Music writer Matthew Jacobson interviews Michael and Luke from Liverpool based The Tenth Pint Podcast.
The Tenth Pint Podcast is flying high and also flying the flag for the music scene and creatives within Liverpool. It is real, engaging and a blast of fresh air in the podcast world with guests including Jamie Webster, The Sway, Fran Doran, (Red Rum Club), SPINN and The Mysterines.
To find out more, I interviewed the creators of the Podcast, Michael Beatham and Luke Davies and asked about how it all began, favourite guests and the future for the podcast.
Interview with Michael Beatham:
Prior to your podcast, did you follow and listen to other Podcasts, if so, which ones did you enjoy?
Yeah, I listened to the Blossoms pubcast a lot and thought it was great listening to musicians breakdown and discuss their songwriting process as well as give their opinions on other artists. Listening to the pubcast made me feel a real connection to Blossoms and feel as if I knew them personally. This is where my inspiration came from to start The Tenth Pint Podcast as I looked for podcasts with local musicians, bands and artists I followed, however I could not find any, so I thought why not do it ourselves and see how it goes.
I also listen to other podcasts such as ‘The Leg it podcast’ & ‘Have a word podcast’ which are both local podcasts who are smashing it. As well as the flourishing music scene in Liverpool there is also a great podcast scene with many different genres on the rise in Liverpool. It really is brilliant to see and be a part of.
When did you feel the idea could turn into reality?
It’s quite a funny one this, we were sat in the Co-Op park in Fazakerley after a walk during lock down eating some chippy chips, we had always joked about starting a podcast and never really looked into it much, however Luke had found a App which you could record podcasts on. We then later recorded one that night, it was so bad we have now deleted it!
Where did the name come from?
I was not being part of a podcast called “Two Wise Men” as suggested by Luke!. I liked the name “The Tenth Pint Podcast” as I envisioned the podcast as not being an interview but more of a chat down the boozer with your mates. On our last podcast with The Sway it’s fair to say we had more than a few drinks, but we had a great time and felt it was belter podcast.
How do you select the artists to join you?
We normally see if bands have new music or announcements coming out. We also listen to messages we have off viewers of the podcast to see who they would like on. We also ask guests to suggest who we should have on. At the end of the day it’s a podcast for the people and we want viewers to feel as if they have a strong connection as possible to us and the guests.
How was your first podcast?
Our first podcast was audio based with just me and Luke and it has since been deleted because it was that bad haha. The first band we had on was DEAFDEAFDEAF from Leigh, this was still audio based and we really enjoyed speaking to them and had good feedback from that, it gave us confidence to go and message lots of local bands we followed.
We then did a number of audio podcasts with bands such as The Cheap Thrills, Columbia and many more. We had a great response to these podcasts however we never felt the audio was up to the quality we wanted and we felt doing podcasts in person would flow a lot better, and make the audience feel a better connection with us as well as the guests.
The first in-studio podcast we did was with Jazza Dickens. I was incredibly nervous for this, however it went boss and the feedback we got back from it was great, this drove us to continue studio based podcasts and gave us confidence and drive to keep on going.
Which artists have been your favourite guests?
I could choose from any of them as they have all been brilliant experiences. However there are a few which stand out, Joe Maddox from Rats was very interesting and a very funny podcast, having seen Rats just before covid play a sell out invisible wind factory to then sitting down with him talking all things music and having a laugh just a few months later was mind blowing to me.
Also having The Night Café come on the podcast was crazy to process, they are one of my favourite bands and their debut album 0151 is one of best albums of the last few years with incredible tracks on it such as Turn and Felicity, it was also an album which helped a lot through the last few years.
It was a privilege to sit down for an hour discussing the making of this album as well as some funny stories. I also loved doing podcasts with The Lags, The Kairos and The Sway as we had a drink on them and ended up having a few scoops at Shenanigans after it. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the guests for coming on once again.
I can see you are so passionate about music in general and especially music from the city – what is it about Liverpool that breeds such exciting talent?
I think the history and environment we grow up in plays a massive part. Throughout Liverpool’s history there has been great bands who have seen huge success such as The Beatles in the 1960’s through to Echo and the Bunnymen in the 1980’s and The La’s during the 1980’s/1990’s, aswell as more recently Cast, The Zutons and The Coral. I think these bands all have been a huge influence on local music – there is definitely something in the air in Liverpool!
