Formed at the beginning of 2009, BEAK> are three Bristol musicians – Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, Massive Attack bassist Billy Fuller and drummer Matt Williams (aka Team Brick). An eerie mix of krautrock and post-punk, the band’s eponymous debut album, released via Barrow’s own Invada label last month, was written and recorded in just twelve days. In doing so, they stuck to a strict set of guidelines, which saw the band record as live with no overdubs or repair, only using edits to create arrangements. With their first UK tour kicking off on 11 Dec at The Garage in London, we caught up with Billy Fuller to ask our Same Six Questions.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
Hearing my Mum’s collection of Elvis records when I was really young, and my oldest brother playing me northern soul and The Specials when I was about ten years old. Good songs, good bass lines. Everything else wasn’t an option after that.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Mackerel on toast, I think! I only say that because we had very few discussions during the creative process of the recordings, we just ate mackerel on toast and played music together. It was a very liberating and exciting time, we really enjoyed making this record.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Our process is pretty simple. We set up our equipment and start playing. When we hit on something, a dashingly handsome engineer by the name of 7 Stu 7 hits record and we create a track.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
No artists in particular for me. I used to work in a really great independent record shop in Bristol called Replay Records, it was there that I heard more music than I had ever heard before. I bought most of it on vinyl. In a way, it’s all crept in to my inner psyche and influenced me.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Don’t smoke that spliff on top of five pints of beer because you might spin out, mate.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
We have dabbled with the idea of not doing the “difficult” second album and instead just doing three or four EPs. After that, we’ll put out our third album, and that will be directed towards filling stadiums and making loads of money, a bit like Kings Of Leon. Oh yes, and Matt will become my wife.
MORE>> www.beak.bandcamp.com
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