One of my favourite places to go in Coventry city centre was the LTB Showrooms, which were formerly housed in an old pub. LTB are a nonprofit DIY arts, music, and community venue and in a day and age where grassroots venues are constantly shutting down because of NIMBYs or rising rents and costs, it is more important now more than ever before to go to these small venues and show your support for the talented local musicians who play there. One of the things I loved most about mid 20th century popular music and arts in general is how for the first time people from working class backgrounds could pursue their artistic endeavours because we had more social safety nets meaning people could take chances and not be destitute and record labels were more willing to take chances (to some extent at least). There’s a great interview Brian Eno did talking about this. Before that, the creatives were from well-off backgrounds and many voices were left out and did not feel truly represented. We’re in a new Gilded Age all over again and increasingly you’re seeing more and more working class creatives leaving for day jobs because while making art is fun, applause and appreciation doesn’t pay the bills and it’s nice to have a steady paycheque. This makes me think of a book that I reviewed last year about Thunderclap Newman and how the namesake of the band was working a steady job at the GPO and he was reluctant to leave because having a reliable paycheque and a pension gives you that peace of mind that you can make ends meet and maybe have a decent life. It’s great to be a dreamer, but sometimes you gotta be pragmatic and that explains my absence from this blog, although I try my best to share updates. I have so much respect for those who can successfully balance their creative pursuits with work. I don’t know how you do it. You’re amazing! I’m not gonna be a boomer and say everything about the past is better, because that’s not true. Technology really revolutionised music and democratised it and there’s great music being recorded in people’s bedrooms and building a home studio is easier and cheaper than it ever has been.
Anyway, back to the LTB story, the old pub has since been demolished, but they were not going to give up so they along with the other businesses in that part of the Coventry city centre have found new homes elsewhere, and for LTB, they’re now running events at the new Priory Visitor Centre, where they hold music gigs, film screenings, and have an art gallery. What I like about LTB is that they are inclusive and are always happy to support new and up and coming artists. Experience doesn’t matter, it’s all about passion. Everyone starts somewhere and that big touring band once started off playing in pubs and small clubs before selling out stadiums. These small venues help make up and coming creatives’ dreams come true so it’s important to support them. That’s enough of my little soapbox rant.
One of my Instagram mutuals Daisy recently started a band, formerly known as The Daisy Jane Band, and right around the start of May they rebranded to Beltane Moon. If you’re familiar with paganism or Irish culture, you’ll know that May in Irish is Bealtaine. On 1 May there’s a pagan festival called Beltane to celebrate the midpoint between the spring equinox and summer solstice, marking the beginning of summer. Paganism and witchcraft are big influences on Beltane Moon’s aesthetic and style, which is reminiscent of Stevie Nicks era Fleetwood Mac, Coven – fronted by Jinx Dawson (Beltane Moon covered “Wicked Woman” at their Coventry gig), Purson – fronted by Rosalie Cunningham, and 70s era Heart.
As there were a lot of bands playing the Cartel Collective, sets were quite short and they were an eclectic mix of genres from sad ukulele music to hip hop to indie rock to classic rock inspired music. Local gigs like this are a great way to open your mind to different music. Beltane Moon played a very energetic gig, even if it was a bit short with only 6 songs, but that means I definitely want to see them again and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing an album from them. Below, you can stream their two singles on Spotify, “Emily” which is about the suffragettes and “What Did The Devil Do?” which is about the Mesopotamian/Jewish mythological figure Lilith. Beltane Moon are a band on the rise. Only six months together as a band and they’ve amassed thousands of streams on their singles. Give them a listen, you’ll love them if you love classic rock!
Beltane Moon are: Daisy (vocals), Nancy (keyboards, backing vocals), Ben (lead guitar), Paige (drums), Dylan (rhythm guitar), and Johnny (bass guitar). We’re very lucky to have Beltane Moon on the blog with us for an interview. If you want to learn more about them, keep on reading!
Angie: How did you get started as a band?
Johnny: We had Daisy and we had Ben and me and Paige and that’s how we formed the band.
Daisy: So me and Nancy used to work together and we started talking music and stuff and me and Johnny had already played a couple of shows together and we met Paige through the internet.
Paige: Yeah we met through Instagram.
