Beaches of the Proud

This Page Contains some of the questions you may ask about the entity that is Beaches of the Proud. Any further questions or enquiries can be posted to the myspace page or alternatively dave4pool@hotmail.com and they will be answered sharpish. A regularly updated blog follows at the bottom of the page, and this will also be posted on myspace and facebook.

A: Beaches of the proud (I'll refer to it as BOTP from now on) is an electronic based Musical Act that formed sometime in 2005 when I was looking for an outlet for all the songs I had done which were in this style. Describing the sound is (as usual) difficult and ultimately pointless, but if you pitched a tent in between Boards of canada, Mogwai, Explosions in the sky, sigur Ros, Boards of canada, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, PIVOT, 65 Days of Static, Battles, Tool and Orbital you wouldn't be far off the beaches bonfire.

A: Beaches of the Proud has but one Member, named Mr David Ross Webster. I Write, perform and Produce all the songs you will hear here or live. I also used to be The Singer/Guitarist/Synthist in The Electronic Rock Band The Makos, of which you may or may not be aware of (There is a sub-section of this site dedicated to celebrating the legacy of these fine songs). When I am in Glasgow, I am also half of the ridiculous punk/comedy rock duo sluts and bolts. The myspace for this can be found here. I am 28, originally from Dundee, and have been writing electronic music since I was 16.

A: I Currently reside temporarily in Melbourne, Australia, but am more commonly known for living in Glasgow, Scotland. While In Melbourne, I will be writing new material, but am unlikely to be playing live due to the difficulty in transporting my gear out here. I am expected to be back in Scotland sometime in 2009.

A: As you read this, I have released 3 full albums and a 5 track EP. There are also some unreleased bits and bobs. Details of all of these can be found on the music page.

A: Seeing as you ask, here are some press bits and Bobs, mostly regarding the "Truth..." EP, when I had time to get things reviewed.

"A lot of solo electronic-based artists sound like they have been locked away in their attics with just a 1985 Casio and a stash of pot noodles for company for years. This can result in their music sounding utterly original, unfettered by the fashions of the day or sometimes claustrophobically bleak - a symptom of their solitary existence. Beaches of the Proud is neither. On this EP, Mr BoP Dave Webster positively revels in mixing atmospheric and chaotic sounds together with the result that opening track 'The Truth Always Follows Me Around' is a miniature marvel - a celebration of electronic music but with a real beating heart, something you could see yourself dancing to when played live. True, 'His Shell' does veer more towards an icy minimalism but there is still something organic about the arrangements - perhaps due to Webster's apprenticeship in alternative rock/electronic band The Makos.

'Cursed by the City...' and '...Redeemed by a Ghost' work together superbly as a couplet and have that sound of warm intelligent electro - the feel that Orbital were going for in later years but sadly lost. This is a highly impressive EP. It's steeped in complexities, excellent song writing but most of all displays a level of humanity that is so often missing from electronic acts. 10/10."

"There's a caveat on this. We don't normally feature electronica so why have we included this? The simple answer is the way the tunes have been constructed. Beating at the heart of this record is dark and brooding folk music. Ok it's not using the organic sound of a melodeon or the rhythmic beat of a bodhran. It may hide beneath the textured layers of synth, but you can hear the heart and passion in the recording, it has a life that most electronica lacks. If folk noir and antifolk have an instrumental counterpart this is it. Check the webpage and choose to accept or reject."

"Beaches Of The Proud is the musical love-child of Dave Webster and this EP, 'The Truth Always Follows Me Around', is five tracks of electronic based 'songs' that bridge between post-rock and ambient.

