The band could write great songs but they seemed fated to being one of the groups that fitted in nowhere, another washed up talent in the UK's fashion driven music scene. At best they could emulate the mini success of the Darling Buds, another underrated, girl-fronted band from the decayed hinterland of South Wales.

Article continues 

Just before Britpop there was a bit of a Welsh thing going on. Manic Street Preachers and Super Furry Animals had inadvertently turned people onto the idea of a Welsh cool and overlooked bands were starting to get pulled from the wreckage of the Welsh scene. Catatonia were given some column inches, a bit of hope. And then along came Britpop and they were thrust rather rudely into the limelight.

Although they were never consciously members of the biggest British pop scene of the '90s, they were swept away in post-Oasis euphoria and became bona fide pop stars with hits like Mulder and Scully helping to define the times.

They sold shedloads of their breakthrough International Velvet album, but dipped with its moodier follow up. Cerys split, made a single with Tom Jones and then dropped off the radar. She moved to Nashville, got married and released a debut solo album, Cockahoop, which received good reviews but notched up only low key sales figures.

She's been working a much more relaxed pace with her new album, Never Said Goodbye. "I've lived in America for four years, I split my time between living there and being back over here, when I record in America it feels like less pressure, it feels like I can try anything and that's really helped with what I am doing. Over here everything is tied down more to tradition."

Being unknown in America means she can get on with the songwriting stuff an sod the history. This has really helped. Moving to Nashville was like a dream world. "It was a huge dream moving to America. I used to pinch myself because I was just living in a shack with no electricity, no water... and just playing this music with all these people who were so talented, like Johnny Cash's bass player and Mark Knopfler's guitar player. They'd just come and hang out on the porch. It was weird - like I'd gone to heaven or something."

Not that Nashville is perfect. "There is a dark side to Nashville. People have never been anywhere. It's like they are unaware that they have got a passport, let alone how to use it! My kids have now got that southern drawl as well, now that they have States going to school."

Being away from the endless rush of the British scene has left Cerys to her own devices. It's been a healthy break, one that has let her music come out the way she wants, away from the pressures of the scene.

"It's not like being in band any more. I make music on my own now. It's so intimate in some respects and then so rude in other respects," she laughs.

Working at her own speed suits Cerys - now it's about the music, the star machine has been ditched. The Catatonia big time experience affected Cerys. "At first when we made it it was really fun at first but it quickly became horrendous. I much prefer being at this level, just making the music without all the other stuff."

Being a pop star was fun at first but it didn't do her any good. "My breakdown was inevitable, I was doing too much. I just had to step back, stop saying yes to another lager and just get on with the music. I look back on all that period with a wry smile, though!"

A survivor, Cerys has got her life together, and with a voice as strong as hers she was never going to really have a problem in surviving the inevitable post stardom comedown. And survivors always make the best records.

  share with:  Facebook | Digg | other sites