It was 2000 when Scotland’s The Beta Band received their big breakthrough. But oddly enough, rather than through radio play or a major hit, it arrived as a novel reference in the cult classic film, High Fidelity. With customers passively browsing the albums at the independent record haunt, Championship Vinyl, owner Rob Gordon (John Cusack) candidly whispers to his fellow clerk, “I am now going to sell five copies of The Three EP’s by The Beta Band.” Casually placing the disc into the player, then smugly folding his arms, he watches proudly as customers adhere to the hypnotic folk-rocker “Dry the Rain.” Sure enough, as Cusack predicted, a guy in his mid-twenties immediately pipes up, “Who is this?” “It’s The Beta Band” he replies with a smirk. No further publicity jaunts needed, as The Beta Band were suddenly certified “cool.”
However, this was no flash in the pan. The Beta Band (featuring Stephen Mason, Robin Jones, Rich Greentree and John Maclean) have been honing their chops for years out of their native Scotland. Between July 1997 and July 1998, the Beta Band released three EP’s which were met with widespread acclaim. Long-winded instrumentals, trip-hop beats and hazy vocals – their sound was undeniably simple yet utterly unique. Later these four-song EP’s were combined into the twelve-track compilation, aptly titled – The Three EP.’s – now a stagnant on most indie-rock fan’s desert island list.
So the rest of the world soon came to adhere that The Beta Band wasn’t some fraternity sounding house band. Upon releasing their self-titled debut album – which band members deemed “awful” – and on the heels of the High Fidelity props, they came full circle opening a summer tour for rock goliaths Radiohead. Their second album, Hot Shots II, drove with a more electronic flavor and addictive beats that seemed to be leading to an accelerated climax – confirmed with the well-received opening slot for Thom Yorke & Co. The Beta Band suddenly became a trusted source for inventive sounds. When fans caught their headlining gigs, the overwhelming videos, theme nights and amusing costumes immediately appealed to the crowd as something fresh, yet far from a novelty. But with the rush to the forefront, understandably, some critics, and the public, were quick to point out that The Beta Band received some lucky breaks along the way. Heroes To Zeroes is an attempt to clear up any second-guessing.
Enlisting the services of Nigel Godrich (Air, Radiohead, Beck) for mixing, along with eighteen months to test the waters of their new compositions, The Beta Band has given birth to their most cohesive and impact flaring release. With more aggressive lyrics, the band strayed from their stoner folk to drive their music across in a dynamic platform of guitars, samples, funk, digital wizardy, pop charisma, and full-throttle pace. Glide had the chance to speak with the multi-faceted drummer Robin Jones by phone from Edinburgh, where The Beta Band is planning their new mission.
You guys weren’t shy to self-proclaim your first LP as “plain awful.” So with Heroes to Zeroes, are you a bit more positive about the results?
So positive, I don’t know why we bother being positive (laughs). No, I don’t know why, I guess it’s possibly a result of having an endless amount of time to perfect this record. I’ve noticed with my extensive study of the Beta Band that under pressure, we tend to get stressed out and start snarling like wild beasts. But obviously, this time we felt we just needed to work on it and there was no need to get stressed, as we have nobody to blame except ourselves. The best thing is to be positive, otherwise we’d look pretty stupid.
How has the Beta Band agenda for making music changed since your inception?
Well, the agenda has never changed. It’s just making something ourselves, that at the very least, we find exciting and interesting. We just always push ourselves to be creative and do something interesting. There is a self clause there which involves wanting to make more pop type arrangements, making the songs shorter and more concise. Or maybe we just like pop music and that’s something we strive to do.
It seems you’re attaining those goals of creating more concise pop songs. On The Three E.P.’S, songs like “She’s The One” were quite lengthy.
Well one reason for that is technology really mastered the art of using the computer. In the old days, back in the 90’s, it was tape and stuff, but once you laid your bed, which might be a ten-minute bed of quick track, you tend to track. Or what happens is you do your song, but if someone does a little “twittly bit” on the guitar, right at the end of the songs, it’s like “that’s really good and we’ll just play over that one.” And someone else does another bit after that and we end up with a ten-minute track, which probably could have been more than just a few minutes and have been sufficient. But computers have really sped it up and have been such a great tool for editing. So quick, and you can really try ideas. You got a pair of scissors in one hand and 30 meters of tape in the other…it’s a dangerous combination.
As a drummer, how does percussive technology influence your musicianship?
Well its specific to what we play, particularly on this record, the process we used to work through. Steve or Rich wrote a song originally and they would give us a demo with a vocal and guitar and chords. And for five months, we’d all been apart working on these demos and each of us doing our own complete version, to do what you want. And then we’d get back together and sit down and listen to all the versions of each song and pick from them and have it all it in file. Like Rich had done a great drum beat there and John’s done a great bit of mandolin playing there so we’ll put that in. So really it’s a democratic version.
The first single, and subsequent first track off the new album, “Assessment,” is quite different from a straight-forward rock song. It really jumps out at you. Is this particular song a grand work in progress for The Beta Band?
