BREICHIAU HIR Evoke Bukowski’s Mantra On New Single ‘Paid Trio’ (Don’t Try) Out Now
BREICHIAU HIR Evoke Bukowski’s Mantra On New Single ‘Paid Trio’ (Don’t Try) Out Now
Watch the video -HERE
Stream and share - https://ditto.fm/paid-trio
Announce Autumn 2025 Goldie Lookin Chain Support Dates
Tickets - https://www.seetickets.com
Welsh Language Alternative Rock Pioneers’ New Album Y Dwylo Uwchben Released 11th April 2025 via Halen Records
Album Launch Show @ Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff - 17th April 2025
Tickets - https://www.breichiauhir.com/live
Cardiff-based Welsh language alternative rock six-piece, Breichiau Hir, are pleased to reveal their new single ‘Paid Trio’ (Don’t Try) which is out now on all good digital service providers, alongside an official music video which premiered with S4C’s new Welsh music and contemporary culture show Lŵp.
Another cut of bruising modern rock from the sextet providing centre stage for the Welsh language, the song is about reinvention—realising a change in yourself, and either embracing it, or actively tearing it all down to start again.
The track is the latest to be taken from their forthcoming second album Y Dwylo Uwchben (The Hands Above), set for release on 11th April 2025 via Halen Records, and follows on from lead single ‘Cuddio Tu Ôl Y Llen’ released earlier this year.
A special album launch show is planned for 17th April 2025 at legendary local venue Clwb Ifor Bach in the band’s hometown of Cardiff, and the group are also delighted to announce they will support fellow Welsh crew Goldie Lookin Chain on their Autumn 2025 UK tour dates (see below for listings).
Commenting on the track, front man Steffan Dafydd says: “I struggled to write lyrics for the album; it’s something that usually just flows out of me. While the rest of the band were in the studio recording their parts, I was trying to push as much meaning onto the disjointed scraps of writing I had to get something to make sense.”
“I stumbled on an article about Charles Bukowski’s writing process and advice for artists. Simply put, his advice was ‘Don’t Try’. Which is the opposite of what I’d been doing—’You don’t try. That’s very important: not to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more.’”
“He also has ‘Don’t Try’ written on his gravestone, along with an image of a boxer, which is where the visuals for the music video came from. As soon as I stopped trying, the rest flowed out of me.”
Bukowksi is also referenced elsewhere by the band on the forthcoming new album’s penultimate track, ‘Tyllau Llygad’ (Eyeholes), in a double entendre: “Dwi’ moyn bod fel Charles Bukowski, darn o waith oedd o flaen ei hoes hi”, meaning “I want to be like Charles Bukowski, a piece of work that was ahead of its time.”
The first half is a lyric lifted word for word from a song by Welsh songwriter Rheinallt H Rowlands, released in 1996. “The album is called Charles Bukowski, and it’s one of my favourite records,” enthuses Dafydd. “I’m basically saying that I want to create something as good as Rheinallt H Rowlands’ timeless album.”
Combining the visceral and the vulnerable, Breichiau Hir have distinguished themselves within Cardiff’s vibrant music scene with their distinctive take on Welsh-language rock music. Their intense live shows invite catharsis through introspection and unbridled energy. Their ability to switch from explosive walls of sound to gossamer ostinato allow the band to resonate from the most intimate of venues to the festival stage.
2025 will see the release of a sophomore album that this time seeks to look to the future by contemplating predestination and individual agency—a series of orchestrations that question the script that has been written for you. Y Dwylo Uwchben promises to build upon Breichiau Hir’s reputation for authentic and personal songwriting, whilst delivering gritty hooks and expansive soundscapes.
The new album will be the first batch of new material from the sextet in 4 years, since the release of their Welsh Music Prize-nominated 2021 debut album Hir Oes I’r Cof, which delivered the resonant lyrics of a band reflecting on adulthood and its inherent antithesis to idealism. As if being forced forward by the currents of the river Taf, the album’s narrative reflects on the escapist power of nostalgia and the weight of expectation.
