Sam Beeton
Sam Beeton may have kicked off his music career on a major label but he has now gone it alone setting up his own label and launching Record Club.
Record Club allows him to get his music out there quicker to his fans, as well as adding a very personal touch. I caught up with him to talk about Record Club, releasing a traditional album and what lies ahead.
- You have launched a Record Club this year so can you tell me a little about that?
The idea came out of not being able to wait anymore to bring album out - it’s such a long process; it takes ages.
I was itching to get some music out and I thought about how my older brother use to get fan club tapes and stuff and I thought that doesn’t really happen anymore; things through the post and that personal touch.
So the idea stemmed from that really and it is retro grade and a against the grain a bit - but I wanted that because it sticks out like a sore thumb in a world where we are downloading everything.
- How have you found to be the reaction to Record Club and the songs that you have been releasing?
Well the songs have been the most brilliant thing - that is the bit that I have liked the most. In terms of people getting use to the idea that has been quite slow: after the first two months people seemed to grasp the concept of what it is.
But the reaction to the songs is really what I have been after because it is instant feedback. I know what works better than what and you wouldn’t really get that with a traditional release.
- You have also set up your own label so how has this and Record Club changed things creatively for you? How much are you enjoying being free in what you can record and release?
It has changed things no end really because the process of making an album a really painful one as you have to go through so many filters - it seems like a lot of work for a release of only ten or eleven songs.
I was writing so many songs and I felt like these songs were being wasted so for me creatively it has really improved things as I no longer think ‘this song that I am writing is not longer going to get put out on a B side’. It has changed everything.
- Because you release a CD every month how much pressure has this put you under to meet a deadline if you will? Do you thrive under that type of pressure?
(Laughs) Yeah it has put me under a hell of a lot of pressure but luckily, with a little help from my friends, the records are getting released; if I didn’t have help on that side then it would be much harder.
The pressure is something that I definitely enjoy because you know that by a certain date this song has to be out there and finished and that forces you to work through it in a different way - if you did it in the way that I use to do an album you would think ‘I will leave this song and start another’; but you can’t do that.
- As you have said we are living in a digital age with downloads and so on but how much do you think people still enjoy receiving a CD with artwork, lyrics and so on?
Yeah I think people really really still enjoy that. And I think that people of my generation, well the generation before mine, enjoy it to and are only realising ’oh I haven’t had the artwork’.
I hope that it never really disappears but I think in the future we will be seeing vinyl be released just for the tactile nature of it - perhaps in conjunction with downloads.
From a personal point of view I think that there is something missing when you just click download on iTunes - you get the song but it feels a bit soulless in a way.
- Under The Fence will be the single in the new year so what can we expect from it?
It’s a very upbeat song and it’s a song that I have had around for six years - it has taken me six years to get it released. I guess it has taken me that long to release it because, I suppose, I have had it on the backburner but someone heard it recently and said that it had to be a single. It is catchy and it will stick in your head and it is something a little bit different to what you hear on the radio I think.
- Despite finding success in releasing music this way will be seeing you release an album the traditional way next year?
Yep I think so. We are going to try and run the two in conjunction with each other (laughs) it is going to be a really full year next year in terms of recording, which is brilliant. We are going to try and release a traditional record somewhere towards the middle of the year - we will see if I survive (laughs).
- You have described making an album as a painful process so do you enjoy recording?
I really enjoy the recording side of it and the artistic side it’s just when it gets to choosing which songs are going to go on the record and going through the painful process of having an ANR man, from past experiences, tell you what they think and the way it should be.
When the creative side of it stops that is when I find it difficult. But the recording aspect of it I love and if it wasn’t for the fact that we have to get it released I would probably be recording it forever (laughs) because I am never quite happy with it.
- You have been penning songs since you were in your teens so what bands/artists are major influences for you?
I have always been a fan of my big brother’s taste in music he got me into bands such as Split Ends and Crowded House. From my dad’s side he loves people like Frank Zappa and my mum is a huge traditional folk fan - The Levellers and things like that. I guess I just like, I know that it is a bit of a cliché, anything that is good (laughs).
- So how did you get into the industry?
I was seventeen and was still at school. I had made a demo recording with a chap who saw me playing in a bar about three months prior to any record labels getting involved.
