How did Beldon Haigh form, and what inspired the band’s name?
The name is my grandfather’s name, he passed away many years ago, he was a piano and organ player, a painter and decorator and also had a fish and chip shop in Sheffield at some point in time. So I guess the name is really a tribute to my family and the band started with just me (Justin Skelton) and gradually I started to get the others on board – it has been evolving since 2017.
What drives the band’s focus on socially and politically charged themes in their music?
I write all the lyrics and music for the band, and ever since I was a teenager I have listened to, been interested in and passionate about songs that were about society, justice, injustice and elements of politics. Some of the best ever song writers have their roots firmly in social and political story telling and I think that story telling part has always been a big aspect of my creativity. I listened a lot to Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Psychedelic Furs, Lou Reed and a fair bit of punk music when I was growing up, all those have story telling in common and some of that has rubbed off on me.
Can you share a bit about the creative process behind your storytelling-focused song writing?
I’m always looking for interesting theme’s, ideas, inspirations for a song. That is why the last decade has been so fascinating, technology has advanced at incredible speed, but at the same time the world has become more dystopian, more divided. It’s paradoxical. Anyway, I will get a bit obsessed with a theme or an idea and then build a story and some melody and musicality around that. I then write that into a song with hooks and riffs and melody and lyrics, that lasts three and a half to four minutes duration. After that, I live with it for a while and if I think it passes muster, I will put it in front of the band and we will record it. We take that into the studio, develop it further sonically.
How do you balance humour and serious commentary in the songs?
It isn’t a conscious effort to balance things really. The process is organic, It generally just happens, some people get the humour more than others. So as a result the Beldon Haigh catalogue of songs is very idiosyncratic and authentic. It’s certainly not overly formulaic or written for a market, people have told me they like that aspect of it. Every song is different, some of them have a few funny lines in them, some don’t. A lot is down to the subject matter of the song. For example Elected has just done very well in the USA triple A charts, Elected offers lots of opportunities for humour, and so there is a lot in it, but a song like Flowers is much more reflective and more like a conversation with myself.
What inspired the concept for ‘White House Meltdown Christmas Day’?
That was a song written by myself and guitar player Jimmy Green. But I wrote all the lyrics and I had the initial idea etc. It was some year and there was a particular “bromance” becoming apparent, through news articles written about Trump, Putin and Kim Jong Un. At the time these characters were all threatening each other with their various rockets (little seems to change) but simultaneously showering each other with Alpha male style compliments – like praise about how strong each other is. It was almost like a bizarre courtship ritual. A couple of years before, I had the idea to get the masks and put these characters in a band together, so because we’d already made that a reality it seemed a simple jump to have a song and video with them all spending Christmas together, but have them also squabbling and competing.
What message or themes do you hope listeners take away from this track?
It probably best to watch the video as well as listen to the song to get this, but hopefully through this they might see how pointless, irresponsible and stupid it all is. I think what White House Meltdown does really well is make these characters look like they are testosterone fuelled teenage boys. Flexing and comparing muscles, competing to see who wins which game, who has the best gun, who can press the big red button first. And in these sad and war torn times consider how much of all this is fuelled by stubbornness and bravado.
Were there any challenges in creating a Christmas song that’s both catchy and satirical?
It’s about whether or not you overthink what people might say or think. When we made this, the team we had together didn’t over think it and didn’t worry too much about how it might land. I think that is why it seems to have aged really well, and why it is so funny.
What was the process like creating the lifelike masks for Trump, Putin, and Kim Jong Un?
We bought the masks from world famous sculptor and mask maker Landon Meier about a year earlier. We had already made a few videos with the masks before making WHMD.
The video is full of small details, like Trump-themed decorations and the Boris Johnson cameo—how important are these Easter eggs to the story?
I think they are key, remember we first made this video in 2018, the song has been re-released for this Christmas but it first came out in six years ago. Fake news was then, and still is, a huge problem and our easter eggs illustrate this. We even crated a fake newspaper with the prophetic fake headline “Rabid Mexicans Ate My Cat” – so in may ways, looking at the recent US Election campaign those easter eggs have become little predictions.
What was the most memorable moment or funniest experience while shooting the video?
Putin opening his presents. There were some pretty funny and kinky presents in the stocking – that didn’t make it to the final edit – but it was hilarious to see them opened on the film set.