Launching their debut EP Mae’r Angerdd Yma Yn Troi In Gas in 2015, the band went on to release a string of standalone singles including ‘Mewn Darnau / Halen’ (2018), ‘Portread O Ddyn Yn Bwyta Ei Hun’ (2018), ‘Penblwydd Hapus Iawn’ (2019), ‘Yn Dawel Bach / Saethu Tri’ (2019), ‘Preseb O Ias’ (2020), and their cover of Bryn Fôn classic ‘Y Bardd O Montreal’ (2020).
This slow-drip of material bore fruit for the boys from Wales, with a wave of support both at home and beyond from Huw Stephens at BBC 6music, Daniel P Carter and Alyx Holcombe at BBC R1, KEXP, Adam Walton at BBC Radio Wales, NME, Rock Sound Magazine, Bandcamp Daily, BUZZ Magazine, God Is In The TV Zine, Planet Mosh, Punktastic, For The Rabbits, Circuit Sweet and more.
On the live side, they’ve kept busy building notoriety on the Welsh festival circuit with appearances at Green Man, Sŵn, FOCUS Wales, HUB Festival, The Swansea Fringe, supported The Joy Formidable, Modern Color, We Were Promised Jetpacks, and Single Mothers, and their track ‘Yn Dawel Bach’ was even used by FA Wales in their Euro 2020 hype videos.
New album Y Dwylo Uwchben Released 11th April 2025 via Halen Records
Live dates:
16.03.25 - Carmarthen - CWRW
10.04.25 - Bristol - The Old England
17.04.25 - Cardiff - Clwb Ifor Bach (album launch show)
05.09.25 - Manchester - Academy 2 *
06.09.25 - Kendal - Brewery Arts (Malt Room) *
10.10.25 - Nottingham - Metronome *
11.10.25 - Kidderminster - 45 Live *
18.10.25 - Frome - Cheese & Grain *
24.10.25 - London - Electric Ballroom *
25.10.25 - Ipswich - Corn Exchange *
07.11.25 - Reading - Sub89 *
08.11.25 - Southampton - Engine Rooms *
* w/ Goldie Lookin Chain
Y Dwylo Uwchben album tracklist:
01 - Syllu Mewn I'r Gwagle
02 - Paid Trio
03 - Cuddio Tu Ol Y Llen
04 - Tymor Hela
05 - Yn Tynnu Fi Fel Cortyn
06 - Llusgo Ar Lawr Y Llwybr
07 - Siarad Gyda'r Waliau
08 - Dim Ymladd Nol
09 - Poeri At Yr Haul
10 - Tyllau Llygad
11 - Cyn I Fi Fynd
Breichiau Hir online:
http://www.breichiauhir.com
https://www.facebook.com/BreichiauHir
https://breichiauhir.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/breichiauhir
https://www.instagram.com/breichiauhir
More info:
A band who blend cathartic intensity, dense layers of guitar, and fragile melancholic moments, Breichiau Hir’s sole mission is to move and connect to their audience. Bursting with melody, fragility and aggression, the sextet often jump from fierce energy to delicate passages to crashing waves of noise.
Tackling the theme of a melancholy nostalgia with poignant lyrics, self-deprecating humour and surreal wordplay, every song on the band's debut album Hir Oes I’r Cof is performed proudly in the band’s native Welsh language.
“Halfway through writing the album, I noticed my lyrics were all following a narrative and theme around nostalgia,” expands Dafydd on the record. “It’s a journey that follows the narrator getting totally engrossed in that feeling and losing grasp of reality. The theme of a river as a metaphor for time runs through the album.”
In a scene that’s given birth to internationally renowned and respected names, Breichiau Hir are, surprisingly, the first modern rock band from Wales to break from the long-established tradition of emulating their American and English contemporaries and forbears to stride confidently out in their own lane, and their own language.
Lead Single ‘Cuddio Tu Ôl Y Llen’ Out Now
Watch the video - https://youtu.be/zPUBO-6VUlI
Stream and share - https://ditto.fm/cuddio-tu-ol-y-llen