Cleverly rotating between darkly haunting and evocatively chilled, Beaches Of The proud errs towards the likes of Sigur Ros and Godspeed You Black Emperor although BOTP tends to be less orchestratedly refined than either of those two; the Beaches Of The Proud sound is generally 'lighter' in form and a bit more spiky in terms of cohesion. I don't want to sound negative at all but, generally the tracks here, 'The Truth Always Follows Me Around', 'His Shell', 'River Of Us', 'Cursed By The City...' and '...Redeemed By A Ghost' tend to be under-achieving somewhere and end up sounding very 'one-man-band-ish'. Ok, but in reality, that's what Beaches Of The Proud is, digital wizard Dave Webster and his silicon arsenal of musical modernity - no more and no less! But, where Webster maybe just lacks a bit in depth and dynamic he more than makes up for in vision and belief. The works here are varied and, on the whole, very well thought out. Webster uses a persistently 'tinny' drum sound that, although often bordering on complimentary, is just as often a bit 'harsh'. But, with a few interesting time signatures and some pretty angular arrangements, Webster certainly keeps things fluid and 'testingly' interesting. With his multi-layered approach he takes you from crashing, crushing crescendo's to subtle, sensitive, serenity - music for the mind, music for the moment.

'The Truth Always Follows Me Around' by Beaches Of The Proud is a pretty good EP within its genre of electro post-rock. Thankfully, the 'chunes' never get too obtuse and generally retain direction which tends to make them, in the main, pretty accessible. Webster manages to stay loosely within his beloved post-rock ropes even though the overall feel here is one of 'bright optimism' rather than 'morbid surrender' and therefore much easier on the ear than many similarly targeted works out there - a mighty fine outing that shows guts, dedication and innovation."

Though the two opening ambient tracks combined come in at a tedious and sometimes self indulgent eleven and a half minutes they are merely a distraction from an otherwise stand out piece of work. The dreamscape of 'River Of Us' with its warm synth pads and echo swamped guitar and the hypnotic 'Cursed By The City' with its vocals way down in the mix are the most outstanding tracks. Among the more contemporary and obvious influences like Boards of Canada or Mogwai, you can hear echoes of Durutti Column, at least to these ears. Not only is this refreshing but like Vini Reilly all those years ago in the milieu of punk it is at times inspiring work.

A: Good question. People who sit outside of the sphere of music creation are often confused as to why BOTP Bothers without making money, or why I don't start making more commercial music or join x factor or something. This is all spectacularly missing the point, because while making a living out of BOTP would be the best thing ever, Its pretty unlikely to happen, especially with Our shambles of A music industry at the moment. The point is essentially the joy of creating new Work that previously did not exist and getting as many people as possible to hear it (hence why most of my back catalogue is available to download free on this site). Beaches Promotion used to be in the classic form of album - promote it live - album - promote it live cycle, but I've grown increasingly tired of that, because while playing live is always great, the improvised, continually changing nature of the live set sometimes gets a bit lost on new audiences who are often there to see more conventional bands. So while each new gig involved a great amount of preparation to remix and freshen up existing songs to keep it interesting for regulars, all that work was somewhat wasted on new ears. Therefore, Live shows will be a lot less frequent from now on, and the main point will be based on releasing new recordings, with an emphasis on using them for soundtracking Film, TV, art, and games. The new album "Shear" was initially written purely with soundtracking in mind, but it evolved into a more conventional album as time passed, so now its half and half.

Q: Sounds Good; I have a piece of work I would like BOTP To soundtrack. Can I use >insert track name<?

A: If you let me know about it, yes, but if not, then no. All BOTP Work is subject to copyright laws, and if you've seen the advert at the start of DVDs, "You wouldn't steal a handbag" etc. However, if you just email me (contact details below) asking for permission and give a quick description of what you're doing, Chances are I'll be fine with it and you'll be able to use the track for free. I want this work to reach as many people as possible, so I actively encourage such activity. If you want me to create new music to sountrack/score your work specifically, email and ask away. It would have to be worth my while, so I would need to be interested in what you're doing.

a: It's from my favourite makos lyric from 'Lindsay' - ''I swear I meant every word; that we'll discolour the muddy beaches of the proud''. it also appeared in an extended version of 'vilified for being alive' which no-one ever heard, hence why I saved it for lindsay.

a: Several ways. You can do it on myspace. go to the myspace link at the top of the page, and click send me a message. You can befriend me on facebook, either by typing in the email address davemakos@yahoo.co.uk, or searching for the Beaches of the Proud group and joining. FiNally and probably best, you can send me an email at dave4pool@hotmail.com. all enquiries are welcome.

