大象传媒

If you've heard Beeba's music, or seen him perform live, you'll agree he's hard to pigeonhole. He's influenced by a wide variety of musical styles and many of these make their way on to his recordings.

"I've been making music for the last 15 years and played guitar for most of that," Beeba said.

"Genre wise I work within sound, as in breakbeat, electro, dance, punk, jungle, indie - it's just a question of using what I feel works within a given composition.

"It's a case of getting what's in my head out of my head and seeing if people like it. "

Beeba's spent the last 10 years gradually adding equipment to his studio, which doubles up as a bedroom.

"I've got what you would call a bedroom studio, a laboratory where I basically sleep where I work. It's interesting sometimes when I wake up with jack leads and all sorts of stuff wrapped round me."

His live-set up is a stripped-down version of his studio, allowing Beeba to recreate the beats he's recorded at home.

"When I play live I've got what I call my little band in a box, which is a little sampler. That replays all my backing tracks so all the beats, bass and string samples come out over this and I play guitar and sing over the top.

"It's not a complicated set up and it definitely produces more of a sound than you'd expect from one dude stood there with a guitar."

This way of working has given Beeba the freedom to experiment and has taken away the pressure of pleasing other band members, or compromising his creative ideas.

"I've played guitar since sixth form and have been in a few cover bands as well as original bands. A lot of the bands I was in would have conflicts within them and then before you knew it such and such couldn't be able to make it to a gig, and then the band would split.

"Through sheer frustration I hit upon the idea of making all the music myself and having complete creative control.

"The sampler does what I want it to do, doesn't give me any back chat and always turns up for rehearsals."

Vibrant local scene

But it now looks like Beeba's career is going full circle. Having met a number of fellow musicians whilst performing with his band in a box, Beeba is considering forming a new band.

"Since being out and about playing my stuff I've met a lot of artists who are up for collaborating and I'm now hoping to start a live band around what I've already got in place. So it's come full circle and hopefully it will go from strength to strength."

One of the inspirations for this decision is Lee 'Sticky' Turner, bassist with The Marvelous and collaborator on Beeba's album Six Heart Strings and a Beat.

"I've done some live work for The Marvelous before and Lee's such a wicked bassist. So I gave him a couple of my tracks and asked him to have a play with - he went and vibed off what I had and laid down some basslines. It was a good creative combination."

The Marvelous, says Beeba, are just one of the many bands who make up a vibrant and healthy Ipswich music scene.

"I've lived in Ipswich all my life apart from three years at uni and a lot of people whinge about the live music scene here. I don't know if it's just the people I've got to know over the years, but I've never seen a lack of creativity.

"I've always thought we've got a good scene but maybe lacking in a core venue where these people can be shown to their best ability.

"I've been blown away by live acts like This Mourning After and The Shadow Project, who were absolutely amazing. You could walk into a pub and you could have been watching Radiohead - they had light shows, smoke, five guitarists and you'd hear music which you could pay 拢30 to see in a stadium.

"The Marvelous are also a blinding band live as is Darien Prophecy, a local Rastifarian musician, who is brilliant live. I think the local music scene is healthy."