Written by Skye Kember
I sat in a pub down the road from Resident Music record store with Jay McAllister (aka 'Beans on Toast') before his in-store performance to talk about his new album ‘A Bird in the Hand’.
Skye: So, you’ve just released a new album; what did you enjoy most about writing it?
Beans: I enjoy the entire process. I always do. I can’t think of one sort of stand out..I write all my songs in the same scenario; I basically just sit at home with my guitar and a smoke. And I obviously always enjoy that.
Yeah, you write an album every year, don’t you?
Yeah, it feels like my natural output. As much as it’s a thing now, and it does work for many reasons. I don’t force it to come out each year so, it feels like a natural output. This last album especially, it was written really early, most of it was written in like January/ February.
It was quite influenced by your new daughter..
Yeah, very much so. She was born in January and, kind of, coming home with this, kind of, precious new life, you create this kind of really beautiful bubble around your house. And you know, it just absolutely blew my mind. Most of the album was written within this bubble, where its just so homely, I guess.
There was a point where the whole album was going to be just about that, about becoming a parent and there’s certainly enough emotions there to put an album together. But it just got too “concept album” and a little bit like slowly the bubble started to turn into the real world around you, and as I stepped out i said “right, let’s write some songs about some other bits and make it more sort of about being pleasurable”
Yeah, I really like the song ‘Magic’. I heard it at 2000 Trees when you played there. And ‘Another Year’.. Which is about your daughter..
And my dad. So it was my dad’s 70th birthday last year, on the year that, my daughter, was born so it was, it just felt like quite a nice circle between the new life and the.. I dunno there was something about that. It’s just like a cross generational.. and that’s what the song’s about, and the music video has everyone in it which is really nice.
"The politically-lead songs are a reaction to the world...
the family and love songs...are more kind
of wanting to share something special. "
I also really like ‘Alexa’, which is a pretty different song. That’s a pretty good song, I think. With Amazon, how it’s becoming..
Yeah, well they’re going to take over the world, aren’t they? It’s definitely going that way. And you know, I use it, I don’t have one of those Amazon Echo things, but you know I do use it, Amazon. It’s definitely going in a pretty dark path, you know it’s like convenience; people can’t say no to it. But it comes at a price.
When you write those songs, what do you want to get out of it?
What do I want to get out of it?
Yeah, I mean like, is it for you, or is it to tell people, or to make people change?
It’s not because I think that my opinions are right, or me trying to force my opinions on others. It’s just I guess trying to get the conversation going. There’s definitely an element of trying to make sense of it for myself, and the easiest way to do that is to talk to other people.
So, by putting it in a song you’re casting quite a wide net of people being able to hear it and then people will either come and be like “yeah man, you’re right” or at least start a conversation about it. But I think, more than anything, it’s a reaction. You can’t sing something like that and then do nothing, and not react to it.
So I think most of the songs are a reaction to, the politically-lead songs are a reaction to the world and perhaps how it’s treading the wrong path a lot of the time. And on this album the family and love songs are a reaction to… The love songs are more kind of wanting to share something special. I don’t know in hope of what, but it just feels like the right thing to do, and reacting to it.
I’ve always written songs, and it’s like: You’ve got to write a song about something, basically so you end up just writing about anything.
They do have a clear message, they are quite simple in the way you explain the messages.
There are songs where I’ve always done it as say what you see. You know what the song’s about generally from the title and if not the first two lines. There’s no masking.. And again this isn’t good or bad, or right or wrong but there’s no masking it in poetry or anything like that. It’s like this is that and this is what I’m saying, and getting it across and that’s just how I do it and it works for me.
That makes sense. And in your song ‘Here at Homerton Hospital’, I really like how you bring in different stories of different people. Because obviously a lot of it is your perspective in that song. The NHS is really important..
Of course, yeah. And that was very much a song about my daughter because that’s where she was born. I have been lucky enough to not spend a huge amount of time in hospitals in my life, and from that I presumed I didn’t like hospitals, almost like, why would you like hospitals?
But it’s a different reason to go when you’re having a kid. We spent quite a bit of time there and I actually was in awe of the place. So much admiration for the people that work-- Especially because you hear such bad stories about the NHS: “Ahh it's undercut”. And it was like, everyone is just amazing. And we were dealt with. And I also felt that there was so much humanity.
There’s no b*****t in hospitals; people are there because they’ve got to be there, or because they want to be there to help, and it kind of strips away a lot of the, I dunno, bravado or the b*****t that you get in the day to day world. And that really raw, human aspect of the hospital, I really loved and I was really drawn to it. I walked away a massive admirer of everything that place does. And again, I just don’t know how to thank them. A song seemed like the least I could do.
"One of the great things about music is that people can feel like they know you before they know you, "
When I saw you play your set at 2000 Trees, when you played with Skinny Lister, I noticed that you’re quite good friends with them and was wondering how long the journey of your friendship has been?
Yeah, yeah of course for like, I mean I guess like 4-5 years. We first met.. I’d seen them play a few times at Bestival, and I always liked the band. We’re on the same booking agency, and through that I guess we just sort of both aware of each other before we met.
One of the great things about music is that people can feel like they know you before they know you, and if you’re meeting other musicians, it works both ways, as well. So our friendship was kind of laid out for us. We were on the same label as well, and, very naturally, we started touring together. It was a particularly good fit because there is a lot of them and there’s one of me, so I can, I get in the van with them.
The first time that we properly met was the tour in the States with Frank Turner where I was opening, Skinny were main-supporting and Frank. I was travelling in the van with them and it was 6-8 weeks, of the tour.
Travelling that close to ultimately 6 strangers, you’re either going to end up loving each other or hating each other. We went down the loving each other route. So we have a Christmas song now, we do all sorts.
Yeah, you wrote ‘1980s Sagittarius’ about them..
Yeah, because Lorna’s got a song on the album, which I wrote when we was on tour last year, this time in 2017, and I wrote this song before Lorna’s birthday, because it was her birthday while we were on tour. And then this year I emailed her the song, so she got it twice.
Yeah. It was nice, I think when you two were on stage together it was just a really good environment. [It was a good match] Yeah definitely. What are you most excited for with this album?
I mean, it’s out now.. My sights are always looking forward a little bit.. We’ve got the tour coming up in February, which is a full band tour, a whole new bunch of musicians; quite an extensive UK tour, so that is the next step of the ‘Bird in the Hand’ project, basically.
And already I’m thinking about the next album, there’s quite a long period between recording an album and releasing it, so that’s also when I start.. So once I have finished recording it, I’ll start thinking about the next one, really. So, my sights are moving forward in that respect.
Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, you probably don’t know what the next album will be about.. Probably just the things around you again?
Yeah, I mean. I can’t just sing about my daughter from here on in and just categorise her life growing up; it’s just not fair. So I will have to take my sights away from her life and home life.
This album, more than most, has had a structural theme, I guess.. Through the fact I have been more at home. I don’t know, but I’ve got an idea.. There’s no point talking about it now. We’ll talk about it next year.
Make sure to check out ‘A Bird in the Hand’ which was released at the end of last year, and you could still get tickets to see him in Brighton 27th February, as he is currently on his UK Tour.
