Honorary Nottingham lad Beans on Toast is back in town! The trees have been telling tales of yolkish yonder and folkish fun, and that August bank holiday has never looked more inviting. We caught up with Jay as he gears up for this year’s Foolhardy Folk Festival.
Beans On Toast: a renowned delicacy at our dinner tables and our festival circuits! We just can’t get enough of you.
Aye! I'll always pop up somewhere to play. Being on stage will always be my favourite part, as egotistical as it sounds. I'll always want it to be a Beans on Toast gig. That's my favourite viewpoint, and I haven’t been to a festival where I haven’t actively got something to do for a long time.
I used to be very committed when I had a gig at a festival – I would generally be the first one to arrive and the last one to leave, just to absorb it all … I would be there for the entirety of the festival, and that led me to getting a slot the following year because people could see I was there for more than my half-hour in the spotlight. Now I can do up to 30 festivals each summer, but that also means waking up, high-fiving everyone I meet, a couple of beers before getting on stage, and then in the van off to the next one. Some of them you have to really peel me away from because when it comes to me leaving, I'm not an easy person to find.
Well, we suppose that won’t be a problem when you’re hosting your own festival. The Foolhardy Folk Festival is coming up to its fourth year running - how did it all start in the first place?
The whole thing fell into my lap really. I've been working with DHP for years – I just love their attitude and their venues, and I’ve now got a personal relationship with them which is nice. I got booked for a gig at the Arboretum during a run of lockdown shows when the venues were shut. They’d said I could choose my own support but with my second book just about to come out, I asked if I could spend all my fee on booking other bands. Could we stretch it out and make it into a day thing? Call it a festival rather than a gig? They thought it was a great idea because they’re getting more bang for their buck, and I could also use it as a book launch. Once the venues all reopened, the Arboretum was relegated to opening just one weekend a year, and DHP were kind enough to ask if I’d like to host the event again!
How on earth do you fit the festival within your calendar?
As much as on paper it’s my festival (you know, that’s how I sell it to everybody!), the truth is I don’t have to deal with the toilets, the ticketing, or the fencing. Last year I was coming from elsewhere and I actually arrived an hour before the doors opened to my own festival! I was walking around the site going: “Looks great! Quick soundcheck boys and let ‘em in!” I spent the whole day with people telling me: “You’ve done great, Beans! It's brilliant!” when I actually do very little. But I'm only happy to turn up late because I know that DHP knows how to run everything well.
On the flip side, I curate it and I'm not just searching for the next hip thing or cold-calling people. All the acts I've either seen and loved live or they are actually friends of mine, and I think that’s what gives Foolhardy that special edge. One thing you can’t buy is a festival crowd full of fun-loving, peaceful and generous human beings, who will clean up after themselves. It’s impossible to curate that, but one thing with Foolhardy that we’ve found is that the crowd is just all smiles.
Among all the smiles and the songs, have you got anything different planned for this year?
This year we have our first ever poet in residence: Bassey Gracie! Gracie is in the Beans on Toast band, and she supported me on the last two tours that I did. People like familiarity, but I want to get Foolhardy to a place where I can book acts we’ve never heard of before and know that people would come down.
There's a simplicity to Foolhardy where there aren’t a million things to do. At some festivals, they have secret underground DJ sets, or they’ll drop people in with helicopters — all this wacky stuff which is brilliant and there’s definitely a place for it! — but at Foolhardy, it's just good people. Good music in a really beautiful setting. Don’t overthink it, grab a beer, and let’s just have a nice day.
We’ve also got a tentative plan for next year. There's a new song that I have about a Nottingham hero which I'll be debutin
Sounds exciting! Now that you’ve been settled into the trees and toast bonanza for a few years, have you got a favourite memory of Foolhardy?
I like the bits when I get up at other people's gigs if I'm being honest! One memory that I do hold dearly to my heart is when Dizraeli (who is truly an amazing guy, he’s got this rapper poet thing going, really cool stuff!) played the first year of the festival. Now, we have a tune together… about trees. Again, everything sort of fell into place perfectly: We have this song inspired by The Overstory, performing in this museum of trees. It was written in the stars — the leaves, perhaps!
