The Green Man Podcast

Two tremendous talks to set your mind whirring. “Every day when I wake up, I thank the Lord I’m Welsh…” If the story of Wales in the ‘90s was a movie plot, it would all seem so far-fetched. Thankfully, it was all true. Featuring fresh analysis and new interviews, International Velvet: How Wales Conquered the '90s Charts revisits the unforgettable 'Cool Cymru' era when Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia, Super Furry Animals, Stereophonics, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Feeder, 60ft Dolls and many more won over the masses. Author and journalist Neil Collins is joined in conversation with journalist Teresa Delfino.  And, ahead of his performance as Everything is Recorded, Richard Russell treated us to an illuminating conversation about his remarkable life in music. For almost 30 years as label boss, producer, and talent conductor at XL Recordings, Richard has discovered, shaped and nurtured the artists who have rewritten the musical dictionary of the 21st century, including The Prodigy, The White Stripes, Adele, M.I.A, Dizzee Rascal and Giggs. His acclaimed memoir Liberation Through Hearing tells the remarkable story of XL Recordings' three decades on the frontline of innovation in music. Richard is in conversation with journalist Eamonn Forde.  Recorded at the Talking Shop. 

They say "never meet your heroes," but here at the Green Man Podcast we can't pass up an opportunity to make dreams come true. So when Johnny Lynch aka Pictish Trail told us he's a HUGE fan of The Beta Band (his words, "probably the most important band of my LIFE") we knew what we had to do.  Electrocuted by illuminated stage suits, leaving £4000 worth of velcro costumes on the tube, accidentally playing a show in a remote scout hut, appearing as one of John Cusack’s favourite bands on High Fidelity: The Beta Band have had quite the career. Scotland’s Steve Mason and co recently reunited to celebrate their thirty year anniversary, their idiosyncratic songs and live extravaganzas burn as brightly as ever. “I will now sell five copies of The Three EPs by The Beta Band…” 

Emmy-nominated actor Maisie Williams and collaborator Lowri Roberts talk activism, creativity and criticism in a world that’s Just. So. Online. They talk to journalist Teresa Delfino about environmental action, climate care, the power of ‘having a go’,  and getting comfortable with not getting it 100% right every time.

Leeds band Bathing Suits closed Rising on Saturday night with their club-ready noise-rock. Hear them sat under the shade of a Green Man tree, with South Korean riot grrl trio Sailor Honeymoon, who had opened Far Out that same morning.  Seoul’s antidote to K-Pop, Sailor Honeymoon are a punk band who’ve been going against the grain since 2022. Formed by photographer Abi Raymaker and techno DJ Zaeuun Shin, the band connected with Bathing Suits over their musical communities in their hometowns of Seoul and Leeds. The episode continues with Jennifer Walton, who played the Walled Garden early on Sunday, chatting to thredd, who lit up Round The Twist on Friday.  Last autumn the Sunderland-born, London-based electronic musician and DJ Jennifer Walton released her debut solo album Daughters after a decade and a half of working with others and touring as a session drummer. London trio thredd boast the title for the most inviting debut album name — It’s Lovely, Come On In, also out last year. The group, featuring Immy Williams of Imogen and the Knife, make what Big Jeff once coined “cold pop”: dancey, dark, synth-imbued, influenced by Portishead, Massive Attack, Lana Dey Rey, and Britney Spears — as thredd say, “icy, succinct pop music for those who are up for a party, down for a cry”. 

We Were Here is a reclamation of rock’n’roll for the Black artists who tore up and re-wrote its rules, by Big Joanie guitarist Stephanie Phillips. It promises to rip up our received history of rock’n’roll and alternative music and repopulate it with the extraordinary Black artists and influential figures who truly steered its course from the 1930s to the present day, including vital figures like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Little Richard, Poly Styrene and beyond. Stephanie is joined in conversation with musician Jessica Kempson.  Recorded live at the Talking Shop.

Way Dynamic’s Dylan Young drops in after a secret set at Round The Twist. The Melbourne singer-songwriter’s classic style feels like an homage to a golden age of pop, and brought euphoric bliss to a sun-soaked Walled Garden on Sunday.  Dylan chats to Marisa Dabice of Mannequin Pussy. The Philadelphia punks brought their synth-laden rock to Far Out on Saturday. Marisa and Dylan talk about life on the road, menopause rock, and finding a new hobby when music becomes your job. In these tough times, “trying to make something beautiful feels like a radical act,” says Marisa Dabice of Mannequin Pussy. The Philadelphia punk rock band released their fourth album I Got Heaven in 2024, a fast-paced synth-laden hardcore romp, all soft and sharp, longing and rage, melody and noise, and as earthly as it is celestial. Way Dynamic’s Dylan Young has been described as a time traveller, thanks to his abilities to conjure classic pop, whether it’s Brian Wilson, Randy Newman, Burt Bacharach, Nick Drake, or Talking Heads. The Melbourne-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has toured with MJ Lenderman and Waxahatchee, and released his third album Massive Shoe last year, a cheerful homage to the golden age of pop.

