Music: Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny
A true individual and free spirit returns to Brighton
Geordie girl Beth Jeans Houghton had been flirting with the public for a few years but it wasn’t until the release of the long delayed debut album Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose earlier this year, that the press and public really took notice. Pigeon-holed as ‘freak-folk’, the album was a glorious technicolor romp that signalled the arrival of a major talent, albeit one perhaps a little bit too off the mainstream to garner mass appeal. Time will tell, but in the meantime she and her band are enjoying their situation.
“I’m with my mum on route from the Lake District,” she tells me over the phone. “We just spent a couple of days in a B&B; we do it every year. She’s my best friend. Sometimes I’m my mum’s best friend – when I’m not getting pierced or tattooed, or smoking!
“Both of my parents weren’t fussed about me or my brother becoming lawyers or doctors or anything, they always felt like if we were happy then they would be happy. I appreciate that.”
A true creative, Houghton largely dispenses with musical orthodoxy, but yet her music makes total sense. It’s a breath of fresh air in the currently stifling musical atmosphere of willful retroism and indie-folk by numbers. “I did music in high school and I hated it – they have all these rules about what is right or wrong. I play guitar, piano, banjo, ukulele, mandolin – most things with strings and most things with keys. I’ve played a lot of things, not every one well. I’m getting a piano tomorrow, for free. A real one.
“I was always wanting to make my own music – I don’t know a lot of other people’s songs, I was never very interested in that.”
Last seen in Brighton as part of The Great Escape, she is back to do a final tour of the album before setting off to LA to record the follow up. “We played straight after a tour of Italy which wasn’t great; not that many people, playing late, and no support band, and I had just woken up and I came up partly in my pyjamas and the room [Pavilion Theatre, Brighton] was full and everyone seemed excited – it was nice to come home to that.
“I’ve wanted to be in America since I was a child. I first went there when I was 20 and I have some good friends there now. I listened to a lot of West Coast ‘70’s music as a kid and that’s always been appealing to me. I’ve met a lot of the bands who live in Echo Park and Silver Lake and they are all very supportive of each other – I find in London it’s very competitive. And it’s a lot easier to eat healthily and the weather is good.”
The Haunt, Friday 28 September, 7pm, £9
