Beans on Toast plays Brighton and Southampton on back of new album

With the The Beans on Toast Band (Abbi Phillips – drums; Bassie Gracie – bass; King Killership – keys; Memphis Gerald – guitar; and Ryth Lyon – fiddle), he will be playing The Brook in Southampton on March 19 and Brighton’s Concorde 2 on March 20.

Recorded at Greenmount Studios in Leeds with the band, the new album called Kill Them With Kindness was released on December 1 via BOTMusic.

“I came up with the title because I liked the idea that the title kind of butts against itself with the idea of kindness and killing in the same sentence. The album is a bit like that. At one point there are songs about the geopolitical hellhole that we're in at the moment and then you have got a song about a tree at a festival or a song about my cat. The album is a kind of timestamp for what's going on in my world in that year. It is my thoughts on life at large but also my thoughts on my life at home. There are also a lot of songs about playing music and travelling. On paper it felt a bit like the album was just all over the place in terms of subject matter but really when you think about it, each song does tell its own story.

“It is my 18th record. I put out an album every year. I've done one a year since 2009 and every record I do I do with different musicians in a different studio and with a different producer just because I like to keep things different. But I've actually built up a touring band and we know each other really well and it works really well together. For this album we met in the rehearsal room for a week and then we went into the studio and played it not quite live but pretty much live. I think it gives it a fresh feel and they're such great players.”

As for that Beans on Toast name, Beans explains: “When I came up with the name I had no idea that I would be answering to it for about 20 years but I stand by it! I was just trying to sound cheap and easy! At the time all these bands in Essex used to sing in an American accent and when my band fell apart someone said ‘Why do you sing nothing like you talk?’ And I realised just how crass that was. So I decided that I wanted to be myself and also I wanted to be proud of my Englishness.

“But obviously if you give yourself a silly name, you get asked all kinds of silly questions. Someone called me Mr Mayonnaise! I've also been called Fish and Chips! And sometimes you get booked into a hotel under the name Beans on Toast and have to go up to the reception as ask ‘Have you got room for Beans on Toast?’

“But one thing I would say if you are making up a name for yourself is that you should make yourself up in name that's at the beginning of the alphabet. There are some festivals that list you alphabetically and on some posters I have been above Billy Bragg!”