Melin Melyn

Melin Melyn are more than just a band. They’re world-builders; storytellers absorbing various elements of the increasingly strange times around us and using them to create fables that ruminate on grief, love, and hope. 

Their debut album Mill On The Hill sees the band jump between surf-rock, country, prog-rock and psychedelia with the grace and skill of a band with numerous records under their belt, held together by an efficacious and fantastical thematic principle. Melin Melyn translates to ‘Yellow Mill’ in Welsh, and on this album the Welsh six-piece invite the audience into the world they have quite literally built around them. Mill On The Hill transports the listeners to the utopian ‘Melin Village’, a Seussian world where townsfolk “bask in the beauty of song.” Enter our protagonists, the six millers who work at the titular mill on the hill, powered by the music that they create:

Formed in 2019 by Gruff Glyn (lead vocals, guitar, saxophone) Will Barratt (lead guitar), Cai Dyfan (drums) and Garmon Rhys (bass, backing vocals and who also performs as The Mighty Observer) the band was Gruff’s first proper musical project. After a year or so performing as a foursome, the band were soon joined by Rhodri Brooks (pedal steel) and Dylan Morgan (keys), stalwarts of the Welsh music scene with their solo works AhGeeBe and DD Darillo, as well as their works with Novo Amor & Boy Azooga respectively, adding further gravitas and completing the sound that the band had been looking for.

The release of debut EP Blomonj caught immediate attention from UK press, with NME & The Independent naming them as an artist to watch, and venerable UK DJ Marc Riley championed them across BBC 6Music. Soon to follow was 2022’s ‘Happy Gathering’, the band’s second EP which garnered more media attention and allowed the band to embark on their first headline tour of the UK, selling out venues both in their home country of Wales, as well as England. 

2023’s one-off single I Paint Dogs, allowed the band to work with esteemed director and writer of Borat, Flight Of The Conchords, The Muppets and more in James Bobin, and this year saw the band road-testing new music at festivals such as Eurosonic, Deer Shed, Bearded Theory, Wilderness & Future Now to name but a few.

This isn’t the first time Melin Melyn have turned their art into a narrative arc. Their 2023 headline UK tour saw the members perform as employees of the Jolly Baskets Supermarket Store located in Melin Village. But after it’s sad & sudden closure, they have now returned to what they know best - making music. Mill On The Hill sits somewhere between concept album and Lynchian musical theatre show, with elements of its loose narrative spilling into their live shows that have been acclaimed by The Guardian, The I, The Financial Times and many more.