Amid the maelstrom of hype which surrounds British music, Belleruche seem relatively untouched.
Signed to Tru Thoughts, the band’s forthcoming album ‘270 Stories’ is almost impossible to pigeonhole. Sure, Belleruche share the same interest in melding electronics to soul which underpinned Portishead, but beyond crate digging the two band’s have little in common.
Resolutely independent, the band record together in their home studio. What works gets released, what doesn’t gets chucked – it really is that simple. The chemistry that runs between the three members comes out on disc, with the trio’s slinky soul beats winning admirers across the globe.
With their new album out now, ClashMusic sat down with Kathrin deBoer to get the lowdown…
When did sessions for the new album begin?
Around December last year I started writing again. You always try to write throughout the year, so you can avoid being in the situation of having to do an album in three months. But having a deadline always helps us knuckle down, and get the jobs done – except albums always take longer than you think they will. They become a beast of burden! I started writing in December, but some of the tracks took as long as March. We recorded the tracks in March – it took us three months to write and record it. We were constantly recording, just putting things in and then taking other bits out.
Do you start with the beats, or is the process more song based?
It changes all the time. We don’t have a particular formula. We started making music just by jamming, playing together at a small pub in Islington. We were just happy jamming for a while, but then we were offered a gig so knuckled down and actually wrote some songs. Jam based studio efforts, just getting together and bringing some new ideas in. We write songs together and always in different ways.
The band have a background in DJing, does this have a bearing in how you select influences for certain tracks?
Of course. What we listen to does influence us heavily, in terms of what we create and the music we make. Whether its digging for old obscure records, or listening to hip hop, soul. All of us share the blues, something we’ve always listened to independently of each other. Even new music, when we hear something we like we sit around and play it to each other. We’ve started doing a pirate radio show, just having fun in a room together listening to music we like. It’s really fun! We’ve been quite busy with touring, writing and all the rest of it we don’t have that much time to actively find new music.
‘270 Stories’ seems slightly darker in tone – do you agree with that?
You’re not the first person to say that, but I think it’s really optimistic! It’s heavier, production wise its much tougher. We’ve evolved into finding different sounds, in terms of lyrics, bass lines, production. It’s tougher, but I thought it was quite a happy album!
There’s certainly more of an edge to the sound this time round.
There’s more bass, and more guitars. Maybe more of everything! We went insane this time round, just happy experimenting with different sounds. We’ve got a more sophisticated studio now, and with that space we’ve begun taking it more seriously. We just got down and put a very dark album together! (laughs)
Do you always self-produce?
Yes. Always. We put out our early records by ourselves, taking care of it all. The only thing we couldn’t do was make the vinyl, so we’d send that off to the Czech republic. Then a couple of weeks later they’d send some wax back. We are really into the DIY ethos. We’re signed to Tru Thoughts now, which has been really good in terms of getting the records further out there. I think it’s a really sad state of affairs when an artist sits around waiting for something to happen, we just want to do it ourselves. Which has actually been a great education, in terms of learning how the music industry works from the bottom up.
Has having that new technology had a bearing on the album?
We often have broken and barely functioning equipment! It’s funny. We mess around with it the whole time, I mean we can only work with what we’ve got. The first album we could only record about fifteen seconds at a time, as we didn’t have the memory.
Belleruche have toured the world since the second album, has that affected the way the band create music?
It more than likely does but it’s not something that we think about. It’s definitely not intentional. We still very much do things our own way. We don’t make too many plans, we just like to make music which feels right. I think the amount of time we spend together, and the fact that we’re all great friends means that it just works. The studio becomes a place where we can put ideas down, and if it works then great but if it doesn’t then it just gets filed away. We just go by the stuff which does work.
You’re returning now as an established band.
There is that feeling. Obviously, we’ve done this before so we have that experience and you feel that you’ve got something in the bank, so to speak. Having that experience feels quite scary when we’re launching the album, in some ways.
How did you assemble the line up for the album launch?
For each of our album launches we like to organise something special. We put it on ourselves. I remember years ago when we launched our first EP we held a small event, but made it as special as we could. Progressively its moved on with each album, trying to theme it as well. But not too much! The album artwork is a raven, so we’ve got girls doing naughty things in raven costumes. Of course the DJs include Rob Luis, our label boss, alongside a lot of others. We’re also giving everyone who attends a special download of a new track.
Is there a close relationship between the Tru Thoughts acts?
Of yeah we know them all! I think initially because its based in Brighton and we live in London there was a degree of separation, but no everyone’s all over the place. The culture has probably changed, but its still a family. We have to work closely together in order to put records out, but we don’t go down to the pub very often. Maybe if we lived in Brighton!
Words by Robin Murray
