Superdry : Banter With Callum Beattie

You hail from Edinburgh, which is wear the infamous Fringe Festival takes place - so a great icebreaker is to tell us your finest joke!

What do you call a dinosaur with no eyes?
DoYouThinkHeSawrus

What was the pinnacle moment when music became a career reality and not just a love?

My dad said one summer 'we both need a holiday but I don't have much money; we can go to Tenerife and camp or we can drive down to the south of England, go through the lovely wee towns and go to as many gigs as we can. But we have to sleep in the car.' It was a no brainier we slept at service stations most nights and the first show we saw was Rogers Waters (Pink Floyd) at Hyde Park. My dad asked me to turn on my young puppy dog eyes and ask for two tickets from a ticket tout, and he gave us them for face value after pulling a few sad faces on haha. It was that night I thought wow, this is it! Light bulb moment, I want to be that person playing to thousands of people.

Many artists pride themselves on hard graft and good luck to get to where they are - what are key moments, stories and achievements in your path to success?

My first job after school was pushing trolleys in Tesco. I used the high viz jacket to sneak into festivals and pretend I was working there. I'd hand out demos to rockstars on the hope they would listen. I had a few drinks at T in the Park in Scotland with Kings of Leon backstage and managed to jump on stage to 80k people during the REM performance! I've always been willing to go to extreme lengths to have my music heard ha!

How would you best describe your sound?

Autobiographical, therapeutic, popular music.

How did you handle London when you moved to the capital? Tell us some highs and lols and lows of the city!

I soon realised that I was going around in circles staying in Scotland hoping that someone would walk into a pub and see me play. Every night I'd wait and watch hoping he was the guy that was going to catapult me to where I wanted to be. I realised quickly it was all down to me. So I moved to London, got a job washing dishes at a posh pub and got sacked one week after Christmas. I think I was too common for the owner ha.

Most surreal moment of your career to date?

Glastonbury! I played my song 'Some Heroes Don't Wear Capes'-a song about my dad. He was in the audience and I burst into tears half way through the song. It was a moment I'll never forget! I also caught a glimpse of comedian Jimmy Carr's forehead bouncy down at the front haha.

Talk to us about your latest single 'Without You'…

'Without You' is a song I wrote in Berlin. I had a relationship with a girl for almost ten years - we were childhood sweethearts. I decided to end the relationship for a number of reasons - it's the hardest thing I've ever had to do. The song is about feeling like the weight of the world is off your shoulders one day and the next day everything is just unbearable without them. Constant ups and downs. It's an upbeat song with a few tongue and cheek lyrics but it's a massively personal song and every time I sing it I do feel a lot of emotion and sadness.

What can't you live without?

Laughter!

Talk to us about your single Connection!

As my therapist said 'I ran away to Berlin' from the pain of my relationship ending. I took a guitar and a bag of clothes. Booked a hostel and after a few days found a room in a flat with 3 Buddhists. They said I needed to heal and that the only way of doing so was to connect with myself again. That's where the original lyric came from and the song was born. It's about connecting with new people without fear of falling in love again.

Are you any good at Connect 4? Name your favourite board games with reasons why!

Spin the bottle! I used to awkwardly suggest a game of spin the bottle between my friends when I was a teen because I wanted a snog haha! Some things never change!

Any mega stars out there you'd be wary to play chess against, and why?

I have the attention span of a 5 yr old so the thought of me sitting playing chess for 5mins is impossible to be honest!!

What characteristics does someone need to connect with Callum?

A good heart, kindness, open mindedness, and a lust for life.

You recently played The Great Escape Festival in Brighton, which is a unique seaside playground for emerging talent. If you could curate your own festival, from the landscape to the décor to the crowd to the line-up, what would Callum Beattistival be like?

Haha I would have a classic Scottish festival where I was up to my knees in farmland! Soaked to the bone on a four day bender raving to AC/DC.

We invited you to our Regent Street flagship too, and bluddy loved having you! What did you make of the brand, and what did you pick out?

Well right now I'm sitting wearing a super-dry denim shirt! I've had people drooling at me walking down the street so I've got something right! (In my dreams) I also picked a really cool biker jacket which fits me perfectly!

There's a sense of humour and charm to your social media - in a world of 'influencers', what does actual influence mean to you?

The hardest thing to do it's to be completely yourself especially in the age of social media everyone constantly watching your every move. It's hard not to feel self-conscious at times worrying about what people might think of you. I'm influenced by people who are brave enough to be who they really are rather than trying to find as many sexy pics as possible for an ego boost and likes. It's much more attractive to me.

Who do you look up to and why?

I look up to the likes of Billy Connolly - reading about him he had a very similar upbringing to me. Poverty as far as the UK goes and an abusive upbringing. But man did he make something of himself! And all the way through he maintained his respect and compassion for others.

Seeing as we're going all inspirational, let's end with a wise quote from your wise self!

A lyric I've always wanted to put into a song!
'Don't tell me the skies the limit when there's footprints on the moon'

FOLLOW CALLUM BEATTIE ON INSTAGRAM HERE!
LISTEN TO WITHOUT YOU ON YOUTUBE HERE!