I made the recording kind of just thinking ‘yeah whatever I will just make it’ and I forgot about it - then I got a phone call from a manager who was looking to work with me; so I sort of bumbled into it I guess. I ended up signing for Sony and that is how I got into it.
- Well you have touched on my next question really you signed with Sony, which is a major label, so what did you learn there that you have been able to take forward and use now as you have struck out on your own?
I guess I have learnt that a lot of those folks in the record companies will initially tell you things that you want to hear and you can’t always take it as red.
When you have your own ideas about the songs that you want to release and the vision of what you are doing then it’s a very tough environment to be in, being at a major label, because they are in it for the shareholders and they want to release the biggest hits and the biggest selling album that they can straight away - which is almost something that I didn’t want; I didn’t want a pop album I just wanted to release a record and not have it rammed down people’s throats.
So I guess I have learnt that you have to have very strong ideas about what you want to do and be sure that they are carried through - it’s very difficult to carry them through I thought and so I thought I had better strike out on my own.
- Will we be seeing you on the road next year and if so where?
Yeah I am going to be doing some support tours next year, I think the closest one is March next year, and I will be supporting Charlie Simpson. We will be playing in all the major cities Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham and London so I’m very much looking forward to that.
- Finally what's next for you?
Well it’s just more of the same; more of the Record Club and the beginning of getting my stuff on the radio - Radio 2 has been supporting Under The Fence.
So I suppose it’s juggling the traditional aspects of releasing and the Record Club and I suppose that that is the next challenge.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Sam Beeton may have kicked off his music career on a major label but he has now gone it alone setting up his own label and launching Record Club.
Record Club allows him to get his music out there quicker to his fans, as well as adding a very personal touch. I caught up with him to talk about Record Club, releasing a traditional album and what lies ahead.
- You have launched a Record Club this year so can you tell me a little about that?
The idea came out of not being able to wait anymore to bring album out - it’s such a long process; it takes ages.
I was itching to get some music out and I thought about how my older brother use to get fan club tapes and stuff and I thought that doesn’t really happen anymore; things through the post and that personal touch.
So the idea stemmed from that really and it is retro grade and a against the grain a bit - but I wanted that because it sticks out like a sore thumb in a world where we are downloading everything.
- How have you found to be the reaction to Record Club and the songs that you have been releasing?
Well the songs have been the most brilliant thing - that is the bit that I have liked the most. In terms of people getting use to the idea that has been quite slow: after the first two months people seemed to grasp the concept of what it is.
But the reaction to the songs is really what I have been after because it is instant feedback. I know what works better than what and you wouldn’t really get that with a traditional release.
- You have also set up your own label so how has this and Record Club changed things creatively for you? How much are you enjoying being free in what you can record and release?
It has changed things no end really because the process of making an album a really painful one as you have to go through so many filters - it seems like a lot of work for a release of only ten or eleven songs.
I was writing so many songs and I felt like these songs were being wasted so for me creatively it has really improved things as I no longer think ‘this song that I am writing is not longer going to get put out on a B side’. It has changed everything.
- Because you release a CD every month how much pressure has this put you under to meet a deadline if you will? Do you thrive under that type of pressure?
(Laughs) Yeah it has put me under a hell of a lot of pressure but luckily, with a little help from my friends, the records are getting released; if I didn’t have help on that side then it would be much harder.
The pressure is something that I definitely enjoy because you know that by a certain date this song has to be out there and finished and that forces you to work through it in a different way - if you did it in the way that I use to do an album you would think ‘I will leave this song and start another’; but you can’t do that.
- As you have said we are living in a digital age with downloads and so on but how much do you think people still enjoy receiving a CD with artwork, lyrics and so on?
Yeah I think people really really still enjoy that. And I think that people of my generation, well the generation before mine, enjoy it to and are only realising ’oh I haven’t had the artwork’.
I hope that it never really disappears but I think in the future we will be seeing vinyl be released just for the tactile nature of it - perhaps in conjunction with downloads.
From a personal point of view I think that there is something missing when you just click download on iTunes - you get the song but it feels a bit soulless in a way.
- Under The Fence will be the single in the new year so what can we expect from it?