Welcome to the New Beaches Blog. This will also be updated on myspace and maybe facebook if I can work out how to do that. All entries will be logged here and will not be deleted. As this is the first entry, some admin and safety announcements first: This will be a mostly beaches based blog but with some personal entries also. Therefore, I'll post my previous blog entries from my personal myspace page below as a sort of history lesson. Don't expect Chaucer; The musings tend to be based around stuff like what sausages are best. But they're usually fun, and you'll likely get genuine beaches info too so read along. Right, Arms in the carriage, put your seatbelt on and away we go....

A lot of people may be a little confused as to why I'm allowing anyone to download my back catalogue for free (Apart from the new album, Shear). Well, I'm not really, I'm just leaving it up to you to decide if you wish to pay for it, As in what radiohead did with "In Rainbows". Their situation was rather different (They don't really need the money, and at this point in their career the joy of releasing good music is more important), but the principle is the same. I sell music via itunes, and while it is indeed nice to get paid for people downloading your music, the revenue generated is not even close to enough to make a living out of it. The best bit about selling music online at this level is that it can reach a lot of people that can't go to gigs and buy cds etc., and that is why I do it, the money is very much secondary. Therefore, to get the music out there as possible, I am allowing users to download the songs for free, and choose if and how much they want to pay for it. I would rather 2 people download music for free than 1 person pay for it.

So if you're wondering whether or not to pay for it, well, there are 2 sides to this aged argument. Some Believe that music should inherently be free, that it belongs to the public, and that anyone strongly advocating paying for music are greedy money grabbing whores (like Lars Ulrich, who got a whole bunch of gip because he objected to people downloading Metallicas for free). They also believe that the quality of popular music has not been affected since the beginning of illegal downloading. Others (like me by the way) believe that it is a service just like any other, and just because it is easily encoded to mp3s, doesn't mean it is magically stripped of its value. I personally also believe that music has taken a sharp downturn in quality since around 2000, roughly at the peak of napsters' popularity. Not to say there isn't great music around if you really dig about, but popular music outlets (like primetime radio) have become so homogenised and watered down with Banal, Insipid, non-offensive soft rock (I'm thinking Snow Patrol, Coldplay etc) and "flat-pack" indie (Like Scouting for girls, The Hoosiers etc.) masquerading as "serious" music rather than the glorified boy bands they actually are, that original music has become pretty much non-existent in modern popular culture. The reason of course is that as record companies profits slip due to diminishing returns, they can no longer take any risks on original music. They are far more likely to play it safe on generic indie rock that will get heavy rotation on daytime radio and will sell easily to the largest age demographic as possible. properly original Bands or acts will never be able to get a major record deal under the current system, and acts who take the "DIY" approach (As I do) or sign with smaller labels rarely make enough money to sustain themselves to anything above a hobby outside work, again due to the lack of people paying for music.

I have personally tried to convince illegal downloaders of the latter view, and have failed most times, so I won't try it anymore here. If your view is that music should be free and you like the state of music these days, thats fine, and you may download as much as you like on this site for nothing. If you take the view that you should pay for it, then you can pay me money on paypal, or buy it on itunes (details on the music section of the website).

In a perfect world, I think music would ultimately benefit from this system if it was widely adopted and people honestly paid what they thought it was worth every time. This way, the best acts would receive the greatest revenue and would be encouraged to make more. It wouldn't be perfect (Popular radio would need to be overhauled to a more egalitarian system as well), but it would be a start. However, it would never work, as the public by and large would not be honest enough to pay when they don't need to. In the meantime, you can enjoy this system on my site. Download away!