Tanaka Holman and Gavin Facey on The Pure Local Plus Show

Tanaka is only 14 and comes from a very musical background, with her Dad making music and Mum singing with friends. She has always liked singing, her Dad starting to write songs with her in mind. They started working together, writing a song in lockdown. She sometimes helps with songwriting, but she said that he writes very quickly. Songwriting is something she’s interested in, with a few already written.

Gavin is more on the production side, the director of Dirty Carrot Records, being very involved with festivals with Devauden Festival being the most recent. He came to keep Kym up to date with everything coming up as we are entering that time of year. Recently, he was invited for the second year in a row to put a stage on in Devauden. He mentioned Aisha Kigs and Xempa as standing out in particular.

Tanaka mentioned not doing much in the way of gigs, however she does a lot of performing at fundraisers. She has an upcoming performance at Abergavenny food festival. She has also done many open mic nights.

Back to Gavin, he told us about the upcoming summer sessions. From the 24th to 26th of July in Beechwood Park, you’ll be able to hear lots of local music from local artists being played. Some of the artists playing are: Brooke Law, Ophelia’s Beard, Caitlin Lavanga, Josh Hicks + many more to be announced. The event is free entry with lots of food.

A new segment debuted on the show called Show and Tell, both brought in an item to talk about on the show. Tanaka brought a stuffed cat, it was from the first film she was in. The cat being a prop given to keep from the experience. Gavin brought in some books. The first being Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith. Elliott Smith being a musician Gavin really admires. The second book being Everest: The First Ascent. The third being a Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, which was bought for his birthday. There is not much story behind them, other than they are books he has tried to start reading but hasn’t.

As for music genres listened to, Tanaka mentioned a mix of music. There were people like The Beatles from her Dad and many African singers from her Mum. She got into Jazz later on with artists like Amy Winehouse. Gavin remembers Britpop being something prominent.

For the weekly Kazoo choir, everyone took turn in playing Valerie, originally played by The Zutons and later Amy Winehouse.

You can listen to the full show here