Calan: funking up the folk scene

Calan's harpist Llinos Jones expresses the group's glamorous image

Calan are the young group who play folk music with a twist. Harpist Llinos Jones from Llangwnadl on the Llŷn Peninsula tells their story.

Me, Angharad and Bethan all met up in Sweden at the Traditional Celtic Music Festival in 2003. We enjoyed ourselves so much, when we came home we decided that Wales needed its own folk group, too.

A year later, at the Cân ar Dân festival in Dinas Mawddwy, we met Patrick and Chris. We asked them to come and jam with us - and then to join our band.

So now we've got me on the triple harp, or the small Celtic harp when we play live, Chris on guitar, Bethan plays the accordion and clog-dances, Angharad on violin and Patrick (from Bethesda) on violin, bag-pipes, hornpipes - everything, really!

Folk music is an oral tradition. If Patrick goes to some music course and learns a new song, he'll come back and teach the melody by ear to the band. Then we'll all go off and think of new riffs and chords to go with it.

Or we find traditional Welsh songs in books - Robin Huw Bowen has put a great collection together - and play them with a twist.

We might play them more slowly or put in a catchy riff to make them a bit more modern. We're influenced by pop, rock, jazz.

You never play the songs exactly as they're written down because they're not really meant to be written.

We've played at the Lorient Interceltic Folk Festival, the Cambridge Folk Festival and one in Glasgow and we had a great reception.

Calan perform traditional folk music with a twist

There isn't really a folk festival in Wales; folk music is classed as quite a wide genre here. Artists like Mim Twm Llai and Gwyneth Glyn are all seen as folk, too.

But there are plenty of opportunities to play, like at the Eisteddfod and Sesiwn Fawr Dolgellau.

Our image is really important to us, too. We want to capture the eye of other young people who might otherwise not pay attention to us when they hear we're folk. You have to look striking on stage.

We worked with a stylist on S4C's Uned Pump show to create a band image. Now we girls are in heels and the boys in smart trousers and shirts. We're definitely not the kind who sit in the pub playing music, wearing sandals and socks!

I took some time out to finish my music degree this year, so my little sister took my place. I was going to go on to do a masters in music therapy in Cardiff, but I've decided to put it off for a few years.

You don't get the chance to be in a band every day, to go on tour, make a CD (Bling). You've got to grab these opportunities as they come along.

What's fantastic about folk music is that no one owns it. Modern music is full of rip-offs today, but in folk, it doesn't matter if someone else has played the tune before you.

You can totally do your own version without anyone saying you've stolen their song. There's nothing wrong with sitting in your room and experimenting!

Calan perform at Galeri, Caernarfon , on Friday, 2 October.