In Conversation With CVC
Nestled somewhere between Cardiff and the South Wales Valleys lies another sleeping musical giant. Born after their time, CVC are making a name for themselves with an eclectic blend of sonic influence as far and wide as Steely Dan and Snoop Dogg. The six-piece have garnered a reputation for their raucous live performances, playing sweat-induced sell-outs up and down the country. Now, as CVC OG’s Eliot Bradfield (vocals/guitar) and Dan ‘Nanial’ Jones (keyboard/percussion) reflect on the recent recording of their debut album, ‘Get Real’, we sat down with them over zoom to find out what they’re all about…
Obviously, the name, as you’ve said in the past, stands for Church Village Collective – where does that come from?
Elliot: For a long time we wanted CVC to be kind of ambiguous, where no one really knows the meaning, and it’s a bit weird. We thought about it for a while and we thought Church Village Collective was cool because it sort of sums up that CVC isn’t just a band, it’s everyone who supports the band, and everyone who is willing to get involved with the band. That is the Church Village Collective. We’re happy to go with that for the time being!
Your debut album ‘Get Real’ is due this Summer, what can you tell us about that? How was the recording process?
Elliot: For me, I was thinking that going into it, we were really looking forward to it – we’ve never sat down to record anything properly, it’s always been like demos and stuff. Obviously, over the Summer, everyone has evacuated my house because of the covid situation, so we had a good space and time to sit down all together and put time and effort into the creation of the album. We had about fifteen/sixteen songs that we thought were like, up there, which we were testing for spots. We just started recording them then, probably one song every two days, or every three days – we’d just bash through them, we got into a really good momentum. Just kept ploughing through. We whittled it down to about twelve songs.
Dan: And it was hard to get it down to that as well – I think with all the Dave stuff as well we’ve potentially got enough for like three albums. But it was fun! It was good as well, because I think when you go into a recording studio you feel rushed, but by doing it ourselves we had enough time to put all our effort into making it as good as possible, rather than worrying about the time frame.
Elliot: It was a good learning experience as well, because we were sitting down with all the software ourselves, and we had to do like twenty takes of recording it with the wrong leads, or with everything peaking, and then we’d have to learn to do it again. Definitely good for us in the long term.
So it’s totally recorded and produced by you guys…
Dan: Yeah! We’ve done it ourselves. We’ll have someone other than us doing the mix and the master, but in terms of recording, it’s totally us.
Elliot: I think that’s something we’d like to do at some point, mix and master ourselves, but for the time being I think it’s better to give it to someone else who knows what they’re doing, to get the right sound.
You’re obviously a pretty big part of the Cardiff music scene, which is pretty tight-knit. Does that inspire you, being surrounded by different creatives?
Dan: Yeah! It’s hard to have a view of it from outside to be honest, because just all of our mates are musicians. It would be weird for me now to not be involved in that scene because everyone we hang out with on a personal level is doing some really cool stuff inside the Cardiff music scene anyway. It is nice, it’s good – you can come up with some pretty good rivalries, which I think gets you going, and makes you a bit better as well, so yeah! It’s fun.
Elliot: It’s a really tight-knit community as well, and pre-covid if you went out in Cardiff, you could literally find every single musician on one street, which is Womanby street, on a Saturday night. It’s like they literally can’t go outside that area! But that’s kind of cool, because everybody knows each other.
You’ve been hailed as a ‘good time’ band – I remember seeing one of you hanging from the rafters at Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard’s Saturday Night Sermon. Was this always the aim, to create this crazy live experience?
Dan: I don’t know! I think it just happened. Obviously, the crowd can never be more hyped than you are, you have to bring it – especially Dave and Jess, I think it’s just in their nature to be like that. So I don’t know, yeah! It’s just a reflection of how we are in real life, more than anything else.
Elliot: Dan’s been in the band a lot longer than I have, so I can’t say what it was like before I joined, but ever since I’ve joined I’ve noticed that the live shows are literally insane, every time. I think we feed off the crowd a lot as well, if it’s a big room with a crowd who are into the music, we’ll just keep pushing each other until the room is literally vibrating.
““You don’t really choose the music you like do you? It sort of chooses you, like a fucking wand in Harry Potter.””
You take a lot of inspiration from 60s 70s jazz and psychedelia – what interests you about this era, and how does that translate into 21st century production?
Elliot: Good question.
Dan: I think from being a band, interested in band music, that’s kind of the golden age for being in a band – for me at least. We listened to that sort of stuff and were influenced y that sort of stuff anyway, so I think it’s good to have a modern twist on the older stuff. Try and bring some of it forwards. That’s what I would say anyway.
Elliot: You don’t really choose the music you like do you? It sort of chooses you, like a fucking wand in Harry Potter. I’m into the 70s stuff because my dad showed me like Steely Dan and Led Zeppelin and stuff like that, and now it’s sort of becoming part of me. I know Dave’s dad for example loves like Neil Young and all that sort of American 70s music – Crosby Stills and Nash – so I think yeah, it’s just a part of us. I don’t think any of us really – a lot of the music out nowadays isn’t really up any of our streets, in terms of what we’d listen to, but I think it’s an interesting balance of having to find how to mix and master the music, whilst still getting that old vibe. That’s why we’re taking it to someone else who really knows what they’re doing.
