Interview: Beans on Toast

When you get the chance to interview an artist that goes by the name of Beans on Toast it goes without saying that you quickly have to ask why he chose to name himself after the most quintisential of British snacks.

“(I chose it) because it’s simple, cheap, and I guess because it’s British” Beans tells us, “I also think it sums up the kind of music I make quite well. I think band names are important, plus it’s always good to give yourself a silly name”.

Not to mention of course that it immediately gets peoples attention?

“Yeah when you meet people in the street they do find it hilarious. Sometimes you find some band names are too interesting, that the name almost outdoes the band but this seems to get peoples interest”.

And us Brits sure do love our beans on toast.

“Exactly”

When we speak to Beans he is in Nottingham to support Frank Turner on the singers current Arena tour, which had kicked off the previous night in Cardiff.

“Yeah we started there last night, which was amazing. It’s certainly not my usual touring circuit so to play the Cardiff Motorpoint last night was epic, truly epic. Then tonight it’s the Nottingham Arena. Being on a tour like this is great fun”.

Unsurprisingly it’s by far the performers biggest tour of his career, though he has played a big show with Turner in the past, something which Beans believes played a big part in landing him this slot.

“I played Wembley with Frank a couple years ago and he said to me afterwards that he thought I was Arena ready so I think I kind of got these gigs off the back of that.”

While the tour offers Beans on Toast his first chance to play at the Nottingham Arena he is no stranger to the City, which, it seems, he has a long standing love for.

“Nottingham is one of my favourite city’s in the county. I’ve played everywhere from the Social to Rescue Rooms. I used to regularly play the acoustic nights on a Monday upstairs at Rescue Rooms”

Though it seems his love of Nottingham harks back to a time before the music.

“I have a lot of family friends in Nottingham so we used to come up here a lot when I was younger, we used to go to Sherwood Forest and I’d pretend to be Robin Hood”.

As well as being out on tour Beans also has a brand new single out this week, Keep You, which he describes as “a love song about my girlfriend” the single comes off the back of his fifth album, ‘Giving Everything’ which was released at the end of last year. We ask him about the feedback to the album, something it seems he doesn’t worry himself to much about:

“To be honest one an albums done and released I try not to worry about it. It’s not really up to me what happens to it once it’s out there so I tend to just let it do its thing.”

For Beans on Toast the most important thing is putting out an album he can be proud of and that progresses on from the previous release.

“It’s stepped up a bit from the last album, that’s all I’m worried about musically. I’m not really concerned about what reviews or press it gets, on the ground level people tell me they like it.”

More importantly, it seems, is moving forward and thinking about the future.

“Once the album is out I start thinking about the next one.”

It seems he is already lining up a sixth album.

“Yeah, I release an album a year so it will be out in December. The writing comes pretty naturally so I’ll go into the studio in September and put it out in December like I have done the last five years. I already have a bunch of songs written for it and by September there will be even more. If you want to keep doing the festival circuit each year I think it’s a good thing to keep releasing new music.”

Talking of the festival circuit, last year Beans on Toast hit the festivals pretty hard including a slot at Glastonbury.

“I’ve played Glastonbury a few times. What I do is essentially a festival show at heart. I started off writing with the aim of playing festivals so it is something I really enjoy doing. I will usually do every weekend from Glasto through to Bestival. Sometimes I’ll be doing two, even three, festivals a weekend. It is where I excel, out in a field. I love it.”

It’s early days on this years announcements meaning he is unable to tells us much on which festivals he’ll be cropping up at this year.

“There are a few I’m doing that haven’t been announced but Boomtown have just released their line up so I can announce I’m playing that one. It’s an amazing line-up and is going to be a wicked festival”.

Beans will also be heading back over the Atlantic having previously played their with Frank.

“Yeah we went there last June. It was a real eye opener. I really liked it out there, the people were really passionate and I had great fun. I wrote some songs about American conspiracy theories and tried to put myself in awkward positions. But I didn’t get myself shot so it’s all good”.

Interview by Darren Patterson

Beans on Toast supported Frank Turner at the Capital FM Arena on Friday February 7.