Mynci shines

>> Welsh popsters Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci prefer natural light


by LORRAINE CARPENTER

What do you think when you think of Wales? Coal mines? Tom Jones? Maybe the Manic Street Preachers? Well, maybe it’s time to turn your attention to Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, a Cardiff quintet with a breezy, wide-eyed, folk-pop sound that eases its way into your head with little effort. How I Long to Feel That Summer in My Heart is their latest collection of wistful, pastoral little ditties which, as with Scottish counterparts Belle & Sebastian, borrow heavily from the Velvet Underground’s most melancholic moments.

But it hasn’t always been this way, as keyboardist/violinist/vocalist Megan Childs explained via telephone on “a nice Sunday afternoon” in Cardiff.
“The band was formed when Euros [Childs], Richard [James] and John [Lawrence] were about 14,” says Childs, whose brother and principal vocalist Euros recruited her shortly thereafter. “The acoustic elements were always there but have come out more as we’ve got better at playing our instruments. There was a tendency to over-layer on early records but they sound really exciting for it, so I’m glad they were like that.”

It’s also telling that the grittier GZM went public in ’94, when grunge still had its grip on guitar bands everywhere and the exuberance of Britpop was bubbling up on (or near) their home soil. Later, along with tortured rockers Manic Street Preachers, Britpopstar-stylists Catatonia and psych-pop pranksters Super Furry Animals, GZM figured in a short-lived “Welsh cool” craze created by the scatter-brained British music press just as Britpop felt its last fizzle.
“When you read these things about the place you come from, you realize it’s got nothing to do with reality,” says Childs. “There are more bands and venues now but, without that media hype, they’re not gonna be in favour that month because people are going somewhere else to find where it’s all happening. It’s as if you’ve got to seize that period of a few months to try and get out what you’ve got. It’s ridiculous. Bands need more time for people to get to know them.”

Childs cites the recent folding of several British music mags as a major problem for young bands seeking exposure, as well as established-but-underground groups like themselves trying to promote an album. Championing word-of-mouth over NME’s monopolistic foot-in-mouth, Childs lists Melys, MC Mabon and Derrero as new Welsh acts to watch.
And, as they’re about to make their first and long overdue Montreal visit, GZM can hardly escape clarifying their typically Welsh mouthful of a moniker, can they?

“They had to come up with something quickly because they got a radio session in school, so it’s nonsense, not Welsh or English. We didn’t think we’d be 10 years down the line explaining it to someone in Montreal. Anyway, Gorky was a mis-spelling of ‘to gawk,’ to stare at someone. Zygotic was biological, you know, the zygotes from fertilization—I think biology lessons at age 15 had something to do with that. And Mynci is a misspelling of the animal, the monkey, so there’s no meaning. We’ve heard plenty of interpretations, mind you.” :

With the Fruit Bats and A Vertical Mosaic at la Sala Rossa on Sunday, March 10, 9pm, $12