The Beep Seals

The Beep Seals are like the Beach Boys but just happen to belong to the home of Boddingtons, making them one of the most interesting and exciting bands of this year. With ex members having formed part of Jim Noirs backing group it's clear to see how the relaxed Mancunian melodic sounds have seeped into the psyche of this band.

Having formed in early 2006 due to, 'a mutual admiration of each other and a shared love of various things' these mates have developed into a fully fledged musical outfit, and what an outfit it is.

Their new album, 'Things that roar' boasts creativity beyond their years as they clearly add their own sounds and ideas into their strong influences, the main one clearly stemming from The Beach Boys, 'The Beach Boys have been a big influence on the band, especially Brian Wilson, who created amazing music such as Pet Sounds, but we feel we add something different to our influences as well, which is important.'

It seems the bands influence lies largely in the music which is created off shores and not the more typical home grown talent such as The Smiths and the Fall, ' I don't think we actively try to like music that's not from round here in an attempt to be different, I think its more of a case that we do like bands such as The Smiths but the songs that mean the most to us are the happy sunny types of songs by bands such as the Beach Boys and the Flaming Lips, and most bands from Manchester sing about gloom and depressing things which doesn't appeal as much to us!'

Manchester was, in fact recently voted one of the top five happiest places in Britain, (I was surprised too) and It seems its the Beep Seals who have been spreading this happiness with their fresh upbeat sounds, its almost like a happy Manc revolution, and with the launch of their festival, 'Beep Fest' taking place later on this year I'd bet that this band are on a mission to bring the sun to Manchester, hypothetically speaking, obviously, 'We're really excited about beep fest, we all just thought it would be a great way to get some of our mates together and celebrate the music we all make. Jim (Noir) and Steven (Fretwell) are going to come down and perform as well as some other great emerging bands.'

This inventive and creative nature is something quite unusual for a band of their stature and age, and really impressive. Their determination to put something back into a city which has given them so much sets them in good stead fro their future, 'We're really excited about the release of the album and just hope people like it, its being selling well so far and we're just really proud of the whole thing!' The album was recorded over an impressive ten days with Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub. 'Norman had a great influence on the album and brought loads of weird and interesting instruments to the studio which really added to our sound, it was brilliant to have someone with so many ideas on board.'

Like all great albums, this one comes with an interesting story, in the Beep Seals case, involving Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips, 'We were kind of stuck on what we were going to call the album, and some of us knew Wayne from our days touring with Jim Noir so it somehow got round to the fact that we were discussing names for the album with Wayne and 'Things that roar' was one which was chosen!' So there you go. The theme of animals seems to be a reoccurring theme with the band, and all becomes clear as guitarist, Jack confesses his pastime career as an attendant at Blackpool Zoo, 'I remember those Summers well' he jokes, clearly still recovering from the long days and the 'eclectic' tourists that Blackpool attracts. 'I suppose that experience did have some sort of influence on the album, especially on the song, 'I used to work at the zoo'. Easily the best song on the album for me, it reflects the bands honest and unique approach to songs, not willing to sing about stereotypical summers and surfing girls they add their own spin by signing of their amusing and unusual experiences.

The album clearly is an impressive amalgamation of years of influence, ideas and inspiration. Whether it's the obvious sounds of The Beach Boys, or the subtle irony of The Smiths, The Beep Seals are a product of experience and their times as musicians with artist such as Jim Noir has furthered their sound even more. Clearly a band who should be receiving recognition over the coming months, having recently supported The Ting Tings on their UK tour and with other dates in the pipeline, I hope it's only a matter of time before the American dream wakes up in Manchester.

Ella Byford

www.thebeepseals.com