In anticipation of their performance at Sowing The Seeds 2014, we spoke briefly with Beatenberg as they filled us in on the geographical area Beatenberg, their debut album which is due for release in May and their cross cultural summer anthem, Remember You. The STS2014 festival has since been postponed but a little birdie tells us Seed Experiences has an ace up their sleeves.
The Fuss – Beatenberg is a municipality in Switzerland. Do you have any ties to this place and what is the reasoning behind calling your group Beatenberg?
Beatenberg – Matt found a sketch of the Swiss mountain village Beatenberg in a book of Essays on Modern Art by the German Painter Paul Klee. We liked that it sounds like a place in South Africa (Muizenberg/Wynberg/Drakensberg) and also for the BEAT (Jack Kerouac et al).
The Fuss – You have managed to sign with major label, Universal, whilst keeping true to what Beatenberg is – An experimental pollination of pop and anything you fancy. How is your relationship with your label?
Beatenberg – Very good. We give them a lot of up-hill. But that’s how you get to the top!
The Fuss – Having released Chelsea Blakemore, an acid and dub remix thereof, then the afro-house chart topper, Remember You, with Pluto – it’s difficult to predict what to expect next from Beatenberg. Can we expect as diverse a sound or list of influences on your album which drops in May?
Beatenberg – Yes, you can. The album covers a lot of different ground within a very unified theme. Like 5 spice, or all-spice. Mmmmmmmm nice.
The Fuss – In an attempt to briefly get an idea of your influences, could you list a couple of your most played tracks on your iTunes playlist?
Beatenberg – For Rob it’s mostly Miles Davis and Madlib. Matt likes the sound of his own voice. Ross listens only to vinyl while cooking naked in the ocean while hiking.
The Fuss – Your track with Pluto has been making waves nationally, crossing the cultural boundary with music that has been playlisted on 5FM and YFM. Even the guys from Biffy Clyro showed appreciation of this track. Did you expect such a great response to, Remember You, and how did the collaboration come about?
The Fuss – We got into SA House a few years ago when our mates started collecting MP3 CDs from Taxi Ranks. Our label heard from an interview that we were House fans and so proposed a collaboration. We jumped when they mentioned Clock, because we were huge fans of ‘Ngomso’ and ‘DnB beat’. We flew to Joburg and recorded the song – from scratch – in one day. We knew it was good because we danced while making it. But we didn’t expect such big things!
The Fuss – You were billed to play Sowing The Seeds this year alongside John Newman – Which of the billed acts excite you and what can we expect from your performance?
Beatenberg – We’re excited to hang out with our pals John Wizards. John Newman looks to be pretty insane. We’re gonna do our best.
The Fuss – We’ve compiled a couple of questions which we got from our readers below:
Who and where is Chelsea Blakemore?
Beatenberg – Chelsea is Ross’s ex-girlfriend in London. Chelsea, actually.
Are there any recordings from Rob and Matt’s “drum n bass pop duo”?
Beatenberg – Matt might have some on a device somewhere… Rob wants to hear them! You can see that this answer is a group effort between Rob and Matt: an internal band dialogue – perhaps a mild friction – is denoted therein. LOLOL PS: Who wrote what?
One of our twitter followers. Clearly a die hard. You have a series of live acoustic recordings on your YouTube channel. Where can we find the third in the series?
Beatenberg – If you find it please let us know! Perhaps it’s on a hard drive at the back of a cupboard, accruing value proportional to our accruing fame. Ho ho ho.
Can I name my daughter Chelsea Blakemore?
Beatenberg – Well, yes, as long as your surname’s not Blakemore, because that would be silly. Whoever heard of someone called Chelsea Blakemore Blakemore?
What are your high scores on Flappy bird?
Beatenberg – Matt was the only one to play Flappy Bird and he reached 270 before deleting it.
Where do you like to eat?
Beatenberg – Kyoto Gardens. Mitico Pizzeria. Tamboerswinkel.
When you release a Beatenberg cologne what is it going to smell like?
Beatenberg – Like a hard day’s work.
