The Beard Interview

DHN: The Beard is a bit of an unusual name. Could you elaborate for us please?

The Beard: Well, unfortunately there’s no crazy story behind this - in fact it’s fairly simple - my surname is Beard and we’ve played on that with loads of track titles. Over the years I’ve turned out mixes like the ‘Stubble Dub’, ‘Mach 3 Edit’, ‘2 Day’s Growth’ amongst others. On an early track, I recorded under the name Mike Finnegan – it doesn’t really take a genius to work them out! I guess it’s an unusual surname though - hopefully it sticks in the mind a little longer than most artist’s names…

DHN: How did you first become involved with the Inspirit Music label?

The Beard: I’ve been involved in the label from the very start. In fact I co-founded Inspirit Music with label manager Bob Haynes. We grew up together and I’d studied sound engineering at college. Meanwhile Bob too was pursuing music academically from a more business orientated point of view. It seemed the natural thing for us to do – establish a label to push music that we both loved but couldn’t get here in the UK very easily. We started with a little studio set up and as it grew we needed a new home other than Bob’s bedroom. We moved the studio and set up a retail outlet below selling all kinds of dance music. Although I’m now (thankfully) able to concentrate on production in the studio I’ve done many hours in the store which I think has helped my song writing. In fact it’s been a great help running the shop (which has now expanded to an online facility) as it enables us, as a label, to keep an ear to the ground for all new developments within the dance music scene. Hopefully I’ll continue to be involved with the label for many years to come..

DHN: How would you describe your sound?

The Beard: I’m a little wary of describing my own productions as I’m reluctant to be pigeon-holed as a producer. However, up until now, most people have probably heard my deep house tracks which in many ways are similar to the ‘West Coast’ sound. However, I like to try my hand at many different styles. Everything from r’n’b to broken beats to rock inspires me to write songs and over the coming months you’ll be seeing a lot more of my influences coming out in tracks. I have an album project coming up which will see me delving into some different styles such as broken beats and downtempo and I even had a remix of Amma’s “On My Own” under my ‘Spectre’ guise. I suppose a common thread is deep atmosphere and memorable vocals…

DHN: What’s your favourite Beard production to date?

The Beard: Although it may seem like the easy way out I genuinely don’t have a favourite production as such – I prefer to keep working at improving them rather than looking back at what has been. However, our first release on Inspirit, “Someday” stands out for me, as an Inspirit release. At the time it was released we had Phuturistix do a great mix taking the track into broken beat territory when that scene was really exploding. Also, for our first CD compilation, the “InSoul Sessions Vol 1” I remixed the track exclusively. It contains a simple melody but it really works as a breezy, expansive track for the dancefloors.

DHN: Your music seems to be very influenced by your peers over in places such as San Francisco. Do you think that the house scene in America is better than in the UK?

The Beard: The deep house scene in San Fran alone is bigger than in the whole of the UK! There is a greater history of this genre over there and undoubtedly the rest of the world still seems to look at the San Fran connection for inspiration and guidance in this scene. Inspirit has built good relations with Om and Naked Music, and with producers such as Andy Caldwell and Kaskade. These guys have been important in the development of the label but we also try to bring a distinctly UK flavour to our material. The vocals often come from an r’n’b perspective, and we’re trying to maintain our own direction in terms of the long term aims for our label. There is still a very small clubbing scene in the UK for this kind of music but when good parties happen – it feels kind of special. I remember Andy (Caldwell) and Ryan Raddon (Kaskade) blazing a party over in Cork and whilst we don’t have many regular parties, there have been some great Inspirit nights too. There are some great little labels working hard (Mantis, DIY, Peng), to keep the scene healthy.

DHN: So, you’re a DJ as well as a producer… which do you prefer and why?

The Beard: I love both but I m most at home in the studio, I think this is where I feel most comfortable. Whilst the energy of a party is great to feed off as a DJ, I get more pleasure from the response to my original tracks. I suppose the best part is playing your own tracks as part of a DJ set and getting the crowd rocking to them! Having said this I’ve been able to travel over to Mallorca, Barcelona and Amsterdam in past few months to DJ - and it really is a great way to see Europe. In this sense it certainly beats being holed up in a studio on another drizzly English evening. In all seriousness, I think this climate over here affects the scene – our stuff always goes down well in Australia and Spain – and I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that they both have warm sunny climates?!

DHN: When you do play out, what can we expect to hear?

The Beard: My sets have largely been deep house orientated up until now. The label has a reputation for this style and as such we get booked at venues and clubnights where the crowd is expecting to hear these beats. However, I like to get things moving too – so although deep, vocal tracks feature predominantly, I like to take things a little techier now and then.

DHN: The mix CD features a lot of Beard remixes and productions, do you have any plans to release any artist albums at all?

Most definitely. I have already started work on The Beard album that is currently due to drop on Inspirit next year. It’ll be a chance for me to explore all the different kinds of music that I respect and I’ll be working with a variety of vocalists on the project. I don’t want to give too much away at the moment but you can expect a deep house based album with other styles and writing techniques thrown in as well. I think people have begun to realise that Inspirit is more than just a deep house label, we have showcased the more broken shades of deep soulful music with our InSoul Sessions material, compiled by West of Centre. With the album I’d like to convey the label’s philosophy – that the elements that define deep house can be transferred across many styles. I’ve been producing some fresh downtempo style tracks too, though at present these are just sketches for me to revisit and I’m sure many ideas will end up being omitted from the album! That said, I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in to the whole process as soon as “InHouse Perspectives 01” and the touring involved has come to an end.