大象传媒

大象传媒 Sesh contributor and Welsh folk band musician, Bethan Rhiannon, explains how music, more than ever, can unite us all.

01 April 2020

I’m stuck in isolation/lockdown, whatever you want to call it just like everyone else, and I’m also one of the millions of self-employed in the UK. I’m a musician who spends the majority of my working days promoting Welsh music in particular, but I enjoy listening to all kinds of music, be it folk music, funk, hip hop – you name it, I probably enjoy it. Since we’ve all essentially been grounded by the Prime Minister in order to keep ourselves physically healthy, I’ve begun to notice just how important music, and being creative is for everyone’s soul, because our minds need to stay healthy too!

"All our tour plans had to be cancelled"

When all of this kicked off mid-March, I was on tour with my band Calan in the USA. We’re due to release our new album in April, so between touring the US in March and touring the UK in April, these few months were meant to be the busiest of 2020 for us. We had arrived on 3 March, and day by day things changed. Promoters were beginning to cancel our shows by 11 March, and a few days later we had no choice but to cancel our remaining shows and head to the closest airport. We didn’t anticipate it being quite so stressful, but as we checked our bags in at Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport, we were told how lucky we were to be on that flight, as they weren’t going to be scheduling any further flights to the UK after that one. I don’t think anyone really relaxed until the plane touched down in London. So, there we were, back in the UK, all our income for the next four months gone, and not sure what we were meant to do next.

"Social media groups are helping to make people smile through music"

What’s been wonderful to see on social media since getting home, is the variety of ages, talents and abilities all giving something a go, whether they’re musical people or not! I’ve all of a sudden become part of various Facebook groups that are dedicated to spreading music all around the world, just to make people smile! My favourite one in Wales at the moment is the group '' – 'côr' meaning choir in Welsh, because when the Welsh are on lockdown, what do we do? Well, after we’ve obviously made a cup of tea, we sing! There are now more than 40,000 members in that group alone, and they even have a theme each day, just to mix things up. There are comedy song days, days for hymns, days for folk music and pop music. People of all ages are getting involved and on any given day, if you need cheering up, you can watch anything from the cutest kids singing songs from school, dads having a go at singing their favourite Welsh pop song, to Welsh celebs giving it their all and making us laugh. There’s no donating money, no ticket price, just a group of people all trying to make each other smile.

"It's beautiful to see how music is helping people to come together"

Music has always been a huge part of my life. My dad is a full-time musician, and being Welsh, without fail, I was at every single Eisteddfod growing up. I always wanted to play any instrument I could get my hands on. So, I’ve always been surrounded by it, but it’s beautiful to see how music is helping people from all walks of life pass the time and get through the day. People are all coming together to sort of say 'I’ve always wanted to be creative, and we’re all confused and maybe a bit scared right now, and this is a way I think I can get my feelings out'.

As someone who plays music to earn their main income, I’ve had a strange relationship with music over the past few weeks. Whilst others use it as their escape, I rely on it for my income. With two tours and all summer festivals cancelled this year, it’s easy to feel down in the dumps, but, even within the music industry, everyone seems to just have each other’s back. We’re all online streaming concerts and we’re all talking and collaborating by sending each other different ideas. So, in an industry renowned for being stressful and for not always treating everyone the best they can, it’s wonderful to feel that after mine and my friends’ livelihoods have essentially been torn away from us, that deep down, by sharing more music with each other, and by talking to each more than we have for years, we all know that what we really want to do is make sure we’re all OK, because we’re all in the same boat.

"Music always has a way of bringing people together"

We sing in school, at the pub, at the rugby, and we’ve all blasted out our own version of 'I Will Survive' by Gloria Gaynor at pre-drinks when our friend is on their first night out since breaking up with their ex. Music always finds its way into our lives, even when we’re not musical people, and it gets us through the good times and the bad. I bet we’re all reminded of a person, a place or a time of our lives by a song we sang with them, or, a song we heard that day.

Most importantly I think, as someone who’s been very aware of budget cuts within the arts, and especially within schools, you really get to see how little some of the 'important' people in the world think of music. It’s not thought of as a serious area of study, and it’s something associated only with being 'a bit of fun'. The benefits it can have on our mental health, children’s social skills, and even the skill of just sticking at something, learning something, failing and trying again – they’re all ignored a lot of the time. So, one thing I really hope, is that when this crazy time is over, we all remember that when things got tough, and we were all cooped up and losing our minds, it was music that made us happy, and it was music that united us.