Ground zero

If the Beta Band have struggled with anything over the course of their career, it has been the weight of people’s preconceptions. Although heaped with praise from the off, the band was of the opinion that their debut album was messy and unfocussed, something that they have worked to rectify since.

“The way we work is a long, protracted method,” Robin Jones explains. “Steve (Mason) writes the majority of the songs so he’ll give each of us a demo version of a track and we go off to our own respective caves, lock the doors and feed his demos into our computers. We spend about five months independently of each other working on a version of each track, and then we get back together for a few months sifting through each version and bolting together all the best bits. Then we try to learn how to play that live to give it a bit more soul. Once you’ve got that you go in and record it. It’s a really long way round”.
Isn’t trying to put four different versions of one song together something of a nightmare?
“It’s quite easy, especially in these days of computers because everyone’s working to the same template. We couldn’t have really done this ten years ago when everything was just on tape”.
Indeed, their way of working has changed dramatically from the early days.
“The first album was entirely last minute, it was turn up at the studio with a suitcase and try and think of some songs”. He pauses for a moment. “Well, it wasn’t as haphazard as that but it was a question of grinding out enough songs for an album. That’s the worst circumstances to be creative”.
Part of the confidence found in Heroes To Zeroes stems from the fact that it’s the band’s first self-produced record, something that they were itching to do according to Robin.
“It’s one less person between you and the desk. There’s no huge fight to get control of the volume knob or something like that. After seven years of trying to make records we realised that all you have to do to be a producer is have some great ideas and some sort of control over the people you’re working with. We’ve got four control freaks in the band so we were all right on that front. We had no end of ideas as well. Producers will tell you that something just can’t be done but in reality it’s because they’re arse is on the line”.
None of which will help dispel the idea that the Beta Band are a bunch of mavericks who live in their own little world, both musical and otherwise. Right from the off, they set about creating a very different environment at their gigs.
“We don’t really live in our own world, we’re all quite normal human beings,” Robin counters. “What we do is more about setting a standard. You can be more than just a band; it’s about more than just having a wacky haircut, playing a guitar and looking moody five nights a week. You can go and make films, write a book or a play, dress up in ridiculous clothing. There are so many possibilities; it made sense for the live shows to make people believe it was something special, to create an inspiring atmosphere”.
If anything, Robin believes that this is the record they’ve been trying to make from the start, one that will see the band live up to those expectations we mentioned earlier.
“The title’s a reflection on that, the way that bands are built up to ridiculous proportions then all they can do is fall down. We’ve finally reached zero now, we can move forward”.

Heroes To Zeroes is out now on Regal.