Daisy: We then recorded my first song and we all realised we wanted to play it live and I just kind of recruited everybody, and then Dylan came along.
Angie: How would you describe your music to a new listener?
Dylan: If you stream it, it’s great.
Daisy: I always say, like, it’s got a vintage vibe, but also with a bit of a modern
Ben: I think it’s very classic rock inspired, but it’s definitely got that sort of modernish twist to it.
Nancy: It’s modern enough, but classic rocky enough.
Ben: I think the thing is because I’m producing it all on a Mac, I haven’t got old vintage desks, so I’m not going to try and recreate it vintage. I still try and aim for a modern sound, because it’s the best I can do with the situation I’m working with and it sounds good, I still like modern music as well.
Angie: What inspired the new band name, Beltane Moon?
Paige: So we all had a fight about it.
Daisy: Yeah we did have a fight about it.
Ben: About six weeks about it.
Daisy: Yeah, it took a very long time
Dylan: Threw ideas at walls.
Daisy: Yeah, Nancy came up with Beltane.
Nancy: Yeah, it was Beltane and I was like, “Oh Beltane would be a good name for a band, and then we felt like we needed something a bit more, so we went Moon.
Daisy: Yeah, Moon worked the best.
Angie: So was it paganism or something like that?
Nancy: Yeah, so our music is very like witchy, so 70s revival witchcraft kind of thing, isn’t it?
Daisy: Yeah, me and Nancy, we’re a bit witchy.
Angie: How did you get into classic rock?
Daisy: I only recently got into it with these guys.
Nancy: I’ve always loved it. My mum and dad who are over there, they’ve got the best vinyl collection.
Ben: As a kid like, i was into guitars, I had family playing guitars, and then I heard AC/DC, and I was like that’s the best sounding thing ever. Just the sounds of like, the 70s Marshall Stacks.
That for me was just, a *chef’s kiss*.
Dylan: Mine’s a little bit weird, isn’t it? So I was really into rap music when I was like 18. I didn’t listen to music at all until I was 18. I was really into rap music, but my dad always used to listen to Oasis, Artic Monkeys, The Beatles, The Monkees, that kind of stuff, and then Max showed me Magical Mystery Tour one night and then I just kind of never looked back after that. I thought it was brilliant.
Ben: I remember being 16, I was in college studying music tech, and it was like the first time I listened to Sgt Pepper. Me mates had like the original vinyl of it and we put it on before college. I’d heard bits of it, but I was just like, the production and that’s when I was like, I want to get into production and do weird stuff.
Angie: What makes the vintage witchy aesthetic magical to you?
Daisy: I grew up in a witchy house. My mum had potions in the cupboard and like a broomstick above the thing and she told me that she turned my dad into a frog and I fully believed her. Like I grew up like, my mum was a witch, so to me, it feels really like homey and I feel like I’ve just enforced that on everybody else.
Nancy: Oh no, I’ve always loved it.
Johnny: I just think the vintage style of like, is just the best era of music, but the 60s, 70s, it’s when everyone was trying to do things.
Daisy: And I think that’s because there was like a witchiness to it, it works for everyone.
Dylan: I think it just that classic rock volume that we’ve got going is just brilliant in itself. Adding the witchy stuff brings that extra layer that makes it something different.
Ben: I feel like it gives me more room when I’m doing production to do something interesting, make it more experimental.
Nancy: And with the state of the world like it as we need some witchcraft.
Angie: What inspires your songwriting?
Daisy: Me and Nancy write a lot of stories.
Nancy: I write a lot of my stuff actually from stories.
Daisy: Most of the songs that we’ve written so far, I can’t say I can write a song about my experience. It’s got to be like a story that I’ve heard.
Nancy: Yeah, so a lot of it’s like poems I’ve read, books I’ve read. A lot of the time they’re historical figures, like strong historical women that didn’t necessarily have their story told correctly.
Ben: Well, I think because we write songs as a collective, without having a lot of personal stories, it makes it so much easier sort of, yeah. But I feel like we do that thing where it’s like, this is about, I don’t know, Lilith, but then actually it becomes a relatable message.
Dylan: I think we just sort of start broad and as the sun gets more refined it gets narrowed down.
