The Beards Revisited

The Beards – every pogonophile’s favourite band – are back in the UK with a brand new album and series of concerts to titillate, stimulate and fascinate those who fancy their music with a side order of facial hair.

We last caught up with The Beards in May 2013 at their concert in Hoxton, where hoards of bearded fans sang along to their fuzzy-themed anthems and skipped the light fantastic in what can only be described as a frenzied beard scrum! Seeing is definitely believing when it comes to this band.

Naturally we were delighted to get the opportunity to catch up again one year on to check out their latest news and see if their goal of world beard domination was safely on track.

Here’s what Nathaniel Beard had to say to Beardrevered.

Welcome – how does it feel to be back in the UK?

It feels good. Audiences in the UK really seem to understand what our message is all about. It’s about beards. Last time we were over we met a guy without a beard who promised us that he’d grow one and never shave again. As this guy was beardless, I was naturally reluctant to believe anything he said, but I’m interested to find out if he followed through with his promise.

Do you have any favourite haunts you’ll be visiting while you’re over?

The last two times I’ve been to Edinburgh I’ve eaten deep fried haggis from the same takeaway place so I’m hoping I’ll be able to find it again this time. Also pubs in the UK are generally much better than pubs in Australia – we’re looking forward to finding a good one – ideally one with a bearded barkeep and a dog which would preferably also be bearded – and drinking some real ales.

What have been your highlights in 2014?

It’s been a huge year for us – we started it by touring to Europe and played some great shows in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands; we recorded our fourth entirely beard-related album; we went on a huge Australian tour AND Conchita Wurst became the first bearded act to win Eurovision.

Tell us about your latest Album – how long has this been in the works? And what has the reception to it been like?

It’s called ‘The Beard Album’ and in one sense it’s been in the works since the band’s inception- in that we thought long and hard about calling each of our first three albums ‘The Beard Album’, but none of them were quite beard-related enough to warrant such a title. Don’t get me wrong – those albums are all extremely beard-related – but this last one really takes being beard-related to a whole new level. During these recording sessions, we had bigger beards, our producer had a bigger beard,  and we didn’t have any conversations that didn’t specifically pertain to having a beard.

Where in the world would you most like to tour?

There are many places I’d like us to play. If logistics weren’t a factor – the Shetland Islands. That seems like a really beardy place. Given that logistics are a factor, I’d like us to play in some countries we’ve never visited – Spain, Poland, Finland and Austria – but we’re really happy playing anywhere where there are bearded people for us to encourage or beardless people for us to dissuade.

Which other musician or group would you most like to collaborate with musically?

We’d be up for collaborating with pretty much anyone – so long as that person had a beard and had all of the same opinions as us.

What is the strangest venue or gig you have ever played?

We played a cider festival in Somerset called Scrumpstock – it had wife-carrying races, boot-tossing competitions and the stickiest stage we’ve ever played on. Most of the other bands were local blue-grass bands who seemed to be singing predominantly about cider.

How will you be relaxing post tour?

I’ll be spending Christmas with the bearded members of my family. I’m no longer in contact with the beardless ones, but I sometimes give them an abusive phone call on New Years Day.

Contrary to popular belief, your beard does not continue to grow after you die. This has been disproven. What cannot be disproven is this: You will begin to live shortly after you grow a beard.

What goals and ambitions lie ahead in 2015?

Ideally we’d like to implement a worldwide movement in which all people grow beards, put their differences aside and work together to make the world a better place. We’d also like to record some new beard-related material and go on tour.

Aside from the full beard, what are your other favourite styles of beard?

I consider all beards to be equal. It shouldn’t matter what style of beard you have, so long as you have a beard. Having said that I deplore moustaches and consider anyone with a stand-alone moustache to be sub-human.

Finally, can you give Beardrevered readers a little known beard fact?

Contrary to popular belief, your beard does not continue to grow after you die. This has been disproven. What cannot be disproven is this: You will begin to live shortly after you grow a beard.

You heard it hear first! For all info concerning the Beards 2014 tour and tickets click here

thebeards.com