Flyin' Hi-Fi With Beta Band Frontman Stephen Mason
Record junkies have likely been hip to the work of Stephen Mason for a few years
now, but his music is probably best known to the less rabid through its supporting
role in the recent cinematic tribute to music snobbery, High Fidelity.
As the sounds of The Beta Band's "Dry the Rain" drift through the record
shop of Rob Gordon (played by John Cusack), a patron remarks to Gordon that it's
a good song. "I know," says Gordon, as if to clarify that he was there
first. As it turns out, the real-life Cusack may have been one of the first.
The actor, a fan of Mason's The Beta Band, brought the song to the High Fidelity
soundtrack and to the world beyond the record collecting elite.
Music fans are surely thankful for Cusack's efforts, as well as for those of
the electro-savvy Astralwerks label, which brought the output of the Scottish-formed,
London-bred group to the states. The label grabbed U.S. rights for their 1998
release The Three EPs, which combined their first three short players,
the first of which had been unavailable and fetching serious prices on the collectors'
market. The Beta Band followed in '99 to complaints from the Betas themselves
that it was a terrible record. Stephen Mason told the NME, "It's definitely
the worst record we've ever made, and it's probably one of the worst records
that'll come out this year," citing "half-written songs with jams
in the middle." Listeners could see what he meant about the jams, but the
album's boundless funk/rock/hip-hop mélange sure as hell didn't sound
like anything else out there. When he's not fronting The Beta Band, Stephen Mason makes plenty of noise all
by himself, his current release being a side project completely of his own construction.
He calls himself King Biscuit Time, and the record, No Style, is an extension
of the Betas' mad genius, but tighter, shorter and a touch more serious. Where
the Betas once explored the musicality of smashing washing machines, Mason has
achieved an almost tender sound of late. How'd he get from A to B (how'd he
get to A, for that matter)? Mason took a moment out of preparations for the
next Beta Band album to fill us in. Were you guys [The Beta Band] glad to get the stamp of approval from the
music snobs in High Fidelity? I bet Beck and the Beastie Boys would be into your stuff. Have you heard
from them? Do you still think that The Beta Band is one of the worst records
of 1999? The King Biscuit Time record seems to be a bit more song-oriented. Is that
reflective of your thoughts on The Beta Band. Did you pound on any appliances? You use quite a few samples. Have there been samples you've wanted to use,
but couldn't clear? I saw a setlist from a BBC show you did -- everything from sci-fi soundtracks
to old Madonna to the Dead Kennedys. What have you been into lately? What was the first record that made you care about music? Do you think the '80s get a raw deal? Did you play in bands prior to The Beta Band? Why do people from the UK and Ireland sing with what seems to be an American
accent? You play a few different instruments. Which is your favorite? The Beta Band has been called pretentious and self-indulgent. If you could
only be one or the other, which would it be? How do you describe the [forthcoming Beta Band record] as opposed to The
Beta Band? You'll still be using samples and hip-hop textures? Did you hire a new producer or are you doing this one yourselves? Scotland has a lot of good bands right now. Who else is good besides Belle
& Sebastian, The Delgados and Arab Strap?
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I think so, yeah. I think John Cusack is quite into the Beta Band, so it was
quite an amazing step he took there. We met one of his dudes in New York last
year when [High Fidelity] was being put together. We've never met him.
He was DJ-ing in LA on the radio and he played a couple of our tracks. Both
he and us wanted to do some more original music for the film, but it didn't
work out. I'm hoping that in the future we'll get to do some original music
for one of his films.
Yeah. [the Beasties'] Mike D, I think, is really into The Beta Band. I don't
know about Beck. He came to our LA show, but I didn't speak to him. He didn't
hang around, so he probably wasn't very impressed (laughs). I'm sure he would
have hung around and had a chat with us if he thought we were any good. But
Mike D, yeah. We DJ-ed at the last Beastie Boys gig here -- at the after-show
party. I've not actually met them, but apparently he's into us. I'd love to
meet [Beck]. I'm sure he's a really interesting guy.
It's not one of the worst records of 1999, but it's the worst record we've ever
made. The preparation went really badly. I got very depressed, and there was
a lot of pressure and not a very positive atmosphere around the band. It wasn't
a very creative environment, and the record really suffered because of that.
The guy who was helping us produce it wasn't very talented. I don't think it's
all bad. About 30% of it is pretty amazing, but I was very disappointed with
the overall result.
Yeah. With No Style I wanted to do a short, coherent record that compacted a
lot of ideas into a shorter space of time. I'm very happy with it. It's a lot
shorter, and a lot more interesting because of it.
No. I did it in a really small flat in south London, and we couldn't make a
lot of noise, 'cause the neighbors were bangin' on the walls and all that. So
it was a very quietly made record.
None yet. We thought we were going to have trouble with the Bonnie Tyler one
["Total Eclipse of the Heart"] on "The Hard One," and we
did have trouble for a while, but then they cleared it. And we thought we might
have trouble with John Barry's Black Hole one [on "It's Not Too
Beautiful"], but he was fine as well. We've never had anything not cleared
… well, nothing I can tell you about, anyway.
The last record I bought was a group called People Under the Stairs -- hip-hop
from the West Coast. I've been buying a lot of new reggae coming out of Jamaica
at the moment that's really exciting. Destiny's Child, Aaliyah, anything that's
modern. This new R&B stuff is really exciting. A lot of the reggae guys
are paying attention to that and then taking it a stage further.
Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam and the Ants. I heard that and "Anarchy
in the U.K." at the same time, so probably those two.
There was a lot of really good hip-hop made in the '80s. When people talk about
the '80s they're usually talking about really dodgy white music. If that's what
you're into, then yeah, it's pretty embarrassing. I was never really into that,
so for me there was some great music made in the '80s.
I was in a few bands. I was in a '60s kind of rock band in London before The
Beta Band. Before that I was in a mod band in Scotland when I was 15 or 16 years
old. When I was in school I was in a Link Wray-type rock-a-billy band called
the Bat Finks.
(Laughs) I've never heard that before. I would never sing in an American accent.
I sing with the same voice that I speak with.
Probably the steel drum. It's quite hard to play good melodies, but it's really
exciting. It's marked out so you can see what you've got to hit. You just aim
and press hard. I love playing the drums as well. I play drums on three songs
live.
Self-indulgent. Pretentious isn't really a concept. It's just a criticism. It's
possible to be self-indulgent, but it's not really possible to be pretentious.
That's just a lame criticism. Our last album was very self-indulgent in parts,
but what the f*ck are you gonna do about it? That's life. That's the record
we made. It's trying to reach that state of critical mass and hit the right
spot. We didn't manage to do it with that last record, but we're gonna do it
on this one.
Shorter, totally focused, more exciting, more melodic and better produced.
Yeah. And we've moved into the computer age as well, so we're using a lot of
programmed beats. We're sampling ourselves a lot more, which we've always done,
but now we're chopping up the samples and really getting to grips with using
them in a less obvious way.
We haven't started recording. We're trying to get a hold of Rick Rubin, but
I think he's a very busy man. There are a few people we're talking to. Rick
Rubin is the one we really want to work with. I'm not a big fan of the Red Hot
Chili Peppers, but I quite like some of the production on Blood Sugar Sex
Magik. And obviously some of the Beastie Boys' stuff.
I don't really listen to any of those bands. I don't really know anything about
them. I don't know of any good Scottish bands apart from Primal Scream.