Bummed buddies

>> The ins and outs of the Beta Band

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

"We're not willfully obscure, but we are providing an alternative to shit music that is constantly falling out of England like a fuckin' uncontrollable bad arse." Beta Band bassist Richard Greentree isn't short on opinions. He loves Eminem. He hates Fred Durst. He spills the beans on his bandmate's homo liaison with Thom Yorke, just in time for Divers/Cité. Yes, really. But first, ladies and gentlemen, the Beta Band.



Mirror: So why did your singer say your first album was "shit"?

Richard Greentree: Well, Steve [Mason] thinks everything's shit, he'll slag anything off. But we all felt that it was unfinished. We didn't really take it to its logical conclusion, so it's sprawling and incoherent and needs working with some scissors. There are some good songs, and it's better than most of the other fucking trash people were releasing around the time--but Hot Shots II is great.

M: Did you achieve greatness with a radically different approach?

RG: Yeah, we just prepared. We spent three months on our own in a little studio behind computers, no one else there, taking the songs as far as we could, really, without all the proper equipment, so by the time we went to the studio they were almost releasable. Then we spent six weeks in the studio to fine-tune them and by the time we finished we felt properly that we'd finished.

M: But you still manage to retain that loose, jammy feel.

RG: I think it just sounds a bit shambolic because none of us are very good at playing instruments. It's a bit ropey sometimes but we're all very committed and confident, just not very talented. You're never gonna hear guitar solos, we're never gonna wave the wand of proficiency in people's faces when they don't need to see it.

M: So what's your relationship with Radiohead? Have you opened for them before?

RG: No, but, um, Steve and Thom Yorke go back quite a long way. I mean Steve's not queer but he's bisexual and Thom was a bit confused about what he was doing for awhile before he met his current wife, so for about six months they had an on-and-off relationship. That was about four, five years ago now.

M: Are you serious?

RG: (sincerely) Yeah, they just kept it going and offered us this tour. It's all over now, they're just good friends, but that's how we met them. I think Thom might quite fancy Robin, our drummer. (laughing) He's a pretty young man.

Beta vs. Bizkit

M: Okay. But, musically speaking, do you feel a certain kinship with Radiohead?

RG: Um, no. They come from a very different space. Our music's about the lighter side of life rather than the darker side. Well, it's about the whole spectrum of life. One thing we'd never do is make music that didn't take in all aspects of the people's characters who are making it, that is, music that's purely about misery or purely about happiness or purely about lying. And the worst offenders are people like Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit. Where's the sentiment in their music? It's like, "I'm angst teenager, get together, hands in the air, we won't take any more of this, fuck, we're angry." He's not angry, he's just a fat fuck who doesn't know anything about what he's trying to talk about. He ought to keep his fuckin' mouth shut and stop annoying everyone with his pathetic songs.

M: Well, I guess you guys don't encourage crowds to "break stuff" then. But I heard the show is pretty intense nonetheless--

RG: It's different with this stint in America since we're supporting Radiohead, so we're not allowed to use our visuals or lights or anything in order to make them look even more great than they already are. But we always wear costumes. I'm wearing one right now. It's all part of the celebration of life.

With Radiohead and Kid Koala at Parc Jean Drapeau, Sunday, August 5, 7pm (doors at 4pm), $45