One of the perks of writing about music is that you occasionally get to interview musicians that you love. Walking into the Radisson in Dublin is not one of those times. To be honest The Bees have never featured heavily on my playlist. But who am I to turn down interview opportunities? Especially when the nice lady from Universal offers me jam and scones as I walk into reception? Not me. Although foolishly I turn down the scones out of some vague sense of journalistic integrity (for any budding music writers out there – always take the scones).
Three of the six strong band are sitting around a table. Free of any journalistic questions of ethics they are munching away on their own jam and scones (damn it). Paul Butler, Tim Parkin and Aaron Fletcher greet me warmly, the have the hairy look of rock stars but there are no mumbled responses, no barely concealed contempt towards the interviewer. These are nice, friendly, down-to-earth guys who happen to play in a band. Immediately I feel bad for not being overly keen on their music.
The bands are three nights into a five night run supporting Paul Weller in the Olympia. Talk turns to the man himself, they had remixed ‘Wake Up Nation’ which led to the current tour. “He’s been real nice,” explains Aaron. “He knocks on our dressing room real timidly asking for requests.”
So the cute manners of the Modfather out of the way how are things with the band themselves? Well quite good it seems. They’ve severed ties with their previous labels, EMI and Virgin and are now signed with Fiction Records. Fourth album ‘Every Step’s A Yes’ was released last month.
“[The new label] are great, they’re very hard-working which you need to be nowadays,” says Tim. “We thought about releasing the album ourselves but there’s so much work to do that.”
So onto the new album, time for some soundbites, can they sum up the new sound? “Psychedelic, soulful, folk…stuff… thingey,” tries Tim gamefully before laughing. “We did go more acoustic,” adds Aaron. “Previously we’d write new songs acoustic then go electric, but this time we kept a lot acoustic.”
So will this new acoustic sound translate into their live show? “Not yet, but eventually,” explains Paul. “It’s hard to suddenly move the show from electric to acoustic so we need to get the equipment first really.”
The plan for the moment is to finish the Paul Weller tour, culminating in Wembley “We’re all going to take it in turns to say ‘Hello Wembley’,” jokes Tim. Then they’ll do a few solo dates. Recording over the summer denied them any slots during the festival season so they hope to rectify that during 2011 with plans to do all the major British weekenders.
They have yet to play an Irish festival so they hope that will also be rectified. “Any sort of new up and coming festivals in Ireland?” enquires Paul. “We get that impression with festivals that the first few years are really magic and then…’
The scones devoured (I glance at the jam flecked crumbs longingly), the interview comes to a close. Still won’t be putting the Bees top of my playlist but the new album is getting a listen this week and they are going on my loosely assembled mental list of ‘Music’s Good Guys’.