Interview: Beth Jeans Houghton
Posted by: nick
Beth Jeans Houghton is a 19 year old folk/pop princess from Newcastle who’s set to become one of the next big voices of the scene. She’s just moved from her birthplace to live in a yurt outside of Brighton with a friend of hers who has a white wolf. She herself has an arctic fox. Intrigued? I was…
What is your favourite song to play live?
I like playing ‘I Will Return’. Before I used to use a loop pedal for it but now I’ve got my band, Fin, Rory and Dav, there’s a bigger sound. We’re called ‘Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves Of Destiny’ though we might change it to ‘Beth Jeans Houghton and The Centaurs Of Attention’ and have the guys in horse legs, braces and no tops. That’s the plan at least!
What is your first memory of playing live?
I was shitting myself. I was 16 and it was in Newcastle at this pub called The Head Of Steam. I was really worried then this guy came up and gave me a Galaxy Ripple which was really nice! I planned a half hour set and ended up doing about fifteen songs in twelve minutes because I was so nervous! Also there was trouble with getting into the place as I wasn’t old enough. I had a lot of that up until a couple of years ago.
What is the best gig you’ve played?
Ooo that’s hard, I like a lot of them. I enjoy playing more now with the guys. I like playing out of Newcastle, just getting around. London, Electroacoustic Club at The Slaughtered Lamb was really nice.
What’s the best band or artist you’ve shared a stage with?
At Green Man in 2007 Devendra Banhart was playing and said does anyone want to come up and play a song and I was like… “me!” Later I asked him to sign my record and he wrote ‘You Mama There’s You’. I asked what it meant and he said ‘you are your own person’. I liked it so got a tattoo of it (she flashes the small script on the inside of her wrist). It’s really embarrassing, I don’t know why I told you because I don’t think it means anything!
Do you have any strange rituals you go through when playing?
Well I usually accidentally fire my drummer Dav every time! But no not seriously it’s just we have a little argument and get carried away. We try to tell a joke too.
What’s the best gig you’ve seen?
I remember I was at Green Man, I think it was 2007 and I was with my friend, we were walking past the Folkey Dokey tent and we heard this music and I thought ‘fuck this is amazing’, it was insanely good so we went in and it turned out to be Tunng who I didn’t know about beforehand. I spoke to Mike Lindsay (Tunng) afterwards and now he’s producing the next EP (I Will Return).
And BOB GELDOF too! I saw Bob Geldof at the Sage and I cried. When I was at school there was a competition and the prize was to go to a conference and ask Bob Geldof a question. Whoever had the best question got to go and ask it. I couldn’t think of one, but my sociology teacher knew I loved Bob Geldof so he gave me one and I won the chance to go. It was live on TV and they went round as everyone asked him questions. I was going to say ‘will you marry me?’ and then it cut off just before it was my turn! I was really gutted. He could be my husband right now.
Have you any had any bizarre heckles, things thrown at you or the like?
Not really, I get really irritated, when you go to a gig and people are talking. Once I was playing ‘Golden’ and these guys at the back weren’t just talking they were like ‘rar rar rar rar!’ and I shouted ‘How fucking rude are you?!’ I then realised my mum was in the audience. But at least they got a shock.
You get to curate a festival stage. You’re playing on it and you get to pick five others, four living and one dead, who would they be?
Ok! Devendra Banhart, Mumford and Sons, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel (but he would only play ‘Make Me Smile’), The Travelling Wilburys and Bob Dylan.
MM: You get a dead one too.
BJ: Jimi Hendrix! He’s so hot.
(MM: Yes that’s six but rules are there to be broken!)
Is there something on your iPod that would shock me?
Totally. One of them is Cascada ‘Every time we touch’. I used to cover that actually. I really do like Happy Hardcore.
What do you think your most played song is?
A cover of Cat Stevens ‘The Wind’ by Mary Hopkin a girl who was signed by John Lennon to Apple, The Beatles’ label. She’s got an amazing voice. I go through phases of listening to one song over and over again.
Because I’m leaving (MM: she’s leaving Newcastle to live in a yurt just outside of Brighton) I’ve made a leaving playlist and there’s a song on it, ‘Most Of The Time’ by Bob Dylan which is so so sad. There’s a slower version, which I’m not so keen on, but the faster version…
In olden times people weren’t thought to be geniuses, they ‘had geniuses’, it was a spirit that attached itself to you. What would your genius be?
You know what – I’ve got an arctic fox. I was quite young and I was sitting on the sofa and was really upset and then this arctic fox walked in and just sniffed about. I could see that it wasn’t real. I have no idea what it was. It walked in and went out and didn’t do anything interesting but suddenly I felt really elated and then every time I was upset it came back. It comes back. That’s why the first EP I released when I was 16 was called ‘Songs For Arctic Fox’. My friend has a white wolf.
mp3: Beth Jeans Houghton – Golden
live: Serpentine Sessions in Hyde Park / Bella Union Stage @ Wireless Festival / Green Man Festival
