Caught by the buzz

For any band with a weak spot for Beatles-tinged pysch pop, the opportunity to record at Abbey Road is too good to pass up – even if it does threaten to bankrupt you.

“You don’t think about the cost when your record company rings up and asks if you want to record at Abbey Road,” reflects Aaron Fletcher, vocalist/bassist with Isle of White progressive folkies The Bees. “We got a shock when we saw the bill, though."
Knocked sideways by the studio fees, The Bees struck upon a more modest approach for their new LP, Octopus: they built their own recording space back home on the Isle of Wight.
“It’s really funky,” Fletcher enthuses. “It's like a shed in the basement – a budget version of Abbey Road, with a lovely old desk that was taken out of a Swedish radio station."
In Ireland, of course, island living evokes thoughts of Craggy Isle weirdness. Does the same hold true on the Isle of Wight?
“Oh, absolutely. Some of the stuff that goes on there – it’s so fucking strange. You’ve got loads of characters. It’s really a place unto itself. Of course, growing up there, it strikes you as absolutely normal.”
You won’t hear much of the Isle of Wight on Octopus, though. Rather, The Bees look to far-flung vistas for inspiration. In particular, they’ve a fondness for Brazil: early hit ‘A Minha Menina’ (featured in a Citroen ad) was a cover of a song made famous by tropicalia grandaddies Oz Mutantes.
Last year, meanwhile, Sean O’Hagan of the High Llamas – and another tropicalia buff – tapped The Bees to recreate Rogerio Duprat’s seminal album Tropicalia you Panis et Circense at the Barbican in London .
“Sean got this supergroup together consisting of 15 Brazilian musicians,” Fletcher explains. “It was such a magic performance. Rogerio Duprat’s original arrangements were incredible. Now, we’re totally set on going to Brazil some day.”
Not that The Bees are utterly in thrall to tropicalia. Running from folk-pop to singer-songwriter strumming to jazz weirdness, Octopus is, in the most positive sense, all over the place. Some might regard this as a weakness; Fletcher, though, is proud the group can effortlessly encompass so many genres.
“We’re running out of styles really fast, so we’ll have to start making our own ones up soon!”
Octopus is out on EMI.