Before his support slot for Frank Turner, Listen Up Manchester caught up with the creator of Drunk Folk and festival legend, Beans On Toast:

 

First things first, where did the name Beans On Toast come from?

 

I wanted something that was basic, simple, easy and English; something that would reflect my music! I think it actually just came out in conversation in the pub discussing potential band names. I said something like, ‘it just needs to be something simple like, ‘Beans On Toast!’ and it stuck. When the band didn’t happen I kept the name for myself as a kind of moniker

 

You take inspiration from a wide range of sources; what’s your writing process?

 

Smoking weed! I’m always making up new songs. I’m not the greatest guitarist in the world, I play simple three chord folk songs, but if I see something that interests me, something that intrigues or angers me, I pick my guitar up and I write a song.

 

That comes across looking at your back catalogue; you have a huge amount of songs on Spotify, do you ever find yourself forgetting songs?

 

Oh god yeah, all the time! My debut album has 50 tracks on it! There are plenty of times I’ve picked the guitar up, made up a new song, and then never played it again. I have been known to forget songs halfway through performing them as well!

 

With such a huge back catalogue, how do you go about selecting a setlist?

 

You know, that comes with experience. I’ll generally know what song I’m going to start with and go from there. It’s about playing off the crowd and I’m more than happy to throw it out to the audience for requests. That doesn’t tend to work as well when playing an arena though!

 

I wanted to mention that; playing this size of venue must be a different experience for you?

 

Man, it’s insane! Me and Frank go back years and he’s always looked after me. He’s blown up massively in the last year and as soon as these arena tours were announced, he was on the phone saying, ‘I want you to open for me’. It’s a lot of fun.

 

You’re a Glasto veteran and one of the tracks on your new album, ‘Can’t Get A Gig At Glastonbury’, is your response to not being able to get a show at the festival this year.

 

Yeah and that’s kind of embarrassing now, in a funny way, because since writing that song, I’ve actually managed to land about nine gigs at the festival! You start sending out your feelers early in the year and I was getting increasingly frustrated about the lack of response I was getting so I picked up the guitar and wrote that song. Not long after I got a message back from Billy Bragg who I’ve known for years and have been lucky enough to play with on a number of occasions saying, ‘Sorry man, I’ve been away, of course you can play!!’. However that song had been played a number of times by then and was getting requested so it was ‘real’. Luckily Billy took it in the humour it was meant and we’re going to play it together at the festival!

 

Are you playing any other festivals this year?

 

Oh yeah, but I don’t know which ones I can announce yet. We’re definitely playing Boomtown but for me, the festival season starts at Glastonbury and ends at Bestival. I’ll be doing something pretty much most weekends in between.

 

Finally, can you sum up Beans On Toast in three words?

 

Drunk Folk Singer. That’s an easy one!