With a new album just out from Jamie Hyatt’s current musical project, bedd, I sat down with this eclectic and unstoppable music maker to find out more about the band, the music, and what the future holds.
Can we start with a bit of background? For those who don’t know you, how did the band come together, and what was your musical journey that got you here?
Fundamentally, we’re six friends from different musical backgrounds and projects who started playing together and drinking coffee once a week in a rehearsal room. I had played in The Family Machine with Feela on bass and Neil on guitar before we started bedd.
I really wanted Bedd to be a genuinely different project, though, so I invited Tom to join us as a third guitarist. I’d played in a band briefly, about 20 years ago, with him and knew him as the guitarist from the Oxford noise-rock band Smilex. Sam, on drums, I met when he played in another band called Peerless Pirates.
And Tim has been a good friend for years; he comes from a DJ and electronic background with his project The Manacles of Acid. We’re a ramshackle bunch, and I love what we all bring to the whole sound.
I was interested to read that one of the film scores you have created was for Elstree 1976, a film I stumbled upon recently and, as a bit of a sci-fi buff, enjoyed immensely. How did you become involved in the project?
I loved working on Elstree 1976. I was asked to score the film by the director, Jon Spira, who I’d met some years before when he interviewed me for his documentary about the Oxford music scene, Anyone Can Play Guitar. Jon became a good friend very quickly, and we share the same taste in upbeat melancholy. His films are always tinged with sadness and beauty, and we really hit it off creatively.
I went on to work with Jon on Hollywood Bulldogs: The Rise and Fall of the Great British Stuntman, and more recently The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee. The soundtrack work has really fed into the sound of Bedd, allowing me to mix lush soundscapes with more conventional song structures.
You have a new album, Do Not Be Afraid, out. What can we expect from that album?
Do Not Be Afraid is a collection of songs that mean a lot to me. They are songs that try to make sense of how I see and experience the world-how I sift through the compost heap of my memories and try not to let those past experiences weigh me down, and how to see beauty and humour in the world.
Sound-wise, they have come out of a desire to make beautiful soundscapes that put you in a memory or feeling, juxtaposed with noisy, unapologetic songs that crash in and out.
Is there a typical bedd sound, or at least what are the common traits that you would say run through your music, either sonically or philosophically?
That’s a great question, and one I try not to think about too much. As a songwriter, it’s easy to get hung up on what you’re supposed to be instead of just writing the song. This album is fairly eclectic, style-wise. I was conscious of letting the songs become whatever they wanted to be, and not being frightened by them sounding different.
That said, all the songs come through my own filtering of the world, so I suppose they do have a commonality and similar feel. I hope these songs are full of wonder at the ridiculous beauty of the world – but also a touch of nostalgia and sadness. I really wanted to distil life, with all its ups and downs, into these tracks. It might sound a bit grand, but I really wanted to write these small stories and have them sit together as a whole – a little snapshot of what’s going on inside my head.
Sonically, I think they sound like bedd, no matter what the song is doing. There’s a tension between Tom’s noisy guitar lines and Neil’s ambient textures, anchored by a rhythm section that never overplays but can groove or explode when it needs to.
The artwork of your releases seems wonderfully thought out and thematically consistent, the earlier ones nostalgic pictures, the more recent, floral juxtapositions. How important is the presentation of your music, especially in a world where we seem to have lost an appreciation for such aesthetic elements?
Thanks… I love making videos and creating the art for the songs – I just love making things. The old family pictures seemed to fit with the nostalgic feel of the band and the songs. The pressed flower collages were just a way of making art from found objects, which I guess is what I do with the songs, in a way – just finding things and putting them together. I like that juxtaposition between the ordinary and the fantastical.
Are there any live shows planned to promote the record? If so, where are you looking forward to playing?
Our album launch show at Oxford’s Jericho Tavern has sold out, and it’s great to be playing there still after all these years. It’s been home to some awesome gigs. We have a few in-stores and bits and pieces coming up, with more out-of-town shows and festivals planned for 2026.
And on that subject, what is the Oxford music scene like these days?
The Oxford scene is still very vibrant, despite many venues closing and being turned into flats, etc. There are some great promoters putting on awesome shows and being creative about the spaces they use — Divine Schism, Gappy Tooth, All Will Be Well.
Even in these digital times, Nightshift magazine is still so important to the scene, along with Oxford Music Scene mag. Some really amazing bands and solo artists are coming through as well.
Finally, beyond this album, what does the future have in store for you, as a band and perhaps individually?
We have a Christmas song we will be releasing called “Count the Days” at the end of November. That will obviously be a massive hit!
In 2026, we are hoping to get out and play a lot more live shows around the country, as well as release more songs. There’s an incredible urge to keep writing and sharing music, so I think we’ll keep doing that.
And thank you, Jamie, for taking the time to tell me more about your musical world and plans for the future.
