For the first part of my life I thought Wales was this magical realm with an otherworldly language and symbolism, whether it was Arthurian legends, elves or dragons. I was born in the Catskill mountains in New York state and raised on children’s fairytales. Growing up I was really just lost in fantasy books. In the early 1970s, books like Lord of the Rings and The Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper were all the rage.
That’s what first drew me to north Wales. At first I felt the characters in these books had this made-up language – these strange names with double l’s and double d’s; later I became aware that it was actually Welsh.
As a young kid growing up in the States, aged 9 or 10, I actually tried to teach myself Welsh. I didn’t know anyone from Wales. I’d never met anyone from Wales. I’d never even heard the language spoken. All I could find were these small Welsh/English dictionaries in the libraries up in the mountain towns. They didn’t even have pronunciation or sentences. I would just follow the lines and letters in the dictionary.
I’m friends with Cerys Matthews and she fills me in on Welsh pronunciation and sets me straight on things that I have gleaned culturally. In the beginning I tried out every Welsh phrase I knew when we were there … but of course everyone just spoke back to me in English.
The first time I visited Wales for real was on our first tour as Mercury Rev, in 1991. We had the day off and I began insisting to everyone else on the tour that we were going to stay in north Wales. I didn’t know where, I didn’t have a name. I just said: “Listen up. Get with the programme. We’re going to north Wales.”
We stayed in this lovely little town called Llanberis, on a beautiful lake at the foot of Snowdon. It’s in the centre of a county called Gwynedd, which I always mispronounced Gwen-idd because of the double d (it’s Gwin-eth). We were climbing mountains, talking to sheep and looking for swords coming out of lakes. It was crazy, and it sounds childish, but that was my reference.
Whenever we have a tour break in the UK now, we always head to Wales. It’s usually to Gwynedd, because the locations around there inspired places in some of these books. There’s a mountain called Cadair Idris, which plays a very central role in The Dark Is Rising sequence. Other places in Snowdonia, and the lakes, come from Arthurian legends; the Once and Future King was a favourite book as a child, I read it over and over again.
North Wales became a psychological safe haven for everyone in the band early on. We’d run there as soon as we could and a calm would descend – which exploded the moment we went back to the music world. We did an NME cover there in 1998 too, of us by waterfalls on a day off.
I would certainly recommend visiting the isle of Anglesey – the druid’s isle. And when you go, go there with a child’s mind, and child’s eyes. That’s what really opened it up to me.
Many of the books describe the north Welsh as somewhat closed and not very willing to divulge all to anyone who wanders in. The idea that there were secrets, and that this folklore had a deep foundation to it, was amplified by the way people raised an eyebrow when we rolled in. That just furthered my interest and curiosity.
• Mercury Rev are playing at bluedot, a new festival of music, science and space exploration, at Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, on 22-24 July
