“It was pretty hands on, it was good fun, and it was pretty frugal,” Needham laughs. Named after an old Nintendo game, Menace Beach are a supergroup of sorts, made up of two vocalists: Needham, who played in the band Komakino until their split in 2007, and Liza Violet; Matt ‘MJ’ Johnson of Hookworms, who played guitar on and produced their EP in his home studio; Rob Lee of Pulled Apart By Horses, also a guitarist; Nestor Matthews of Sky Larkin plays drums, and Matt Spalding of You Animals is their bassist.
While Needham admits to being heavily influenced by the mid ‘90s UK pop-rock scene, he’s quick to point out there’s a lot more to Menace Beach’s music than that.
“When I was a kid, I was influenced by Brit-Pop,” he recalls. “It was massive; stuff like Blur and Oasis was all over the radio. But there were bands on the fringes that I got into and found really interesting - some more obscure indie bands, and stuff that came out of the US.”
There’s quite a strong psychedelic tone to MenaceBeach’s sound. While Needham admits he’s influenced of the psychedelia of the ‘60s, he says that the psychedelia heard on the record stems from his bandmate’s influences.
“[Psychedelia] is more MJ’s side of things,” he admits. “I’m into it too, but I got into it more since we moved up to Leeds. MJ keeps flipping records at me.”
The move to Leeds, as Needham explains, was a good move for him creatively: “I lived a bit south of Leeds, and I’d had a bit of a rubbish couple of years,” he recalls. “I ended up pulling up sticks and moving into Leeds. And that was quite inspiring, I met a lot of good friends, and it’s a really creative city. There’s a big DIY vibe going on here.”
Needham is sure the relaxed, DIY attitude and the trappings of the mainstream pop scene is what inspired him to start a band in this current rock-unfriendly age, and what will carry the band forward into the longer term future.
“No one in my world pays any attention to the charts and stuff like that,” he states definitively. “There’s always been a thriving, more underground rock scene. We didn’t really set out to create a band; we wrote a load of songs and recorded them on Garage Band.”
The band have a few touring plans in the works, including their first-ever headlining tour of the UK, a bunch of UK and European festival dates and a possible US jaunt. However, they’re a little more nonchalant about touring than most bands.
“We’re seeing how it goes, really,” he muses. “[Touring] was more of a social thing at the start, we didn’t really have a ton of expectations, and I didn’t necessarily think we were even going to make an album. But one thing after another keeps popping up, and it’s like, ‘Oh fuck, this is great.’
Needham is hopeful at the possibility the band may include Australia in their touring plans for this album, but of course it all has to depend on how the release is received here.
“[Pulled Apart By Horses have] been over to Australia quite a lot,” he says. “So [Lee]’s been like, ‘As soon as you get a chance, you gotta’ go’. “We just gotta’ sell some records and get some money to be able to afford the flights.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