At Foolhardy, it's just good people. Good music in a really beautiful setting. Don’t overthink it, grab a beer, and let’s just have a nice day.
Sounds exciting! Now that you’ve been settled into the trees and toast bonanza for a few years, have you got a favourite memory of Foolhardy?
I like the bits when I get up at other people's gigs if I'm being honest! One memory that I do hold dearly to my heart is when Dizraeli (who is truly an amazing guy, he’s got this rapper poet thing going, really cool stuff!) played the first year of the festival. Now, we have a tune together… about trees. Again, everything sort of fell into place perfectly: We have this song inspired by The Overstory, performing in this museum of trees. It was written in the stars — the leaves, perhaps!
Bluntly, why Nottingham? What does the city mean to you?
I genuinely have such a spiritual connection to Nottingham. There’s a loose family connection, and then there’s also Major Oak which I wrote about the potential fracking of Sherwood Forest. Through that, I worked with Frack Free Nottingham. Again, that’s Nottingham and trees-centric, so when this opportunity came up with trees again it felt spiritually right.
Generally, I love Nottingham and have some very fond memories of playing here! When I first started out, I’d be in the small acoustic bar of Rescue Rooms. I played there with Sleaford Mods once before they were a duo, with just an iPod playing. That shows you how long I’ve been in the game! I also played with Frank Turner on his 2000th show. This particular show, I joined him on stage during a song to play the harmonica and did this crackin’ crowd surf all the way to the bar, had a cheeky shot, and surfed back to the stage all without touching the floor… Good fun!
There are not many musicians who are as consistently ardent about songwriting as you. You must really love music!
To me, it feels like a natural outlet. This is what I do. I've always found writing songs… not easy, but enjoyable. I love writing songs! It’s not like I wake up every morning and pick up my guitar, I don’t get a night to sit and write for a long time. For a good few months, the ideas will just build up and then I’ll have a night by myself, and I'll write three or four songs right there. There will be a few weeks where I'm ironing them out but once the idea and the body is there, then it’s done.
We were just about to ask you about the new album! Is it all ready and recorded?
My next album is recorded, yes! I recorded it on the full moon last month, which is apt as it’s a collection of pagan hymns. It’s just Matt and I on the piano, there’s no other instrumentation. Just a voice and piano album about nature and the moon.
Working on pagan hymns under a full moon, are you suggesting you’re quite superstitious? Have you got any pre-show rituals you do?
I don’t necessarily have a ritual before I go on stage except to get drunk! Kidding… You could say I have spells in the writing process? I’ve only ever written songs in these blue notebooks. The first album was written in this book and I thought, ‘If it’s not broke, don’t fix it!’ I use the same pens alongside them and it’s actually really hard to get the exact same book over the twenty years I’ve been doing it. They’ve changed shape and shade a little, which could be a metaphor in itself, but there’s that element to it, I suppose.
Say you were starting from scratch again and the Beans on Toast moniker has been taken, what other food related title would you claim?
Spoiler here, I don’t really like beans on toast! I’m more of a spaghetti hoops guy but it doesn’t have the same ring to it. When I first went to America, I did have to change my name because they don’t have beans on toast over there. The name was really confusing people, so I called myself Hotdog for a few weeks.
You’ve got the albums, the book series, and the festival. Is there any other project you’d like to add the Beans on Toast branding onto?
By saying it out loud, I have to commit to it now: I’ve got a long tour in the States in September and we’re travelling in the back of the van. Sitting in the same seat for several hours a day might be a good time for a book to come out. Otherwise, I might become an art curator for a week. Loro Verz is staying with me for a week — he’s an old friend of mine, he does all the artwork for Foolhardy, and he’s even painted the front of my house — and I promised him I’d do some project with him. Apart from that and the pagan hymns, never say never to anything!
The Foolhardy Folk Festival takes place on Sunday 25 August at The Arboretum. Tickets are available here.
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