Issue 153

The Bees: Who cares what the question is?

26th February 2007

Nearly three years after their last album, Free The Bees, hit the Top 30 in the charts, inimitable Brit indie starlets, The Bees, return with their charming third record, Octopus, in March. Ahead of that the Isle of Wight band found themselves in Swansea on 20 February, at the beginning of a nationwide tour to promote the new record.

"We have been gigging since the Free The Bees campaign ended but this is like the third warm-up tour for this album," explains bassist Aaron Fletcher. "It's a lot bigger. We got some real big dates. Last night was the opening night up in Wrexham and that was wicked."

With just one date of the current tour under their belt as they arrive in Swansea, Fletcher is confident that the tour will prove to be a success, ahead of Octopus's March release date, with MySpace providing a platform for fans to preview the new material before seeing the band in action. "We've been putting tracks up there and getting responses," says Fletcher. "It's definitely opened our eyes to people who are into us around the world. "It's a really good thing, it spreads the music. You get your fans all in one place. You can let them know what's going on.

"We've got a wicked support act for the tour as well, Candie Payne. We do find it hard to get the right support act, because our music is like a load of different styles."

The Bees are definitely a band who utilise a load of different styles in their approach. The forthcoming album will demonstrate just how varied those styles are. Describing what we can expect from Octopus, Fletcher talks of how the band have taken the best of their previous two records. "The idea was to do a blend of the first two albums, and I think we've done that. There's a definite difference. Sunshine Hit Me was a laid back album and Free The Bees has got a lot more energy. The tempo's really high. The album's all songs for once, we haven't done any instrumentals.

"It's a classic Bees thing. You got the reggae influenced song, a lot of soul influences and we've got a few ska things in there. We like to keep people guessing. It's the mixed bag. We're really happy because it's our third album and it's definitely refining the Bees' sound."

With Free The Bees hitting the Top 30 when it was released, Fletcher hopes that Octopus can build upon that and push the band further into the musical limelight.

"That'd be nice. We've put the effort in for that to happen definitely." There can surely be very few bands that can claim to have recorded an album in a garden shed, but that was the case with debut album Sunshine Hit Me, and that went on to be nominated for a Mercury Music Prize. Free The Bees, however, was recorded at Abbey Road and Fletcher admits that after that, the band have wanted to get back to recording at home.

"In hindsight we wanted to get back to recording how we made our first record, with a lot more time on our hands. We've always had our own studio. We would have done it in what we've got now but no, we did it at Abbey Road and it was amazing. Since then we've renovated our basement and that's where we've done everything now."

The lengths that the band have gone to in order to ensure that they get the right sound are extraordinary. Using auction website, eBay, The Bees managed to acquire a 1960s mixing desk from a Swedish radio station.

"It's got as many components as the desk we used at Abbey Road. Paul [Butler], he's heavily into production and he loves old equipment, and Abbey Road was just a goldmine for him. We sort of said 'we need that equipment,' but we needed £500,000 and it's not gonna happen. So we just eBayed it." When it comes to recording material, The Bees' preference is definitely towards more traditional means. In addition to that, the band themselves prefer to take care of their own production, and as Fletcher explains, it is a totally self-sufficient arrangement.

"We had an engineer at the beginning. He came in and helped us tune everything in, but since then it's our style. Paul's all over it. It's a completely unique way of doing it. We just love old techniques. It's how our favourite records were recorded."

With Octopus, you can expect an album that captures the essence of traditional recording methods of the 1960s and 1970s. But when it comes to the music that inspires the band, tastes aren't necessarily as traditional, as Fletcher reveals.

"There's a big list but Bob Dylan and The Band, their stuff's just amazing. We relate to them quite well. But I like hiphop, and Kris [Birkin], the guitarist, likes dance. Everyone thinks we like sixties and stuff, but we just like music, as long as its good."

With such varied personal tastes within the band, you may be forgiven for thinking that conflicts may arise behind the scenes, but Fletcher is assured in stating otherwise.

"Through the six of us, we've managed to all find a path," explains the bassist. "That's the pleasing thing about it. There's not really any tough times when recording. Paul's a producer so we look to him for the final sound." When it comes to writing the material however, Fletcher freely holds his hand up to being the chief lyricist.

"I write the lyrics with a spot of help from some of the others sometimes," he reveals. "We start with a rhythm track. We jam a lot 'til we get these grooves together. I like to write about positive things. There's no real stories. Never any angst. That's the key to it. Metaphors and positivity so people can put their own stories to it."

The story of how the band came to be named is certainly an intriguing one, but as Fletcher recalls, there doesn't seem to be any real reason for how the band became 'The Bees'. Having written the song Punchbag for their first album, a meeting with a record label prompted an on-thespot decision that ended up sticking. "They were like 'what are you going to call yourselves? Be The Bees until you think of something else.' And before we knew it our first release was out by The Bees."

Armed with hits such as Chicken Payback, Wash in the Rain and A Minha Menina, The Bees may have already entered your consciousness without you realising, with a host of television commercials using the band as a soundtrack. But Fletcher admits that it isn't exactly ideal, especially when the band are labelled as 'that band from that advert.'

"It's not nice to hear that, but you can't blame people because we're not on Radio One. We really tried saying no, and we did say no to a lot at the beginning, but we need to, because it's business."

So what is next for The Bees after Swansea, the rest of the tour, and the release of Octopus? According to Fletcher, the band are definitely hoping to feature during the festival season this summer.

"Well we don't know anything yet. But as it goes in the past, hopefully when the album comes out we'll get to do the festivals. So hopefully Glastonbury. European stuff as well."

There is certainly a lot happening in 2007 to keep The Bees occupied, and with Octopus promising to be a corker of an album, Fletcher and the band have every reason to be confident of the months that lie ahead.

Pete Hayman