Flo Dill is a London-based broadcaster and otherworldly music savant. Flo meets Ata Kak, the Ghanaian artist who earned much-deserved acclaim after his 1994 self-released tape Obaa Sima was rediscovered. Ata and Flo talk after his Mountain Stage set, going deep on Ata’s incredible origin story, and bonding over a shared love of old skool. Over a decade ago, Ghanaian artist Ata Kak was living off-grid in his Kumasi hometown, his 1994 self-released album Obaa Sima but a distant memory. That was until Awesome Tapes From Africa founder Brian Shimkovitz tracked him down and re-released Obaa Sima, to belated and deserved acclaim. Now Ata Kak is a cult icon, his DIY blend of Ghanaian highlife, 90s dance beats, hip-hop, and swift Twi rap sending stages worldwide into an irresistible frenzy. Flo is a London born & based DJ and broadcaster who has worked in and around music all her life. Listeners know her for a boundless musical knowledge and an open, enthusiastic approach to sharing music, which is at the heart of everything Flo does on the radio. She brings that approach to a dance floor too: whether she’s playing obscure post punk, driving disco or wonky 80s new wave, a sense of unpretentiousness and fun underpins her selections.

Buckle up for music and mischief aplenty as trailblazing comedian Josie Long and slime-loving folk ogre Johnny Lynch give us a flavour of their eighteen-year-solid friendship.

These two need no introduction. Beloved authors Caitlin Moran and Pete Paphides treat us to a sneak peek of Caitlin’s new book, How To Be Hopeful. Content warning: litter picking, armageddon anxiety.   Recorded live at the Talking Shop.

South London vocal harmony group Woom may have a new member. Straight from captivating the crowd at Chai Wallahs, they sat down with indie-folk singer-songwriter Haley Heynderickx ahead of her mesmerising Walled Garden set. We await the collab with bated breath! Take me out to the Green Man. Eddie Green from post-punk rockers Shame joins American crooner Tyler Ballgame to swap stories about Rough Trade records, and the strangely joyful feeling found in touring the smaller towns in the USA and Europe apiece.

Comedy legend and "world's greatest living stand-up" Stewart Lee chats to national treasure and Pop Dungeon ringleader Charlotte Church. They natter about Stewart's involvement in the origin of the dungeon, and it's latest End Times incarnation, which took Far Out by storm on Thursday night.

We’ve never been more back. For a few days, we came together in the mountains to listen, dance, wander, discover and reconnect. The curiosity and good spirit you brought to Bannau Brycheiniog helped to create our own little world. And it doesn't have to end there - not entirely. Over the next few weeks, eavesdrop on some backstage chats with the artists and performers who replenished your spirits on the field. First up is Westside Cowboy. Fresh off an electric set on the Mountain Stage, on the day they released their debut album, they sit down with Dublin's Madra Salach to talk sober festivals, and sitting down on stage.

Iona Zajac and Simon from The Itch share some of their most memorable Green Man experiences and discuss what they’re most excited to see at this years’ festival. Scotland’s Iona Zajac plays harp and sings with the Pogues, but she also finds time to make music as an artist in her own right, releasing her debut album, Bang, at the end of last year. She describes her sound as “dark indie folk with grumbles of pop, a dark gravelly tunnel with bright warm light at the end”: sadness cut through with humour, in the vein of Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, Florence and the Machine, and The Last Dinner Party. Scientists still don’t really know what an itch is, but for alt-pop duo The Itch, aka Simon Tyrie and Georgia Hardy, it’s how they describe making music: a compulsion, something akin to addiction. The pair met as teenagers a decade ago in Luton and have been collaborating musically ever since, but it was only after playing at a Talking Heads tribute night in 2023 that they decided to form The Itch. On their imminent debut album It’s The Hope That Kills You they apply an electroclash sweat and basement throb to the alienation and pessimism of the modern world, and describe themselves as “somewhere between pain and pleasure”.

Last year Jessica Winter released her solo debut My First Album, a title that raises an eyebrow to the fact she’s been grafting away in the music industry for well over a decade: first in punk bands in her hometown of Portsmouth, and then as Pregoblin with Fat White Family’s Alex Sebley. As a solo artist, though, she wears a coat of many colours — sunrise piano beats, alt-90s rock, 2000s pop — never making the same song twice.  Jessica chats to Tony Njoku.  London-based composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Tony Njoku makes modern classical and experimental music, yet he didn’t start out at a fancy conservatoire or music school — just hunched over a laptop in his bedroom, or teaching himself piano. Last year the Nigerian-British artist released All Our Knives Are Always Sharp, in part a homage to the musicians and communities who shaped him — including Tricky, Ghostpoet, Young Fathers, and Blood Orange — as well as a continuation of his avant-garde marriage of electronic and classical music with personal storytelling.  Tony Njoku goes Round The Twist at 10pm on Friday night. Jessica Winter will be at the Wishbone at 11.10pm Friday, and goes Round The Twist at 21.45pm Saturday.

