We sat down to chat with Beth Blade and her Beautiful Disasters at Call of the Wild festival earlier this year. Check out the interview below!

How was the set?

It was awesome! When you’re on early there’s always a worry you’re going to play to one hungover guy. And I mean if that hungover guy is having a good time then I’m happy! But yeah, it was fabulous! We had a big crowd so early and they were proper up for it, singing along and stuff.

And so what’s it like being adopted into this NWOCR scene?

Well the best thing about it is that there’s definitely a sense of community. We come to a festival like this and not only do we get to play but we also get to see our friends in the other bands and support them. It’s got a very loving vibe about it. That’s the best thing we can hope for, really!

How would you say the scene is doing these days?

I think it’s better. It’s definitely recovered. It’s getting there. You’ve got the people who really missed it in lockdown. But there’s also the issue that venues are struggling because people still aren’t wanting to buy tickets in advance. You’ll get like 30-40% of people walking in because they’ll wait until the day. And obviously people are still worried that we’re going to cancel. Just for the people out there: we don’t cancel unless someone’s in hospital! That’s the rule!

It’s getting there but people out there, please buy tickets in advance! It’ll support the promoters, the venues and the bands as well. But I think we’re getting back on the right track now after lockdown. Isn’t it great! It’ll continue in a good trend!

So your latest album was last year, right?

Last July, yeah. We had our first review a year ago today from Power Play. We went to Preston to get the magazine. See, we’re in a band, so people say ‘you’re in a band, you’re a rockstar!’ and I’m like ‘no, I’m a wanna be rockstar’. But then for us, being able to get a magazine that we were buying as teenagers, and reading a review, that’s still mad to me.

That album was so well received by everybody. It was quite nerve-wracking for me as I put everything into it. There were no secrets. But yeah, it’s been absolutely wonderful. We can’t thank people enough.

And I imagine you’re writing already again?

Yeah. We’ve started writing for album number for as we speak. I think this album’s going to be a lot more aggressive and have a darker turn to it. It’s going to be more raw and natural with all our emotions. The aggression side is more what we’re aiming towards because the last album, while it was aggressive, had emotion and feel to it. This time…

I don’t know, I’m probably going to put a pop-funk song on at the last minute! You could end up with anything! That’s the thing, we’re classified as a hard rock/NWOCR band, but we don’t like to pigeonhole ourselves to just one genre. A good tune is a good tune, it doesn’t matter what it falls under. I might rap, who knows!

What’s the writing process like for you?

Normally Beth will bring in bangers and then we’ll advance on it. Or like I’ll bring something in and if Beth likes it she’ll chop and change it into a way where it’ll fit better. There’s some stuff I bring in where it works, but it works a lot better once another mind has jumped onto it too.

The thing for me is I’ve been writing songs since I was eight or nine years old, they just kinda come to me. Sometimes they’re fully formed and other times they’re not so I’ll send it to Sam and tell him what I feel like it needs. Then these guys put their flavour in it. Sometimes people think it’s just my thing but it’s not. If these guys weren’t playing on the songs it wouldn’t sound like it does. We’ll arrange everything together and it’s really fluid. I like it!