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The night before, Paul Butler and Aaron Fletcher had been hobnobbing until the wee hours with the rich and famous (and Patsy Kensit) in a Soho drinking den. One queasy plane ride later and they're glad to be sitting quietly in the city of the laidback that is Amsterdam. They're not new to these shores- the band did the graveyard shift at the Crossing Border festival (NL) last year in the Melkweg cinema, which they described as 'cool but quiet'.
So you two are the core of the Bees, but you've got add-ons?
Paul: "Well, we're the song writing side- we wrote the album. But since then we got our 5 -piece band together, which was about Feb/March 2001, they're all our mates and we love them all."
You're still young pups but you've already been involved in 11 albums...
Paul: "A while ago on the island there were just 5 or 6 different projects involving around 7 or 8 different people which we were all involved in, so each time we just used different names and came up with different sorts of music, but it was all with small labels so they were willing to put out whatever we did!"
Aaron: "Yeah- we were lucky- we got the opportunity to release loads of music."
Paul: "Basically it was practice making albums at the end of the day! But one day, we sat down, really thought about it and created The Bees."
What's life like on the Isle of Wight?
Paul: "Aaahhh, miss it already! So quiet."
Aaron: "Yeah, we really like it, there's space and solitude."
So you're still based there?
Paul: "We're there for good."
Aaron: "We're not moving!"
Not tempted to leave for the bright lights, big city?
Paul: "There is absolutely no pull from London- it's the opposite. The more you get involved there the more you find out about it; the business side of it all. It doesn't help creativity, it's just passing ridiculous amounts of money to each other, companies merging and stuff like that, naffness not music!"
Many artists just become pawns...
Paul: "Yeah, totally, exactly. The IoW is perfectly removed from that. You can choose to have nothing to do with it, or choose how much you do want to get involved because at the end of the day you're only a phone call away."
Is there a scene on the IoW?
Paul: "There's one building up now… it's great 'cos we're doing it! So we've got one big playground, we've even got support from the council- which is pretty amazing for the IoW. It shouldn't be too long before we open up a venue down there- our nights that we do are amazing- one night we had 500 people there going absolutely mental! We did gigs in London, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Paris and Amsterdam. And then came back to the IoW and it was better than all the other gigs combined. It's the best feeling ever playing to your home crowd."
Aaron: "When we got the record deal, one of the first things they asked us was, 'would you move to London?' We were like- 'no way, we're staying on the island' and they said 'ok, cool, it's your music, do whatever you want'."
Paul: "We said 'it's very cheap living!'"
Aaron: "They've tried a few things though, like offering us producers and remixers and the like, but nah- we played and produced it all ourselves….and just fuckin' showed 'em!!"
So you wouldn't let any remixers get their grubby little paws on your baby?
Paul: "No way!"
Aaron: "No-one deserves it!"
Tell me about one of your quotes- 'I won't have any computerised instruments in the shed'.
Paul: "We're nearly there. We're still recording down to a hard-drive, but maybe we can afford to one day get a big tape-machine, but yeah- we love beautiful, natural tones. Hammond organ, Rhodes piano- a piano sound which you cannot recreate with any digital thing, root guitars through beautiful amps, Lesley speakers for the Hammond, just the old stuff. We just looked at photos, ('cos there's no books about this production sound), so you just watch the Old Grey Whistle Test instead, and we saw Curtis Mayfield playing on it and we thought- that is so incredible! Gibson Les Paul Fender Twin- same as I've got- I was well chuffed! Telecaster Fender Twin, that's what our guitarist's got- that's what we'd been trying to do really, to get that sound. They didn't have computers back then and they wrote incredible music."
Well, everyone knows that Top of the Pops 2 is better than Top of the Pops these days...
Paul: "Exactly!"
Aaron: "But we do big up Kraftwerk, we have a lot of respect for them- but since then everyone else has just jumped on the bandwagon. Apart from Aphex Twin has also had a huge influence on us too, he's a genius."
Paul: "The Beach Boys are also in there too, the harmonies and arrangements are really important to us."
Or how about the production sounds of roots reggae.
Paul: "Well, there are so many lessons to learn from that. They can't tune the Hammond in so they'd play it half a note out of tune, then the vocal would be in a different key- but the result would be magic ... (ok- we go on to discuss a mutual love for roots which can't be detailed here- just go out and get yourself a Studio One compilation instead)."
When you listen to stuff like that you think- sod the last ten years!
Aaron: "[much laughter] Yeah- in the '80s technology got into the studio and made things quicker and easier to do, so musicians got kicked out."
Paul: "It was like 'wow, digital' but it doesn't cut it, it's trying to be analogue but it will never get there, so you might as well just go and use the old stuff!"
The album has perfect pop songs- including the most excellent and original 'Punchbag' but it's more than just disposable pop- there's a more rounded darker side too to balance the all-round general sprightliness. It's also been getting rave reviews.
Aaron: "It took two years to write the rest of the album because 'Punchbag' was the benchmark. That's the quality control that the other songs had to make so we had to work hard on it."
Paul: "But our parents like it too, so when they finally said to me 'ok- I'm going to stop telling you to go out and get a proper job' that was a big moment for me! And for our parents, who don't have a huge record collection but the records they do have are quality, ie Motown, Beatles, Otis Redding, - well, that moment when you can crack it with your folks then you know you're onto a winner!"
They're the hardest critics after all. So what's next, world domination, number one albums, more nights schmoozing with the glitterati in West London?
Paul: "We want to just be able to write timeless songs. If we come up with the equivalent of 'It's a Man's World' by James Brown, or 'Higher and Higher' by Jackie Wilson, a proper soul song, then that would be a job well done."
Natural, a good laugh, and 100% bullshit free. That goes for the boys as well as the album.
http://www.kindamuzik.net/interview/the-bees/the-bees/1287/
Meer The Bees op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/the-bees
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