interviewed for FasterLouder...

Geoff Barrow is a man of many talents. From record label owner (Invada) to producer to his central role in Portishead, he has shown he is able to work successfully in all areas of the music industry. Add to that list his new project the quirkily titled Beak> which features Barrow on drums and friends Billy Fuller (bass) and Matt Williams (keyboards) rounding out the experimental and progressive krautrock project.

Barrow is nursing a sore back after his body protested the amount of work it has had to do, back in the drum seat on a run of recent tour dates. Barrow produced The Horrors’ Primary Colours album and last night played an impromptu support set with the band. “A show of ours was cancelled in Birmingham and we just said ‘where are you playing tomorrow night?’ and they were in Sheffield and said ‘come down and play with us’ and it was great,” he enthuses.

Beak>’s debut was constructed using strict guidelines – the freedom through restriction aesthetic. All of the tracks were recorded live in one room with no overdubs and editing was used solely to structure the arrangements. “We did 25 tracks in 12 days and there was lots of stuff happening, I was playing violin through distortion. It was good, a lot of experimentation really,” explains Barrow.

“We didn’t really talk about it much we just went and did it. None of it was pre-rehearsed, it was all improv basically. It was kind of more like instant writing than improv really. Improv can be like a 25 minute saxophone solo over some pseudo funky beat whereas we were giving each other space and just trying to write. It was a lot of fun and good for your brain.”

The whole process sounds ridiculously simple and straightforward as Barrow explains. “On the first day we just set up the levels on the desk, pressed record and the first track we did is the first track on the album – Backwell. We did two edits of it but we only played it once ‘cause it was a 25 minute track and edited down to what it is. Matt doesn’t want to listen to it after he’s played it coz he comes from that thing of ‘that was good, if it represents what we played then I’m fine with it’. Billy and I come from a slightly more traditional world and we want to listen to it after we’ve played it. There was no mixing on the record. We listened to this band The Plastic People Of The Universe, that was the only band we listened to through the sessions. We didn’t really drink, we just went in and did it really.”

The overriding feel and style of the music that Beak> create stems from krautrock and its droning, repetitive sensibilities. In a year that Flaming Lips have taken a similar turn and Kraftwerk have released new remastered versions of their albums, it is a genre that is definitely back in the spotlight. “We’ve all been influenced by late 60s to mid 70s German progressive rock and thats basically what it is – Can, Faust and Neu. It kind of comes from there, that groove,” says Barrow.

Digging deeper into what attracts Barrow and others to experiment with krautrock it becomes clear that it is a refreshing change from the standard forms of popular music that we have all become so accustomed to in the last 30 years. “Its a non-blues scale music basically, its kind of like rock but without the foot on the monitor, full-on distortion crap you know? It also allows you to break from tradition because you don’t have to have verses and choruses, you can just experiment with arrangements. You look at the standard structure of pop and rock n roll and it sits outside of that. You look at bands like Neu and Can who basically weren’t really influenced by American black music. Obviously we all love blues and rock n roll and American black music but you kind of lose that blues scale thing which is really interesting and with progressive rock and psych and stuff you just end up going somewhere else which is really nice. People just want to experiment really,” summarises Barrow.

Outside of Beak>, Barrow is kept busy with a number of other projects. One that will be fascinating to hear is a collaborative hip hop album with Ashley Anderson (aka Katalyst) who he originally started the Invada label with in Australia. “I’m working on a hip hop album at the moment with Ashley and another guy which is going to come out next year. Its the first time I’ve actually been involved in a proper hip hop record. We’ve all put beats to it and we’ve got MC’s so it’s going to be interesting. Its called Quakers and will be out on Invada UK and Australia,” Barrow says.

Recent Portishead activity has seen the release of the single Chase The Tear with all proceeds going to Amnesty International. The song evolved slowly during sessions post-Third, their last studio album. “We’ve had it for a year or a bit longer. We couldn’t work on it full-time so we worked on it in stages. It kind of worked like a lot of Portishead tracks where we’d start and it’d sound alright and then we decide we not really happy with it and we mess around with it until we find something that works. It didn’t start off with the synth bass line it was kind of an acoustic thing. We just remix it until it sounds right,” explains Barrow.

“We came up with the idea of doing it with Amnesty as a project. I want to continue doing it with other bands. There is a project called Released where you give all your rights completely to the charity forever and its the right thing to do really.”

With Portishead out of contract the band are keen to explore different options which is an exciting proposition for Barrow and allows him the freedom to pursue multiple projects on his own terms. “We haven’t got a record label as it stands, we’re negotiating, so while we’re free we can just do what we want. We’re going to play some festivals with Beak> and then I’ll start writing the next Portishead record.” News that will excite the many fans who endured the long winter between the band’s last two albums.