The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people to re-evaluate their lives, including their careers, forcing those working in the creative and performance industries to perform, write and record in spare rooms over Zoom if they don’t have a studio at home.
But for the Welsh music legend, the lockdown gave her time to think about how to back up her songwriting and performing career with a steady side hustle, so she swapped her microphone for a spatula and her guitar for a frying pan.
Sian Evans is the lead singer and songwriter for the electric pop rock band Kosheen. Since the success of their first hit single, “Hide U,” from their 2001 debut album, Resist, Evans has had a string of hit songs, albums and tours. To receive real estate news via email twice a week, sign up to our Real Estate Newsletter here.
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Having continued to tour and make music based in Bristol, Sian decided to end her life in England for good and return to her native Wales when the pandemic hit. While searching for a new permanent place to live, she came across Sea View, nestled in a winding lane in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire – a stunning detached Georgian property once home to the legendary Welsh poet and author Dylan Thomas and his wife Caitlin.
“It was a big move for me,” says Sian. “I didn’t know anyone here and it was a big, old house so it took a lot of courage. I wasn’t looking for land where I could grow my own vegetables and produce.”
“The reason for my initial move was because of the pandemic and I didn’t know where my performing career would pick up steam again so I decided to move here and start a new life and business. We rented out some of the rooms and it’s been a really great success.”
At first glance, the dual occupations of singer, lyricist, performer and hostess of a guesthouse may seem odd to many, but after nearly three years in the job, Xian doesn’t think so based on her own experience.
Cyan says:Hospitality and performance are the same energy. I want people who come to my shows to leave energised, invigorated and feeling they had a good time. It’s not about the performers that matters, it’s about the audience and what they get out of it. It’s the same with B&B: I want my guests to eat well, sleep well, truly unwind from life and enjoy the Lough Erne environment that I’ve come to love so dearly.”
Some might find the switch from making music to making scrambled eggs for strangers staying in the three bedrooms of their home a little too abstract, but Sian has become all too comfortable transforming from singer to chef and back again as the band’s popularity grows, and they’re now touring Europe as well as running music workshops from their Lough Erne home.
Sian says: “It’s a traditional B&B so I’ve answered the door in my nightgown and curlers or apron.Live shows are back, and they’re back fast and furious. Now some days I can’t tell if I’m holding a frying pan or a microphone. I just leave my bag in the hallway and start frying up!”
Sea View captured Sian’s heart from the moment she stepped inside, and the immediate sense of belonging made her giddy with excitement. Find out more here.
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She says the home feels even more special when it’s filled with people, music, laughter and conversation, with a creative vibe that permeates the rooms and fills the space as it has for more than 150 years.
Cyan says:I love it here, I’ve run breathwork retreats here, I’ve also given singing workshops and lessons here, and my grandfather’s piano is also put to great use here and breakfast guests sometimes play on it after breakfast.
“Even in its silence, the house reverberates with music, creativity and the odd past argument, and you get the sense that a lot has happened here. I never feel alone here. We may be quite haunted, but it’s very positive, even if we feel intimidated or sharing the space with something negative. I think it’s a memory of all the nights we got creative here and discussed politics and literature.”
“I’ve had a few parties here with people from the community too. It’s been a real gift to the community for me. Every year at Christmas we have a party here and this place is packed with people. They run through the buffet like locusts. It’s really lovely to have the energy back in the house, ringing again, full of singing again. I think the house is happy about it. I don’t think it was happy when I moved here because it had been empty for so long.”
While most people worry about how they’ll change the design and decor when they move to a new home, Sian says Seaview is almost perfect the way it is and has made few changes apart from moving furniture around and hanging up artwork.
Sian explains: “We’re very happy with the way it’s looking. The previous owner, Martin, had a great sense of design – I think he also did Browns (the pub and restaurant). It fits in perfectly with the Georgian atmosphere.”
The welcoming and enthusiastic singer and landlord says she hasn’t spent much time or money changing anything inside the house, apart from the floors and front garden, where she paid homage to the Cockle Town’s past by carving out the grass and laying cockleshells on a membrane (the family has two dogs).
Sian added:All the money that comes in is reinvested in the house. It goes into heating and maintenance. Old houses are like grandma’s houses, they need a lot of tender loving care. I think she’s giving that back too.”
The house is filled with memorabilia from Sian’s travels and things that mean something to her, and one wall is decorated with gold and platinum discs. “Most of my clients have nothing to do with music,” she says. “I have some of my discs on the wall. I’m actually quite embarrassed about my achievements. I had them in boxes for years and now they’re on the wall and people recognise them and say, ‘Oh, I know that song’ or ‘I know that band’. And I say, ‘Oh, it’s me’ and they say, ‘No!’ because I’m standing there in an apron!”
But Sian’s favourite part of her home is the mahogany dining table, built by her close friend and bandmate Ron McElroy. She says: “I love this table. I can sit here and write songs, or just look out the window and have a glass of wine. It’s so lovely to have it set up for the eight of us staying at a B&B, all gathered around the table chatting and laughing, eating and making tea. It’s so emotional to have this table at the centre of it all. It holds all my fond memories.”
At times, Sian can’t believe her good fortune, sitting at Seaview in such a breathtaking location, surrounded by all that means so much to her and a community that has welcomed her so completely and immediately. As part of her contribution to the community, Sian says she tries her best to keep the cost of staying at Seaview as reasonable as possible, especially for families, compared to the cost of traveling abroad.
“Being here is a blessing,” she says. For me, service and hospitality are great practices, they are practices of humility, and I think they are part of my service to this life because I am so grateful for what life has given me. It’s quite amazing that a little girl from Lisca is sitting in Dylan Thomas’ house.”
Making a fresh start somewhere new can be risky and daunting, but Sian says: “Take a deep breath and just go for it. Take a gamble. If it doesn’t work, do something else. Finding this place, Laugharne, this environment has completely changed my life for the better. It’s so beautiful here, for the dogs and for me. I wake up every morning and breathe fresh air. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
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