It helps that Nancy’s read a lot of books and we’d be like, what’s this, Nance?
Nancy: I own a bookshop (you can follow her bookshop Press Books & Coffee on Instagram).
Angie: What kind of books do you like to read?
Nancy: I’m really into fantasy at the moment, but I also love anything like feminist retelling, so that’s kind of why, like a lot of the songs are kind of about that as well.
Angie: Which female historical figures do you find the most fascinating or the most misunderstood?
Nancy: Well, I’m really into, so we had an author at the shop on Wednesday night and he’s written all about the witch trials and they were talking about the biggest witch trial in Newcastle where like 100 women were killed in the space of six months, like really, really bad. I’m just really, really into learning all about like 17th century witch trials at the moment. So I feel like a lot of the women that weren’t named in those witch trials, I would say are fascinating.
Angie: What was it like recording “What Did The Devil Do?”
Ben: I had a lot of fun doing that one. Absolutely. That was kind of like you’d come up with a lot of stuff already, I came from work until you’d actually already sort of started layering the harmonies. And you’re like, “Can I do anything with this?” And I was like, “Yeah, I’ll have a look. She got quite a lot of chords going on, and I’m a big fan of a lot of chords, and I was like, let’s do more chords.”
If I explain how it was recording it, it was bloody hard. I really went through it with that one. But I knew I wanted to bring into like my blues rock influences, so that second verse, I want some crunchy guitars. It was it was the most fun song to record because it’s got the most going on.
Daisy: It was so hard as well.
Nancy: So far, watch this space!
Angie: Any plans for an album or an EP?
Daisy: I would love to do an album, but he’s [Ben] the man that produces, so it’s like…
Ben: Yeah, give me a minute!
Dylan: We need to write more songs for this, don’t we?
Daisy: Yeah, we’ve got a few coming, like a few more songs on the way.
Paige: What I think is nice though is that we collectively have moved quite fast considering we’ve only been together for such a short amount of time and I think one of the reasons why that is because this is where they all say, “No Paige”, but we all actually really get on. I feel like we have that kind of little family feel of it where we bicker, but we know we love each other really, and I think that’s kind of really pushed us along. I think that’s why we’ve moved so fast.
Nancy: We’re just really enthusiastic about it and see where it’s going on.
Daisy: Things like songs, yeah, like we’d like to have more stuff, but like I said we’re just having such a good time just doing what we’re doing now.
Johnny: I think recently we were like, we’ve become a little bit more collaborative if anything. So like, it’s more open to everyone writing. We put the something in the drive if anyone wants to listen to it.
Angie: What are your favourite concerts you’ve been to?
Daisy: My favourite concert that I’ve been to is Stevie Nicks in Manchester, because I was very close and I never thought I’d get to see Stevie Nicks. So that was really good.
Johnny: My favourite one was seeing Jeff Beck a few weeks before he died with Johnny Depp. That was in Birmingham at Symphony Hall.
Dylan: I haven’t really been to many gigs and like you’re all going to hate me for this one. Listen to me, not for the music, because not gonna lie, Liam [Gallagher] didn’t sound great, but the sheer size of Knebworth was just fucking ridiculous.
Angie: What are your favourite albums you have on vinyl?
Dylan: Magical Mystery Tour.
Johnny: Probably Meddle by Pink Floyd
Nancy: I’ve got Hounds of Love by Kate Bush.
Ben: I mean, we share a vinyl collection.
Nancy: I’m trying to remember which one’s mine.
Ben: We’ve got like three copies for some reason of Led Zeppelin II, I’d say that’s probably been played the most.
Angie: You keep wearing them out?
Ben: Yeah, one of them is fully warped.
Daisy: I think my favourite ones that I have, I’ve got all my nan’s original Beatles albums from when she was a teenager. She just one day took them out of the cupboard and she was like, oh you can have these. She’s got Rubber Soul.
Johnny: I think my favourite one would be Fragile by Yes. My dad had The Motown Story, which is a collection of Motown, so that’s one of my favourites as well.
Dylan: Elvis #1s.
Angie: What is your proudest accomplishment as a band?
