Interview: Nathaniel Beard from ‘The Beards’
Beards, beards, and more beards! That’s the lifeblood of folk rockers The Beards. On the road for the last time before drawing a close to an epic 11 year career, we spoke to bassist Nathaniel Beard about tour, the bittersweetness of ending music endeavours, and the paranoia of losing his beloved beard.
So what is it about beards that means so much to The Beards?
Well as you would probably know, beards mean everything to us. To us, that’s just normal, we think that surely, everyone with a beard should feel the exact same way we do, in that, we’d do anything to aid the bearded cause and do anything for our beards really.
So we’ve seen in fashion, a lot of try hard beards and mo’s going around, but in your eyes, what encompasses the perfect beard?
Well I don’t like to judge a beard personally, I believe all beards to be equal! I’m very open minded in that sense, so I’ll accept any form of beard a worthy beard really, and they’re all equal to the greatest beards in history.
And you guys have been doing this for a while now, what was it about singing about a more comical topic that drew you in, in contrast to I suppose a more mainstream path?
Well I mean if people want to interpret our songs as comedic than that’s their prerogative, but there’s no humour intended in our songs, we are one hundred percent serious about beards.
And you’ve decided to call an end to a long and successful career, what have been some of the more insane stories from tour?
Well we’ve been on many a tour over the years, and there’s been all sorts of antics taking place over those tours! One that springs to mind is a time where I nearly lost my beard, to a crazed fan with a pair of scissors! That was a knife’s edge experience for me, I was very on edge afterwards.
What happened?
So basically, he came out of nowhere and grabbed my hand and pulled out a pair of scissors and went to cut my beard off and looked me dead in the eyes and said “that’s how easily it could happen mate, watch your back.” And since that day I very much have watched my back and that’s why I’m heavily armed at all times (laughs).
Does the music journey continue from here with a new project or is it time to for a different path entirely?
We’ll always be venturing down a bearded path in whatever we do, umm, we’re going to keep it beard related. But it may not musical really, we might decide that music isn’t the right medium for our message moving forward, but we’ve got some plans. I’m not going to say too much about them now though (laughs).
The ‘Mission Accomplished’ tour is one last hoorah for The Beards, you’re venturing to a ton of locations all across Australia, are you guys preparing any differently to this last tour compared to others seeing as it’s such a big event?
Yeah it’s a big event for us because we’re really sad to be going to these cities and towns for the last time and we’ve had so many great memories over the years. We really wanted to make these shows something special, so for that reason we are performing not one but two sets of beard related music from our four album back catalogue. So the first set is like, an acoustic set, which is an uncomfortably intimate evening with the beards but then after that we’re going to take to the stage and do what we do best which is just a full tilt rock set, filled with unbridled levels of beard enthusiasm.
You’ve sold out The Triffid in Brisbane and have added another show, plus a free pre event BBQ, what was the idea behind that?
Really that was what it was about. For us, I’ve said this before but Brisbane has always been one of our favourite cities to come and play and it’s seen the most spectacular growth from being a relatively beardless city to be one of the most thriving beard cultures in Australia. So we really love the Brisbane fans so we thought if we’re doing an extra show and going to be hanging around Brisbane for an extra day, we can’t think of anything better than to have a little bit of a pre show barbecue with everyone.
And before I let you go, what should we expect as The Beards hit the stage one last time?
Well we’re actually about one third of the way through this tour which spans many many months but what we’ve found so far is that these shows have taken a real celebratory tone! There’s something really special about the connection between band and audience that’s been taking place. I mean both parties know that it’s our last time doing this so it feels like it should be bittersweet but it’s more just a very happy vibe and the shows have been great so far.
All dates and venues for The Beards’ final tour is below!
THE BEARDS FAREWELL TOUR
FRI 20 MAY
Coopers Alehouse, Wallaroo
SAT 21 MAY
Jive Bar, Adelaide
WED 25 MAY
The Loft, Warrnambool
THU 26 MAY
The Golden Vine, Bendigo
FRI 27 MAY
SS & A Club, Albury
SAT 28 MAY
The Area Hotel, Griffith
THU 9 JUN
Railway Club, Darwin
FRI 10 JUN
Railway Club, Darwin
WED 15 JUN
The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba
THU 16 JUN
The Soundlounge, Gold Coast
FRI 17 JUN
Sol Bar, Maroochydore
SAT 18 JUN
The Triffid, Brisbane
SUN 19 JUN
The Triffid, Brisbane
WED 23 JUN
Karova Lounge, Ballarat
FRI 24 JUN
The Barwon Club, Geelong
SAT 25 JUN
Corner Hotel, Melbourne
SUN 26 JUN
Corner Hotel, Melbourne
WED 29 JUN
ANU Bar, Canberra
THU 30 JUN
Beachcomber Hotel, Toukley
FRI 1 JUL
The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
SAT 2 JUL
The Metro, Sydney
SAT 16 JUL
The Gapview Hotel, Alice Springs
WED 20 JUL
Pelly Bar, Frankston
THU 21 JUL
Sooki Lounge, Belgrave
FRI 22 JUL
The General, Mt Hotham
SAT 23 JUL
The Man, Falls Creek
SUN 24 JUL
Spirit Bar & Lounge, Traralgon
THU 18 AUG
Pier on Clarence, Port Macquarie
FRI 19 AUG
Hoey Moey, Coffs Harbour
SAT 20 AUG
Ballina RSL, Ballina
THU 27 OCT
Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide
FRI 28 OCT
Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide
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