Ahnansé from London-based afro-punk band Steam Down chats to Birmingham producer and vocalist Tony Bontana.  Tony Bontana calls his approach to his music “Splayed”: open, blown apart, chopped samples, wonky rhythms, destructive and degrading processing, “messing it up to make something beautiful out of something that isn’t considered beautiful”. His recent projects have included last year’s Sunday Service, all of its songs recorded on a Sunday, and L’Humanité, a tribute to his late mother.  Tony Bontana will be at the Talking Shop on Sunday afternoon, with Henry Widdicombe for the panel "Making Art from the Tough Stuff" chaired by Kiri Pritchard-McLean. Later on Sunday evening, at 8.40pm, Tony goes Round The Twist. Steam Down have perfected a finely-tuned alchemy of sound, space and energy. They will bring their afrosonic infinitism to Chai Wallahs at midnight, Saturday into Sunday morning.

National treasure and Green Man’s Talking Shop curator Huw Stephens meets with Meg and Emily from Cardiff's Panic Shack.  The Welsh punk girl band have a “no f***s given” attitude: they opened their album with voice recordings from the smoking area of an Amyl and the Sniffers gig, give their songs excellent titles such as Gok Wan, The Ick, and Who’s Got My Lighter?, and stuff them full of deadpan, tongue-in-cheek wisecracks. Panic Shack (or 'Panics' as we shall now refer to them) tell Huw how they met at Green Man, chat about their recent US tour, and reminisce the time they summoned Kelly Jones in Leigh Delamere Services.  Huw Stephens is a longtime friend of Green Man, whether found hosting the Mountain Stage, DJing on Green Man Radio, or, more recently, curating the conversations over at the Talking Shop.  The broadcaster extraordinaire has selected an astonishing lineup for 2026 that is sure to get curious minds ticking. Huw tells Meg and Emily about some of the authors, musicians, journalists and political voices who’ll be taking part in a memorable weekend of conversations, debates and Q&As.  Panic Shack play the Far Out tent at 4pm on the Sunday; Talking Shop opens midday Friday and closes Sunday at 6pm. 

Green Man Rising winner tall child — aka London-based Nigerian-Indian songwriter Zha Gandhi and their band — melds intense, stormy emotion and grungy riffs with sweet melody and happy-go-lucky indie jangle, to irresistible effect. The name “tall child” comes from a Mitski lyric: a marked influence, together with Radiohead, Arlo Parks, and Rachel Chinouriri. tall child released their debut EP Somehow You Grow last year, on which they grow like a tall tree and rise above the challenges of being a queer, disabled, POC indie artist.  Zha chats to Eaves Wilder, who’s been coming to Green Man since she herself was a tall (or rather, small) child.  A couple of years ago, Eaves Wilder decided to quit music and join a nunnery. Thankfully the north London songwriter is still yet to don a nun’s habit — instead, she’s made a debut album called Little Miss Sunshine, which came out this spring. A compendium of influences — everything from CMAT to Philip Larkin, Wet Leg to Smokey Robinson — help her chronicle the change and loss of innocence experienced in your early twenties, and the result is something of emotional and elemental magnitude: or as she puts it, “music that would make you feel tectonic”.  tall child opens the Mountain Stage at 11.45am on Friday; Eaves Wilder does the same at midday on Sunday. Content warning: There is mention of sexual assault in this episode.

GWEN is the solo project of Welsh artist, songwriter and producer Gwenllian Anthony. As co-founder and creative force behind the acclaimed band Adwaith, she helped bring music sung in Cymraeg to international audiences. As GWEN, she creates music that blends industrial textures, minimalist electronics and hypnotic rhythms with emotionally direct songwriting. As she prepares for her debut solo performance at this year’s Green Man, Gwen chats to Pictish Trail - aka festival stalwart Johnny Lynch.  Pictish Trail released his sixth album Life Slime last spring, “about how slimy life can get”. Written at his home on the Isle of Eigg and recorded in Margate, the new songs are sure to feel at home in the Welsh mountains too. Brace yourself for guilt, surrender, hope, transformation, renewal, fracture, and release, via warped and tender psychedelic electropop tunes.  Pictish Trail will play Far Out at 1.30pm on Friday; see GWEN in the Walled Garden at 12pm on Sunday.

SNL UK star Jack Shep has a transatlantic yap with Nora, Penelope and Gigi of Horsegirl. The Chicago trio chat about life on tour, being best friends and housemates in New York, and working with the great Cate Le Bon. Jack Shep will play Last Laugh in the early hours of Saturday morning; Horsegirl will take to the Mountain Stage on Saturday afternoon. 

Critically acclaimed stand-up comedian Stewart Lee sits down with your Thursday night headliner Mogwai ahead of Green Man Festival 2026. Longtime admirers of each other’s work, Stew and Stu discuss the various eras of Mogwai’s thirty-year back catalogue of epic instrumentalism, and how Stewart keeps his comedy surprising after so many years in the game. Settle in for a chat about science, merch prices, multi-generational fandom, Stewart’s current show “Stewart Lee vs The Man-Wulf”, Stuart Braithwaite’s book “Spaceships over Glasgow”, and of course, an excited look-ahead to a magical weekend in Bannau Brycheiniog.  Mogwai play Far Out on Thursday 20th August 2026; catch Stewart Lee on Friday night at Babbling Tongues.