Buzz Magazine Buzz Magazine - July Issue | Page 10

roundup

WHAT’S ON OUR RADAR THIS MONTH.

EVENT

TAFWYL
TIME

?

SOUTH WALES SECRETS #45:
Hangfire Smokehouse

Quirky singer-songwriter Ellie Makes Music
tells us about her summery South Wales
Secret.
Cardiff based ‘girl with a guitar’ Ellie Makes Music
has plenty lined up this summer. She recently
played at the launch of the Welsh Proms, and this
month will be heading to the stages of Wakestock
Festival and Printhaus’ Microbrew Festival.
“My songs have been described as songs from
the front line of teenage life, which I think is quite
a nice description,” explains Ellie. “It’s all about
teenage life and real problems and relationships,
quite folky pop.”
Ellie has also been pegged as Wales’ answer
to Taylor Swift, but is that a compliment or a
criticism?
“There’s no shame in being like Taylor Swift!”
Ellie laughs. “I’m not sure if I’m as popular as her
though, I have a bit more of an edge I like to think.
I’m not very edgy really!”

Ellie never planned to have a name with a tagline
but decided her actual name, Ellie James, needed
some jazzing up when she put her music online:
“I was making a MySpace page, back in the days of
MySpace, and I think it was around the time Marina
And The Diamonds and Florence And The Machine
were becoming a thing. I didn’t really want to be
‘Ellie James’ because I thought it was a bit boring,
so I put Ellie Makes Music and it just stuck.”
With the summer and festivals very much in mind,
Ellie’s South Wales Secret is a foodie’s dream: popup American barbeque Hangfire Smokehouse.
“The food is amazing, honestly the best food in the
whole of South Wales,” exclaims Ellie. “I don’t know
anywhere else that does food like it, it’s amazing!”
Info: www.elliemakesmusic.com

It’s free. It’s Welsh. It’s the
Tafwyl Festival.
The weeklong festival of Welshlanguage wonders returns
again to Cardiff. Tafwyl started
in 2006 to g