Before you head out to a live show you
check your pockets for your ID, your drawers for your gig ticket and your purse
to see if you have enough pounds to buy a drink. It’s the routine we all know
so well. The last thing you’d expect to be doing alongside the scramble for
extra cash down the sofa is rummaging through your food cupboards for that tin
of tomato soup – the one that’s been patiently waiting for 6 months to be
devoured or scrambling at the back of your wardrobe for that pair of trousers
that is dug out less frequently than your obligatory Christmas jumper. This may
be a strange request but it is exactly what Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves
of Destiny are asking those in attendance to their tour to do. We know bands can
struggle on the road and probably live off said tins of tomato soup but these
donations aren’t for the profits of the band.
“I went through a phase where I wanted
to do something good once a day to someone I didn’t know. One time I was in
town with Blazey who plays guitar in The Hooves of Destiny and we bought a
homeless man a cup of tea and a muffin,” Beth says. “No one was giving him
anything but as we stopped and gave him the tea, we had a little chat with him
and during the time we were talking to him about 5 people gave him money or a
cigarette.”
This encounter proved to be eye
opening. One that would prompt the decision to help homeless charities in the
cities they’ll be visiting during their tour.
“It just sort of struck me that unless
people see someone else doing something they will just walk past those people
and rather than asking for money, if people get more involved by directly doing
something to these people then maybe more people will be aware of it,” she
tells Silent Radio.
As a token of appreciation you’ll receive
an original drawing by Houghton and the band.
There’s no need to lower your expectations to a stickman or something as
equally meagre because Houghton designs the artwork for her singles herself
including their latest release, ‘Dodecahedron’.
“We’ll do a lot of drawings anyway
when we’re on tour and it’s something where if it’s a one off piece of art no
one’s going to have the same thing. Maybe that will be of value to someone but
it doesn’t cost us more than a pen, the paper and the ideas,” Beth confesses.
‘Dodecahedron’ is simply beautiful; the
concoction of Houghton’s ethereal vocal with the brashness of the male chants creates
something truly spellbinding. During the
track Houghton sings, ‘My eyes were bleeding with crimson sight’, and on
learning that she has Synaesthesia you’d expect there to be a correlation
between her condition and the song. But does it act as a source of inspiration?
“No, not at all,” Beth firmly admits. “I’ve
had it since I was born. It’s just a completely normal thing for me and I’ve
never known what it’s like not to have it. I just noticed that I had it one day
and it doesn’t inspire, it’s not a hindrance or a help. Someone once said to me
I heard you have this disability in reference to Synaesthesia.”
On revealing my own anecdote of a book
I’d recently enjoyed called ‘Scream’ where a boy who has Synaesthesia captures
and proceeds to torture his victims until they shout out in pain which in turn
acts as a catalyst for him to see a myriad of vibrant colours, something he has
yearned for.
“Wow, that’s weird. I shan’t be
torturing or killing anyone,” Beth jokes. “But also Calum who plays keys with
us has it. I have it with numbers and letters but he sees the music he’s
playing which results in him being a genius keyboard player, so I guess that’s
interesting for two people in a band to have it.”
There was a time when there was no Calum
or the rest of The Hooves of Destiny as Houghton originally graced the stage
alone. It’s difficult to imagine Houghton solo when witnessing the rapport and
camaraderie that the band enjoys together. It would be like watching I’m A
Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here without Dec – unimaginable. However, the
transition from solo artist to being part of a band was the resultant of her then
manager suggesting they play together - a prospect that was initially met with hesitancy.
“I was really against the idea because
I didn’t want to have a band because I’m so controlling over my music that I
didn’t want anyone to ruin it,” she confesses. “They came to a few rehearsals
and played a show and I haven’t played solo since. I don’t think I’d dream of
it. I didn’t really like playing solo
but now it’s a real joy to tour.”
The collective are notorious for their
stage ensemble and it projects a fun image of the band. But what attire can we
expect to see on this tour: maybe an abundance of extravagant garments, a cape,
a fur hat and faces adorned with flashes of paint? But most importantly, is the way the band
dress integral to their live performances?
“I think it’s just more integral to us
because we’re kind of like that day to
day really and I think for a while we stopped wearing crazy stuff on stage
because it’s clear that people were focusing on and writing about what we were
wearing opposed to the music,” she continues to explain. “After working on a
record for so long and spending so much time touring and working on the music for
that to then be put completely aside so that someone can talk about someone in
a wig, that’s sort of heartbreaking.”
‘We want to make beautiful music until our
hooves come off’ is the concluding sentence to an enthralling, mystical tale on
how the band met on their Facebook page. Has this been achieved with their
debut, ‘Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose’?
“I don’t know, I don’t think about the
album a lot really because as soon as I’ve done something I’ll be thinking
about the next thing. There’s nothing that I would change about it and I do
feel like I’ve proved something to myself that I could do it and that was
enough and now I would like to do the next,” Beth reveals. “Even when I do
listen to it I don’t cringe which I used to do with some of the recordings.
Like I’ll listen to EP’s when I was 17 and be like ‘oh god no!’ but I don’t feel
that way about this record,” she laughs.
The name ‘Yours Truly, Cellophane
Nose’ created speculation that it was in reference to plastic surgery; instead
it involved a boiled sweet wrapper and her friend Jess’ nose. They anticipated
for someone to inform them that she had the wrapper perched on her nose. They
didn’t. Houghton then wrote on a napkin and signed off with, ‘Yours Truly,
Cellophane Nose’. This tale reasserts
the humour that Beth owns, a wittiness that comes alive on stage and in interview.
Tramlines Festival saw the band divulge to the crowd about a game they often
play on tour where they combine well know names with illnesses; their examples
included Massive Heart Attack and Jonny Hepatitis C which clearly created
ripples of laughter. It’s this kind of
interaction and revelry that makes watching the band such an enjoyable
experience for the crowd.
“I don’t like the idea of an audience
watching us; I want them to be involved so I guess that’s the way to involve
them. I feel like maybe I talk to the audience like how I talk to the band and
my friends because I don’t tend to feel that there’s any difference to the
people who are at that place at that time,” Beth adds.
The tour comes amid a flurry of other
commitments. From the debut issue of
their zine, ‘Peppermint Junction’ which is naturally about touring hurtling its
way toward completion, it’s just another task to add to her frantic schedule. The
week before tour has involved rehearsing and demoing the next record whilst finding
time to photocopy and staple hundreds of pages in order for the Zine to be
completed. It doesn’t stop there, once this tour comes to a climax the band
will relocate to LA, the place that has always been significant to Beth due to
her love of West Coast Music from the 60s and 70s and the place where the new
record will hopefully be recorded.
“I feel like I always like to have the
lights on at shows so that I can see people’s faces and I like it to feel more
like a party,” she says. “I’d rather fifty people who are really happy and
enjoy the music come rather than one hundred and fifty where one hundred of
them are just miserable. I’d like the happy people to come if you could ask
them or people who want to be happy or have a good time. They’re the ones I
want to see, not the ones who just all judge.”
Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves of Destiny will
play The Deaf Institute on 25th September
