TOM BRIERLEY OF BEIGE BANQUET
Hi Tom and thanks for taking the time out to speak with us at Musicology. Firstly, congratulations on the new record. Every album tells its own tale; what is Beta saying to the world?
To me, I think records often fall into two categories, ones that are a direct response to the external world while others are fuelled by personal introspection. ‘Beta’ certainly fits comfortably in the latter group. I remember telling a friend, while I was in the process of mixing it, that it was exactly what the inside of my brain sounded like, it’s safe to say they responded with puzzled looks. The record really consists of two quite defined halves, the first half is a collection of vignettes that explore characters who sit on the fringes of society, characters that are based initially on my own neuroses but pushed to quite extreme levels. While the second half follows a journey of personal discovery that’s pretty much summed up by the repeated mantra of ‘Shed like a Cicada”. Sometimes change needs to be willed upon the self. The record certainly isn’t some sort of guidebook to understanding me, but I hope that someone might be able to take something from it, in their own way of course.
At the time of writing and recording Beta, what was happening during your life that was encapsulated on the record?
The majority of the record was actually written in February 2020, I was working from home (before everyone started doing it) and I felt pretty isolated and locked up most of the day. The character studies in songs such as ‘Wired/Weird’ is me basically succumbing to my own fears and social anxieties combined with the need for a bit of escapism.
The guitar work throughout is incredibly well composed, structured and layered. Not an easy feat and one made harder by synchronising every accompanying drum loop. How much of the process was a clear vision, laid out quickly and coherently and how much was an evolving, organic and piecemeal process?
The majority of the record came together very very quickly, I wrote and demoed around 8 tracks (7 of which made the final cut) within a week. During this period I’d often just wake up in the morning with an idea in my head and a compulsion to turn into something real, and I tried my hardest not to tamper with the song while extracting from my brain and turning it into a demo. Very little actually changed from those initial demos to the final version and even some of the early vocal takes made the final cut. But the demos were approached in a very guitar centric way and the electronic side of things came much later on and I think that helped a lot. Over complicating things can often dilute the initial idea. But there’s also some songs on the record, take ‘Cicada’ for example, that was essentially me just jamming with myself and everything was just done in one take. So yeah, I guess the ideas were a clear vision without much development at all. However I think during the production of the album, the addition of the programmed drums and synthesisers added an interesting textual layer. It’s also safe to say the guitar work on the final versions are much more alive, and even unhinged at times, I guess it was a bit of a direct response to the frustrations with not being able to perform live.
There are musical nods to the post punk past, a fusion of garage and krautrock. Personally what influences and artists were you drawing upon that gave birth to Beta?
I’m a huge fan of Krautrock and there’s definitely some songs on the record that are me just shamelessly imitating Can or Neu!, badly of course, but I hope that there’s something charming about it. But there’s some more subtle nods to post-punk bands such as DEVO, The Fall, Gang of Four and Wire but I don’t really consider it a revivalist record. I just wanted to make the music that I wanted to hear and something that draws influences from lots of places rather than actively trying to imitate that 80s post-punk sound. But I’ve also taken a lot of influence from more contemporary artists, vocally I wanted to do something that was somewhere between John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees) and Zach Choy (Crack Cloud) and the guitar work and tonal qualities was influence from one of my favourite bands at the moment, LITHICS. I think if you listen back to the record you’ll release ’m pretty terrible at hiding my influences.
Creating and producing the record yourself is on the one hand extremely autocratic and liberating without the constraints of studios, labels and budgets and on the other hand, an all-consuming and solitary experience without the confidence of your peers to reassure you that the album is following the creative vision that was intended for it. Across this spectrum where do you feel like you were placed?
Strangely enough it never really felt like I was doing it alone. When I was initially writing the record, my intentions were to put a band together, develop them as a group and then think about recording in a studio. You know the standard way of making guitar based music. But for obvious reasons in 2020, it quickly came apparent that this wasn’t going to happen. So out of fear of losing the ideas forever, I thought I’d have a go at recording and mixing the album, it’s the first record I’ve ever produced myself so I had no idea how it was going to turn out. Hopefully it sounds ok. But throughout the recording and mixing process I got lots of input from my friends and it’s only now, on the eve of its release, that I’m starting to feel a pang of vulnerability, there’s really no one else to hide behind when you go at it alone. But, one thing I did notice about having total creative control over a project, is that things progress very quickly and that does suit my approach to music.
On a technical level can you share with us the actual instruments and equipment used throughout Beta?
Oh yes! I think this is my favourite question so far! So the drums are programmed on an Electron Digitak, it’s essentially a drum sampler and I loaded in some lovely vintage LINN LM-1 samples. It’s an amazing piece of equipment and the tonal quality of the programmed drums really sets the foundations for the record. The bass was simply just played on my vintage Japanese p-bass copy and then ran through a Sans Amp DI. Guitars were all either recorded on my Strat or Tele, through my 70s Fender Twin with an SM57 in front of it. There’s a tickle of drive and chorus from my pedalboard in the mix as well. I still feel bad for my poor flatmates who very kindly didn't complain too much about the stupidly loud amp spitting out some quite cutting guitar parts, for hours, and hours. There’s really no way you can record such a large guitar amp at a low volume! There’s a bit of monosynth played on a Behringer Crave throughout the record as well, but that’s really all there is to it!. I really enjoyed the limitations of the bedroom studio, I never had a choice of what microphone to use because I only have one. I think by removing potential complications of choice it allowed me to focus on things like the performance. There’s really not anything overly complicated or interesting going on and I think that suits the starkness of the songs.
Split between the U.K and Australia, what in ways has each location impacted on your musical journey that you feel is expressed on the record?
To be honest I found it extremely hard to write lyrics when I was living in Melbourne, I was playing in a much louder band called NOUGHTS at the time so I don’t think anyone could hear my lyrics on stage anyway. But I was definitely in the honeymoon period and found it hard to draw lyrical inspiration from my surroundings when I was revelling in the sunshine. Obviously I know Australia has its own trove of issues, but I think the longer you live somewhere the more the gold tint on your glasses fades. It wasn’t until I moved back to London that I found I could write lyrics that had a sense of place again, it felt like a pretty combustive time politically and all that unrest and energy was quite inspiring. Frankly, London is a disgusting city and I draw a lot from that.
Of the twelve tracks on the album, how considered was your approach in track order in terms of the overall narrative the record follows?
I think all good albums have a bit of a journey and that’s something I really wanted to create with the track order. I like to think that the two sides have a distinct style and I definitely considered each side separately. But once I started recording them it became clear really quickly and what was going to go where. I set the track order really early on and then didn’t even consider changing it. I think it’s one benefit of not having Bandmates, it’s quite easy to be decisive.
Known for your exuberant and lively shows, what performance elements have you taken into your own shows from what you have seen of other acts (and for that matter what you haven’t seen) that makes its way into your stage craft?
Unfortunately we haven’t been able to play any live shows yet which has been quite hard for me, playing live has been the focus for all my past projects and I really do love being on stage. But I guess the benefit is that it gives us something to look forward to and I’m really excited about unleashing Beige Banquet on the world as a live band as soon as it’s possible again.
On a personal level what does music give you that nothing else does?
A reason to be.
