Cameron Picton is the former black midi guitarist and bassist and his new project, My New Band Believe, has hit upon a sound that could have taken multiple albums to establish. The debut album released in April is urgent and jangly, almost tripping over itself in its eagerness to be heard.
After thrilling the Walled Garden, Cameron heads to backstage Mountain for a natter with Horsegirl, and you’ll have to forgive us for the sound quality on this one, kit failure happens to the best of us.
Horsegirl are a band of best friends. They began making songs while still in high school, and paused their early success after their 2022 debut, Versions of Modern Performance, to finish undergraduate degrees at NYU. The Chicago trio returned earlier this year with Phonetics On And On, their minimalist, spacious follow-up album that was produced by Cate Le Bon, and contains the kind of confidence that only comes from taking your time while somehow remaining utterly and brilliantly precocious.
Cardiff five-piece Casual Smart returned to Green Man off the back of headline shows at Clwb Ifor Bach and recording sessions at the new Cwrw studios in Carmarthen. They swap stories with alt singer-songwriter Dermot Henry, who’s attended Green Man plenty of times and played his first show on the Rising stage this year, straight from supporting Lewis Capaldi in Liverpool.
Completely bonkers, 100mph, and Yorkshire-born, Dolly Trolley is a drag queen and neo-burlesque artist. Known as a rambunctious compère with high energy and ludicrously hilarious performances, she’s a multi-talented act commonly reviewed: “I’m exhausted just from watching”. When not MCing the Wishbone or performing as part of Cabaret Sauvignon, or leading Drag Aerobics, or hosting Blind Date, Dolly chats to Phoebe and Andy from Repair Cafe Wales.
Repair Cafe Wales popped up at Green Man for the first time, saving the planet and fixing tents, buggies and dresses for the revellers under the mountain. Andy and Phoebe ran workshops to teach the best practices and community feeling of the repair cafes in Welsh villages. They chat to Dolly about the new ‘secret’ spot and the drag shows across the weekend, plus the fixes needed behind the scenes.
