CVC Get Real as they head to The Wedgewood Rooms | Interview

​It was hardly the Welsh band’s fault though – a storm was about to rip through the corner of Tennessee where the acclaimed Bonnaroo Festival was taking place last month.

Guitarist David Bassey recalls: ‘We were the first people on for the whole festival. So the crowd turned up, we had about 5-6,000 people there, and then the weather came and everyone had to leave the tent after one song because there was a thunderstorm warning.

‘Then we had to go backstage for about an hour-and-a-half. It was like, what are we going to do?! But they brought everyone back in. It was touch and go there for a bit, but we got there in the end and it was a great show.’

Fittingly they walked back on to AC/DC’s Thunderstruck.

‘It was a bit of a rollercoaster,’ adds singer Francesco Orsi, drily.

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The festival was the culmination of a short US tour – the first time the band, who do indeed hail from a place called Church Village rather than having any Christian inclination, had been to The States.

‘It was an unbelievable trip,’ says Francesco. ‘That was our first time out there with the band. It was just how we expected it to be, and more.’

The six-piece musical collective are influenced by Snoop Dogg, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Super Furry Animals and Red Hot Chili Peppers, and are rounded out by bassist Ben Thorne, drummer Tom Fry, keyboardist Daniel ‘Nanial’ Jones and guitarist Elliot Bradfield. They have been winning plaudits for their debut album Get Real which was released at the start of the year.

‘It definitely hasn't been an overnight success,’ says Elliot. ‘We've put in hundreds of thousands of hours, grafting away and we've been in the Cardiff music scene for a long time.’ Church Village is about half-an-hour’s drive out of Cardiff. ‘It's a hard music scene to break out of – there's so much talent in Cardiff that never really goes any further, so we're feeling very blessed to even gig around the UK, let alone in Europe and across America.’

It was when Elliot joined the band about two years ago that the final piece of their jigsaw slotted into place.

‘We’ve been going about six years,’ says David, ‘but it's only been in the last 18 months/two years things have started happening.’

‘We found our harmonies when Elliot joined,’ explains Francesco.

‘It was like when Nash joined Crosby and Stills,’ says David, before adding quickly: ‘Not that I'm saying we're as good as them! But it's the joy they felt when they got with their missing piece.’

The album is a mix of old numbers as well as ones written while in the studio.

One of the more recent songs is new single, Sophie, written about keys player Daniel’s girlfriend. But what happens to the song if – heaven forbid – they split up? Will they drop it from the set? ‘No, It's too good of a song! Actually we've got a clause just for him where he can only go out with girls called Sophie – it should be fine,’ laughs Francesco.

Before the album came out, the band released a covers EP as their alter-egos, The Ragtag Wedding Band, featuring their versions of songs by The Kinks and AC/DC, among others.

‘We, as a band played at my mother's wedding,’ explains Dave. ‘We dressed up in suits and played lots of covers. The management saw that and thought it was pretty cool – why don't we do a little piece on it?

‘They thought it would be a cool little add-on to the campaign.’

While the band have been steadily building up their fanbase, their sound is somewhat of step with the current fashions.

But as Dave says of their style: ‘We just love that sort of music. I think that's why it's taken a while for us to get noticed because we don't fit into any trend right now.’

‘I think that's a good thing, though,’ adds Elliot. ‘We've got to do what comes naturally and feels good to us – and that’s ’60s/70s harmonies, Crosby, Stills and Nash and all that stuff. It would be weird if we tried to do spoken-word, punk-rock stuff.’

‘When punk goes out of fashion, that's when we'll do that!’ adds Dave with a laugh.

Given their ‘full’ band name, have they ever been mistaken for a Christian rock band?

Dave says: ‘When we were out in American our management was like, maybe don't say "Church Village Collective” at all, just say CVC, because they can get a bit a wild out there in terms of religion. We're from a place called Church village, but we definitely don't go to church.’

Musing on this idea, Elliot says: ‘I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing – if we called ourselves a church rock band and then we get all these Christians coming to our shows... we can turn them to the fiery hells of rock'n'roll music!’

CVC play The Wedgewood Rooms, with support from Kids, on July 13. Tickets £10. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.