No, I just think there’s been a tendency in the past to set ourselves or grow our parameters in some respect. And so often you hear maybe one of Steve’s demos and you could be like “wow, that could be a great rock song or something like that.” But then he’s like “ I don’t want any guitars on this track,” or “we’re not going to just do the pop-rock thing with this album.” But with this album it’s just been working it out independently and “oh I think this should be a rock song, so I’ll try setting it to that,” and once you prove your case, people are happy to go along with it. And Steve’s happier playing guitar, which is just a natural thing.
Then “Easy” is a real solid dance/funk number. I could see club DJ’s creating remixes of it.
That would be great if anyone wants to remix it. We thought that as well, it would be a good song for that. We also had this vision, we went to New Orleans about three years ago and had a day off and went to see this random band in a bar, they are called the Soul Rebels or something like that, I don’t know. But they did this cover of these great hip-hop classics, but it was New Orleans marching band style. It would be nice to get something like that with a jazz feel.
The Beta Band sound seems to lend itself as a good choice to score a movie soundtrack. On the new album cover you’re drawn as superheroes. Is this your own way of scoring yourselves to music?
That would obviously be the next level. To make our own Beta Band films and score it and star in it. We’re are always interested in being involved in every creative avenue, but time is not always on our side anymore. But the cover was more –it was just more, I think the title of the album came first and then we were sitting around. And it conjures up the image of four skinny white guys leaping into the great unknown or something. Frankly, it’s kind of funny. I don’t know if you’ve seen the back of the album yet, but that’s the zeroist part, there’s just a photo of four piles of like, clothes that just walked into the ocean or something like that.
You already offer audiences that cinematic effect by playing home movies above the band at your shows. How vital a role is the visual aspect to the Beta Band live experience?
Well we put a lot of effort into making these films, some that we are very serious about. John is an amazing man when it comes to movies and stuff. He’s actually working on a screenplay himself for a film he wants to make. It shouldn’t be, just get on the stage, crank out your guitar chords, and look moody and go away again. Try to make it a memorable evening for anybody that shows up and make it like a show and have a great atmosphere going. What we tend to find is because the films are so intense, is you have these zombies just staring, it’s quite intimidating. We got a few plans up our sleeve for the next tour, which we can’t reveal.
That zombie reference is somewhat relevant, because The Beta Band is often categorized as contemporary psychedelia, stoner music. But with Heroes To Zeroes, you seem to have made a conscious effort to steer away from that generalization.
Well we don’t like the connotations in that. I think in Britain there is a tendency for journalists to assume that you are just high on drugs or maybe drunk the whole time, but you’d never do anything if you were. With the amount of work that we put in and then they try to pass if off as “oh yeah, obviously they were high on drugs, that’s why we don’t understand the music,” or something like that, it’s just laziness.
The beats are quite prominent on the record. Did you and Richard conceive a rhythm section game plan beforehand?
[Well] we all do rhythm. Steve was originally our drummer so that’s his roots in rhythm. And John, by his own admission, when he listens to a track or something, it’s the beat he listens to first, whether it be hip-hop or whatever.
Is the whole band listening to a lot of hip-hop right now?
Oh yes. We were just over in New York for a week, and somebody gave us a copy of [Danger Mouse’s], The Grey Album and that’s been pretty great. Oh everything, a lot of, not necessarily modern hip-hop but a lot of 90’s and 80’s. Gangstarr is good. Pretty much, we’re all predominately into black music of this century. There is an album I’m listening to now – Trinidadian Calypso in London, and it’s great – just built around rhythm.
Over here in the States, fans are still obsessive in one form or another about keeping The Beta Band as their relative underground secret. How do you characterize fans hoping the mainstream word doesn’t get out?
I think that anybody that listens to our music and gets it, there is some mental diversity of people from all the young hippie kids to the indie kids to the crazy arrangement of people – it’s impossible to classify. I can only assume that our poor record sales figures, are due to the fact that people say, “ah, you got to hear this and I’ll burn you off a copy.” And then they pass it off and say “yeah, you’re right that’s awesome…brilliant.” And then they burn off a copy for someone else.
How much of a role did opening for Radiohead play in expanding your fan base?
That had a huge impact, in that it came just after High Fidelity came out, which was another huge, or just the best piece of advertising that you can ever hope for and we got paid for it as well. So that had a big impact. The only way to become successful is to work like buggery and tour hard. If we can play to 20,000 people a night, then that gives us a few years touring on our own.
As an opener, were you able to utilize any of that large production space?
The only thing was we didn’t have our visuals, so it didn’t feel like we were putting on the full Beta Band show, it was a Radiohead show. I mean it was a great experience and a really good feeling as well. There was no pressure, as they aren’t your shows, so you can really relax – first time I felt relaxed on stage.
What was that like playing without your movies behind you?
Very odd. It felt like performing in pantomime or something like that. We’d also be playing in broad day-light or really early evening, so that was weird.
Well word is you’ve got short films planned for each of the twelve tracks on the new album. That seems quite ambitious
Yeah, planned is the crucial word there (laughs). One of them is completed so far. I don’t know if that will happen, but we’re about to go on tour and that will continue so we’ll work away on it as much as we can. The idea is to do what we’ve always done and make videos for each track.
If you could have any band open for you on your tour who it would be? Maybe Outkast?
Ahhh, yes, that would work well. We always imagined the Beastie Boys, but we don’t always know where they are these days.