I think music is something the city prides itself on and I think people from Liverpool really get behind their own. There are also many bands/artists in Liverpool who I feel are criminally underrated – for me, Mick Head is one of the greatest song writers of all time and I feel HMS Fable and Water pistol are up there with the greatest albums of the 90’s.
I think these albums have played a massive role in breeding new talent, most artists we have on site Mick Head as an influence. I think having local cult hero’s like Mick inspire people to pick up a guitar and give it a go. I am extremely excited to see what the future holds for the current group of local bands, there are so many great bands coming through with very different sounds and styles. It’s boss for us to see bands such as The Sway, Monks, Stone and Casino playing big venues like the arts club theatre and seeing Jamie Webster & The Night Café playing sell out Olympia shows. The future is certainly bright for the local music scene and I can’t wait to see what it brings and be part of it.
And what next for The Tenth Pint?
We are currently looking into putting on a gig in October, details of this will be announced over the coming months. Our main goal is to keep growing and keep supporting the thriving music scene in Liverpool. I feel our podcast certainly has longevity as long as we stay committed and keep pushing, who knows where it could end up.
Interview with Luke Davies:
Prior to your podcast, did you follow and listen to other Podcasts, if so, which ones did you enjoy?
Yeah, prior to our own podcast, I used to like listening Joe Rogan quite a lot because he has an array of mad guests on, it’s not just sports people, it can be like scientists which allows you learn quite a lot from a number them, with them having the potential to be funny yet informative.
If you’re looking for a comedy podcast that I probably listen to, it would be ‘Have a word’ I think they are probably the best, it was enjoyable to see Adam Rowe grow as a comedian through the podcast. Also, ‘The Leg it’ podcast with Andy Grant is more of a local podcast which is good, it is professional, and we get most of our inspiration from them.
When did you feel the idea could turn into reality?
We were sitting down in a park in lockdown, we found what app was best to use to start off with. We began as an audio podcast and received a good response. This made us grow as a podcast and allowed us to work out what type of guests we wanted.
Where did the name come from?
‘The Tenth Pint Podcast’, was originally going to be called ‘Two Wise Men’ but then Beatham wasn’t really happy with that name so then we just discarded it. I think he said ‘Fifth Pint’ or something like that at the start and then eventually we just came to our final decision.
To be honest we only really started drinking on the podcast recently, but I think it is better with some guests drinking sometimes, but obviously we interview some boxers and stuff like that who don’t really drink so it is good to get the balance of both, but we have to do a lot more edits after we’ve had a few drinks hahaha.
How do you select the artists to join you?
We usually see if they have new music out, or they contact us, but we know most of them now anyway due to the music scene.
How was your first podcast?
The first podcast has now been deleted. It was that bad, I think it was just random talking with no actual topic to talk about. However, the first video podcast was with Boxer Jazza Dickens, that was very nerve wracking as it was in a studio and both of us had no experience of that environment prior to the podcast. Once the first podcast was released and we had good feedback this made us want to keep going and film more podcasts.
Which artists have been your favourite guests?
We enjoy all the podcasts, but my personal favourite has to be Jamie Webster as we interviewed him just after his album ‘We get by’ and both thought we asked the right questions and the questions we wanted the answers to on that podcast. Jamie has supported us since sharing our podcast with other artists/bands, just a boss bloke all in all. Also, Interviewing the Wombats drummer Dan was a massive moment considering how massive they are it was surreal looking back at that interview.
I can see you are so passionate about music in general and especially music from the city – what is it about Liverpool that breeds such exciting talent?
I think Liverpool is full of talent due to the environment we are brought up in. We all have similar mentalities, and we are normally told about artists such as the Beatles from a young age, this then progresses into the La’s and Cast as we get a bit older. Also, there is so much history and so many examples to look at that makes achieving dreams seem possible, whether this be through music, sport, or other avenues.
Adding to that, I think we are a very resilient city, full of resilient people who once they set their mind on something will put the work in to achieve it. Another reason we have such exciting talent is the fact we are encouraged to pursue things and look after our own, we have seen this ourselves, with the support we have been given by literal strangers regarding the podcast.
What next for The Tenth Pint?
We normally take each interview as it comes but we have two massive podcasts lined up by the end of the month. But long term we just want to keep enjoying meeting and interviewing interesting people and hope we can give people like us with some talent the opportunity to tell their story in a long form interview format.
Thank you to Michael and Luke for their time.
Very best wishes for the future!
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