Dylan: I think it’s similar to what Paige said. In like six months we’ve been together, just like how much we’ve grown and we played not a ridiculous amount of gigs, but the gigs have been good. Like we’ve just come together that quick. But I already knew Daisy and Johnny through the friend group, but Nancy, Ben, and Paige, like they’re some of my closest friends at the minute. It’s special.
Johnny: I didn’t realise that Ben wasn’t actually that bad. Like, before, I was a bit sceptical about him, but now I’m actually, you know, he’s quite a good lad for second.
Ben: I’m most proud of how the recording sounds, mainly because that’s my main contribution, to try and get it to sound good and I’ll listen back sometimes and go oh I’ve done alright here.
Paige: I was in the car on the way here and I was like this is pretty good.
Daisy: I’m pretty proud of the way we like present ourselves because people seem to really like us as like, I feel like we’ve come across quite genuine to start with.
Paige: I think that’s because we are.
Daisy: Well yeah, I suppose.
Paige: You can always kind of tell when there’s tensions.
Angie: Ben, how did you get into producing?
Ben: I just sort of bored. I’ve played guitar since I was a kid in bands, and then every time we were in the studio, I always loved it. I think it’s just when you’re just playing in a band, you don’t always know what everything sounds like. You’re kind of like focussed on yourself. I’ve always enjoyed that you can sit back and assess everything. I really like that you can change stuff. I like that you can go, that wasn’t very good, I’ll redo that. I’ve always enjoyed being in the studio, but I never liked that someone else was in control of it all. I was like that, I can adjust this. I can sort this in my own time. I went to college and studied it. I just love being able to…
Daisy: Take it apart.
Ben: Yeah, yeah.
Angie: What are your gigs usually like?
Beltane Moon: Sick, loud, high energy, fun. We have fun.
Daisy: We have a good time, so like if we have a good time then that’s all that matters.
Dylan: I’ve never gigged before until literally like six months ago and it’s the most I’ve ever had. Genuinely I love it.
Angie: Where would you dream of playing a gig?
Daisy: Hyde Park.
Johnny: Royal Albert Hall.
Daisy: If we’re going big, my big one for some reason is Madison Square Garden. Like I really, that’s my like biggest, I don’t know why.
Angie: I think it’s a big milestone for a British group for sure.
Nancy: But if we’re going like [big] I was going to say Royal Albert Hall but it’s like orchestra, like Florence and the Machine.
Dylan: On a personal level, the Molineux, because I’m a big Wolves fan. Robert Plant’s also a big Wolves fan. If I could play the Molineux, I would have died.
Ben: For it it’s just festivals, I want to play all the festivals. I’ve never really thought about venues.
Paige: Yeah, like sharing the stage with big acts.
Angie: Any words for your fans?
Johnny: Can there be more of you?
Daisy: I think the little fans that we’ve built up, I’m really grateful [for] that. Like, we had someone come to our last gig just for us, which, for some reason, like blew my mind. Like it was because I didn’t know this person and like, Johnny got to talking to them quite a lot, didn’t you and they were…
Johnny: I really liked when there was a guy who posted a guitar cover.
Daisy: Yeah, we had someone cover out one of our songs!
Dylan: Whenever we have an interaction with, I guess, a fan, we’re all so grateful for it, just really appreciate any kind of support. It’s so cool.
Daisy: Yeah, I think I don’t know if I speak for everyone, but I don’t feel like we deserve to have someone, like if you’ve come to watch us, then it’s like you’re just coming to see us, you’re not like a fan. We’re not anyone.
Dylan: I guess if you fuck with us, stick around!
Angie: It’s definitely that imposter syndrome and kind of that, like it’s just the fans are the reason you do it?
Daisy: Like people say they like it and I’m like I thought it was just us that liked it.
Paige: I remember being in a band years and years ago when I was like 16 years old and about eight years later this couple got in touch with us and asked us to play at their wedding because they were fans of us for that long and they met at our gig. So like those moments and that you know that was like a fun covers band, we had fun and stuff, but it wasn’t an original group. We did it for years and even with that like getting a fan base through something like that and then having a moment where you’ve got genuine people that love it, like you know, we very much deserve to have those, they will come. I didn’t know you met one who had turned up just for us. How fantastic! I’ll take 10!
You can follow Beltane Moon on Instagram and Facebook.
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