Dan: I spent a long time when I was younger – and I think Dave was the same – thinking that no good music was made past a certain point. I didn’t rate anything for a long time, and I think now I’m getting older, there are people who are making music now who are amazing. But it definitely stems from that, there was a bias. A 70s bias.
Elliot: It was like that 00s period of not a lot of good music coming out.
Are the visual elements of your output as important to you as the sonic elements?
Elliott: Well Dan runs a clothes shop, so he’s like the perfect guy to go to. I’m speaking for you here Dan, but I’m guessing that your love for vintage clothing came from spending time around like Dave and Cesco, and probably yourself, just looking for old clothes wherever you went.
Dan: I like to think that I taught them a thing or two! But yeah, that is very much the case. I think it lends itself hand in hand in that sense, when you’re on stage, that’s one of the best chances to just dress mental isn’t it, so that isn’t something you can not take up. But yeah, I think it bleeds into all the videos and stuff as well.
Elliot: I remember the first time I met Dave, it was in our old band called CwCw, and we had a gig down in Camarthen, and it was outside the castle in Camarthenshire. Backstage just before us, there was this – what are they called? Hare Krishna monks. They had all their outfits in the back room, and we turned up and Dave just nabbed like two of them, chucked one on, and came on stage wearing it. We were all like what the fuck are you doing. But that just goes to show, ever since I’ve met him, he’s just been obsessed with the image as well.
Dan: I like to try and put some mad stuff onstage because it’s the only time I can really get away with it. If I was wearing some of the stuff I wear on stage normally, I’d probably get like beaten up, you know? It’s fun.
Your last release was ‘Mortgage Anthem’, can you talk to me a little bit about where the idea for the video came from?
Dan: I actually don’t know. Do you know?
Elliot: I know that Dave and Cesco – and I thought it was you as well Dan – sat down to brainstorm some ideas.
Dan: Ok I remember now, sorry! We did it based on each other, the lyrics are based on somebody else, but we just kind of tried to come up with a music video that was kind of in line with the lyrics in the song. So the song’s about not being able to afford a mortgage, and we just came up with some elaborate stupid storyline about how Cesco’s gone to jail because he’s tried to steal because he can’t afford his mortgage. It just developed into something crazy really.
Elliot: With music videos, we’ve found that once you have a base idea, everything just starts going in every direction. I think with that, we had a few reviews that said towards the end of the video they lost the storyline a bit. Probably because we just went a bit over the top. But it’s good to know for the future – for our next video, well, we were doing the same thing for a song called Good Morning Vietnam, which was supposed to film back in January or December or something. That one was going to be a little bit calmer, I think!
Dan: We’ve got to rein it in a little bit sometimes I think! It’s good we’ve got a manager now because he can tell us to like, chill out.
Elliot: I just think we didn’t know what the fuck we were doing with that music video! We were like, how far can we go? So we booked out a fucking courtroom and just had a good day.
““It’s literally like painting a painting, and then not showing anyone. It’s really hard, but we will get there.””
It’s been a while since your last release. Are you excited to get some new music out into the world?
Elliot: We’ve been sitting on this album for so long now, that it’s like we’re already thinking about number two and number three.
Dan: It’s hard not to rush this stuff. I really want to get it out – it feels like it’s going off, know what I mean? I want to put it out now.
Elliot: We know it so inside out. When you’re recording it you have to do some things ten, fifteen times, just to get it perfect, and how you want it. Not that it gets stale, I love the album, but we’re just so desperate to show it to people so that they are into it as well. Just to reaffirm that it’s good music. After a time I think everyone just starts to doubt whether it is good, just because you know it so well. I think we have the next few singles lined up though which is cool, and we’re getting some mixed as we speak.
Dan: It’s literally like painting a painting, and then not showing anyone. It’s really hard, but we will get there. But it’s good because, by the time the first album drops, I wouldn’t be surprised if we had the second one recorded and ready to go, you know?
It would be nuts to go the whole interview without talking about the pandemic. What are you most looking forward to when the world returns to some sort of normality? I imagine it’s playing live!
Dan: Yeah, definitely, definitely gigging!
Elliot: Also just going to London! Just as the pandemic hit we were just starting to gain a little it of traction in London, going up there a lot, getting a vibe for the music scene in London – there is quite a bubble in London, in the music scene, a lot of feeling that you have to be there just to get noticed. But yeah! Just getting back out there and seeing the world, playing festivals this summer hopefully, if they’re even on…
Dan: I’d definitely agree with that. Swinging from the rafters in the club again!
Elliot: Even the little festivals, like Big Cwtch and – what was the first one we did with you Dan, True Fest? All You Need Is Love Fest? Something like that. They’re the most fun because you get to go up there with your mates and just chill out, camping with the boys.
Dan: I really really want to play Green Man, really badly. That would be a band highlight for me I think – it would be a nice mental boost.
