Viva Brighton Issue #45 November 2016

MUSIC
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Beardyman
‘Weaponised telepathy’
Having celebrated the
10th anniversary of the
legendary Brighton night
Battlejam earlier this year,
Beardyman is doing a
hometown show at The
Old Market this month,
giving his improvised
musical mash-up a whole
new twist. A world-class
beatboxer and multiinstrumentalist
in his own
right, he’s also assembled
a group of top freestylers
and musicians - billed as
The Dream Team - to turn
the audience’s crazy suggestions
into off-the-cuff
songs backed by a full band.
How is this Beardyman
show different from previous ones? The last
time I came to The Old Market I made two
new albums over a couple of nights. This time
I’m bringing a band consisting of some of the
UK’s greatest improvisers, and we’ll be doing
something inspired by the same desire to create
new music in the moment. The last shows were
framed as comedy, these are more focused on
music for music’s sake, and the music is markedly
better than anything I could do on my own.
What is The Dream Team and who’s involved?
It’s currently myself, Bellatrix on bass
and beatbox, Dizraeli on vocals, LeeN on MC
duties, who also has a next level effects set-up,
JFB on the decks, and Rob Lewis on the cello and
FX. They’re some of the best freestylers on the
planet. It’s a blank slate with weaponised telepathy,
we create worlds within worlds together with
infinite possibilities.
Will you be using your
self-built live looping
machine, aka the
Beardytron 5000? Are
you any closer to making
it available commercially?
Yes and no.
Why did you decide to
start using live musicians
when you can do
it all with your mouth?
Because I can’t. A mouth is
not a band.
Are there certain sounds
that you’ve not yet been
able to mimic vocally?
Loads... show me a kid who
can do a convincing piano
and I’ll eat my microphone.
Who would win in a
showdown between you and a lyrebird? The
lyrebird... those things are insane.
What other plans or projects have you got in
the works? I’m working hard on this right now,
but I’ve also started an as-yet-unnamed trio with
LeeN and Serocee which will be seeing the light
of day soon.
Are there certain audience suggestions that
come up time and time again? There are
always shit ones... and yes, we pass over them.
What’s the best song title your audience
has ever come up with? Have you ever been
tempted to steal their ideas? The best one I
had was: “I think one of my dads might be gay”. I
don’t steal their ideas, I interpret them. You can’t
steal an idea, it’s all in the execution.
Interview by Ben Bailey
Beardyman performs with The Dream Team at
The Old Market, Wed 16th, 7.30pm, £16.50
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