Beech

The actual beginning of Beech is hazy, not because there was no moment of origin but because it was an organic collaboration between two musicians from the South London area of Bromley. After playing in punk bands for years, singer and musician Josh Beech began recording and touring as a solo act. Josh first recorded with producer and engineer Oliver Som two years ago. Their work in the studio transitioned into dual writing sessions, and after Josh moved to LA in the fall of 2012 he invited Oliver to come out and work on more music. During one session last year, when the pair penned their new single “Lovers,” an agreement was made that this collaboration should continue as its own project. “We got together another bunch of songs and had a really cool writing experience together,” Josh says. “I said, ‘Know what man? We should do this together.’ So we did and that’s how it started. It was an accident, really.” The idea behind Beech is a true partnership where the musicians switch roles and blur the lines between musician and producer. Although Josh writes all the lyrics, the rest of the music is created in tandem. The group’s first release, an EP titled We Are The Masters of Our Fate, arrived in March of 2013, showcasing four of these collaborative tracks. The EP, recorded in both London and LA, was released independently and the musicians focused on including songs that revealed their songwriting diversity. The tracks veer from an electronic-tinged indie rocker to an introspective acoustic folk number, presenting the various facets of Josh and Oliver’s musical sensibility. “There’s a lot of different stuff going on in there,” Josh says. “It doesn’t sound like one band. What’s interesting is the writing process and we wanted to show that we can write a bunch of different songs.” “Josh and I have never really talked about the music too much,” Oliver says. “It just happens. We were both on the same page. We’re both from band backgrounds and when we started working we suddenly realized that actually we’re not limited to a guitar and a real drum kit. It could be anything. It could be a harp sound, it could be a trumpet sound. There were no rules and that ignited the way we were gonna work.” Beech is currently in the process of expanding this aesthetic to a full-length album. The duo, who’ve rented a house in LA’s Hollywood Hills, are recording the album and will release “Lovers” as its first single. The aim is not perfection so much as capturing the sound of a specific moment, which the musicians do by recording in unusual spaces around the house rather than in a traditional studio. They’ve laid down tracks in closets, hallways and staircases, something the duo did with “Lovers.” “Josh was just sitting on the stairs in the house playing guitar,” Oliver says. “I put a mic on it, didn’t even listen to it and recorded it. And it’s a completely unique sound. That’s our process. To a certain degree, we weren’t over-analyzing things. We were just going on a gut feeling and moving on.” Beech, who recently toured in Germany, are signed with Universal Germany and Virgin/EMI in the U.K. The pair plans to release their debut album early next year and will play select shows in the U.S. and Europe in late 2013. The underlying idea behind both the recordings and the live performances is to urge an emotional response from the listener. “I want there to be a whole string of emotions,” Josh says. “I don’t want you to just be able to feel one emotion the whole way through. I want us to deliver something that makes you feel sad and hits a nerve And then a song that it makes you want to dance.” “I remember when I listened to vinyl as a kid and I’d lay in bed and it would give me shivers,” Oliver says. “When you’re so involved in a song. I want people to feel that sort of connection, rather than it being a throwaway. I want people to actually feel something.” The Official Facebook Page for 'BEECH'. Join now and get the latest News, Photos, Videos and Live Dates here first! http://soundcloud.com/beechmusic