen to music.

But then often, and this is probably not a particularly good quality: If I'm listening to folk music (I'm particularly obsessed with Welsh and Greek traditions at the moment), straight away I’ll need to start researching where the tune came from, where it's traditionally played, in what context etc. Music is a lot of different things. Some music satisfies for that moment with a great bassline or beat. Some things are less obviously beautiful but when looked into their meaning offer a different sense of satisfaction and often a more lasting one.

What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

My first steps were playing in bands in rural South Wales when I was 14 or so. In my town Llanilltud Fawr, kind members like local plumbers and tilers would use their vans to pick up old amps, fix them and put them in the youth centre. I’ve always taken that community spirit with me.

I used to give myself a hard time about music, feeling like I was making mistakes all the time, but I quickly realised there is no absolute right or wrong way to do things. Authenticity as an artist, saying “This is my sound, this is what I am, the culmination of all my influences”, that is the biggest thing I've gained. Oh and don’t get exploited by large, corporate venues. That's important too.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I was into so much music between those ages, and I have this strange memory of listening to my parent’s and sister’s CDs and ones I bought myself from Jungle Records in Bridgend. I remember feeling overwhelmed by the choice of genres.

I'd be sitting in my little room at 14 with Jaco Pastorius, Coolio, Linkin Park and Michael Jacksons’s Greatest Hits, thinking “Everyone in school only likes one genre (you were into rock, metal, hip hop or pop) but I love all of these”. This has given me the love of so many types of music now, and as a musician people need that, the respect of as much music as possible.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music?

I suppose you would call me a bass player, I play the bass and get asked to do this professionally. But I love exploring and playing different instruments, it's my joy.

But with bass, I think it gives a musician a great personality, to be a solid bass player and be a real compositional element to the music you have to find your space and build up and support other people's parts, you must listen hard and be the bridge to rhythm and harmony. No time for ego.  But if you know your way around some music theory, you can direct that music somewhere completely different then bring it back just by changing where the music is rooted harmonically. To see a great compositional bass player is a thing of beauty. 

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

I feel huge satisfaction when I have created a body of songs that fit together, it feels very tangible to me. So I never really just write a song, there's some sort of concept or feeling to writing that I'm always thinking “How can this song relate to the next”. Lately, I’ve been looking at old melodies and songs from the Welsh folk tradition. I love taking these, and being creative with them. Respectful but creative. Being limited in my compositional approach helps me create, I feel more creative when the parameters are smaller and I have to make something that was written in the 17th century sound like me, sound like my music.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

There’s music that can satisfy on one level and something that has a deeper meaning, coming from a cultural place that is close to the artist. I think different tracks can fit in both camps here, but personally for me my songs that have a larger meaning than just the music, like ‘Y Gwydd’, ‘Red Valley, ‘Ffarwell i langyfelach lon’, I feel more attached to and want to explore these ideas more.  

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

On the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, where I’m from, there’s this amazing sound. When it’s a rough high tide, the sea claws and drags rounded rocks of ‘Blue Lias’ stone off the beaches. I found the sound scary as a kid, but now find it comforting. It's a sound that identifies with that particular geology and coastline.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

I think I'm getting bolder in my music and would like to extend this confidence to dynamics and compositions. As a producer, I feel more limited in this but as a live musician I think about these things more. Not having a grid or waveform or mixer level in front of you, just people and instruments, everything becomes less linear. I would like to do an album one day where it’s completely improvised live. There'll be a time where that concept fits into my music.

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriad ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

I definitely fall into the song form these days. I think I need to approach performing and recording the music differently in some respects to explore different structures. With electronic music I especially like the predictability of certain genres and paying homage to this stylistic compositional structure. It identifies your influences and shows you are aware of something, whether it be from hard bop or techno or rebetiko.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

I try to write on real instruments before touching a computer. On my new album, ‘Ffarwell i langyfelach lon’ is just a folk song I've played a million different ways on guitar or organ. When I decided to record my own version, with my own extended sections, I’d already been playing it for years so putting it down just felt like I wasn't thinking, I already had the tune inside me and almost no experimentation was needed.   

Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

I can't say I do, unless we are thinking of social science. I am experimenting with more field recording these days, like I did when I produced the Susso album ‘Keira’ (Soundway, 2016). I like having a sense of place with the music and I love field recordings, even with limited information in them, just an atmosphere that identifies that location and environment to you.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

I think if any music maker is being true to their sound, and not making what they think they ‘should make’ or what people want to hear, then you will get a true sense of who they are. For me, it's hard to say. I think the record feels like me; it’s exploring who I am, what I like, and what I want to be and how I can achieve that by being truthful.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I don’t know, about three times a day I’ll pick up an instrument for 5-10 mins and I’ll write something or improvise a melody off the back of something I heard, then never play it again. This is composing/performing/improvising: to be everyday doesn’t mean mundane to me, it just means integrated into your life.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

Greek music. Even more trashy stuff like Pix Lax rather than Marcus Vamvakaris or someone. It's the melodies and intonation and feel, even though 98% of the time I don’t understand the words.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I would like to continue the cultural exploration I've been doing and meet a lot more folk musicians from the Welsh scene and learn from them. But I’m happy enough. I’ve got good people supporting me.