Freshly hatched into the school of hard knocks, Beaty Heart are a throbbing bunch ready to burst onto the scene with their rambunctious rump-a-pum-pum.
Fresh off the pricey university press, the Beaty boys have spent most of the two years together dwelling en masse in their South London stomping ground. Developing their distinctive, drum-riddled, carnival-ready sound throughout their highly educational days, they’re keen not to rest on their laurels as they stroll towards the release of ’2Good’ in the coming weeks. Josh (one of the tall ones) explains “we wouldn’t ever want the sound to be settled, the stuff we’re working on now sounds very different to the stuff we were working on four months ago.” And whilst their upbeat, music-to-stomp-to might suggest differently, “a whole new set of constraints comes along after you study, there’s the extra pressure to get a job which means we won’t have any more time than we did at college, but it will be the only thing we have a creative interest in and so we’ll be able to invest all our energy into the music.”
Establishing a loyal fanbase amongst their fellow students they’re now stepping off the safe ground – their recent signing to Loose Lip Records and the release of ’2Good’ will introduce the band to a very new audience. Intertwining their self-crafted visuals with great aplomb, nostalgists can rest at ease, band tees and ticket stubs in hand, that when it comes to this band the live performance is living and kicking and you get plenty of bang for your buck. As the importance of artists having a simple, decipherable visual identity runs riot across the industry, Beaty Heart are intent on doing something a little different. Graphic Design graduate and video mixologist Charlie explains, “I like the idea of giving the whole outfit a bit of mystery, from the start it wasn’t about us really, there were no press-shots of our faces there’d just be a collage or something abstract.” Making the video for their first single themselves they’re constantly refreshing the visuals that flood the backdrops each time they take to the stage.
Conscious or not, their sound is generously garnished with the vibrancy that their Peckham local land thrives upon, polished with their varied musical backgrounds and arts education. Their confidence with the bits and bobs of instruments and technology they’ve commandeered shows in their performances, as they hop, skip and jump here, there and everywhere. Men of nomadic tendencies (Charlie dashed across the world last summer in the Mongol Rally, Josh straddled continents in his youth and James loves a go on the swings in between piano lessons) they roam around the stage, drumsticks in hand one second, maracas the next.
A Goldsmith (Josh), a Camberwheeler (Charlie) and an LCC-er (louche, curly-haired, carrot-top James) all piled into one means that there’s no shortage of friendly graduates to collaborate with. The boys recently worked with fellow art schooler Christopher Vickers on a video for ‘Get The Gurls’ and have collaborated with Jam City-ite Jack Latham on a mix of their new track ’2Good’ (and keep it on the DL but there’s murmurrings of them making magic with Micachu too). On a musical landscape where ‘different’ is fast becoming a difficult nook to find, these hearty folk offer something very eclectic and something very alien that somehow manifests itself to be something really exciting. Before they took to the stage at White Heat last week, i-D Online popped down to listen to the chaps sweetly serenade us with their track ‘Lekka Freakout’. WARNING – Beaty Heart shindigs often contain a lot more sweat, swit-swoo and searingly heavy drums than is perhaps reflected in this snapshot, but we hope you enjoy the show!
Don’t take our word for it, see the Beaty boys for yourself on Thursday June 16th, at C.A.M.P.
Text: Sean Baker
Photography: Rebecca Thomas
Film: Makda Iyasu
