THE BE POSITIVES is a northern conundrum. Consisting of Mike Seal (Guitar, Piano & Vocals), Rob Hatton (Bass & Vocals), Simon Mayne (Lead Guitar & Vocals) and Callum Darley (Drums & Vocals), they were splayed across Merseyside to Sheffield, all sharing an affinity for McCartney, Dylan, Kinks and Nick Lowe, and later, moving to Manchester, all hankering for gigging at grotty pubs across the city. Now united, the four-piece invoke mad-pop affirmation through berserk instrumentation laced with smart lyricism.
Two of the members are also of the Slovenly Records garage-rock outfit Proto Idiot who’ve been supported by the likes of Dork, Loud And Quiet, Louder Than War and VICE – the latter described them as “[sounding] like The Kinks, Soft Boys, and TV Personalities all at once—and they’re stupid and stompingly brilliant”. Now the dim-witted moniker makes way for the nonsensical debut from The Be Positives – ‘Monkey (Cheetah)’.
Of the same vein as fellow up-and-comers Cut Worms, filled with Lemon Twigs-esque intoxicants, the outfit’s new single ‘Monkey (Cheetah)’ screams 70s pop-rock. The band said “Mike and a few friends had to learn all the songs from the original ‘Jungle Book‘ film for a kids party. ‘Monkey (Cheetah)‘ was written around that time, and during a big Harry Nilsson binge. Monkey was a working title that stuck, and the Cheetah was a coincidence. It made perfect sense for the video to be an animation.”
Director Callum Scott-Dyson said this about the stop-motion visual: “For the music video for ‘Monkey (Cheetah)’, we wanted to capture a lot of the fun, energy and colour of the track, and of course use the song title and stories within the lyrics as a jump off point for the plot. We decided to go with a hand drawn, cut out style of animation, in the vein of Noggin The Nog or Mr Ben, wanting a bit of a child like quality to the shots and action.”
The quartet’s self-titled album encapsulates their varied musical influences, from their garage fueled opening track ‘Like Everyone’ to the Nilsson tinged mad-pop of new single ‘Monkey. The Be Positives certainly don’t attach themselves to one genre. Expanding on ‘Like Everyone’, the band said “The song was written very quickly on acoustic guitar in Mike and Callum’s kitchen. It was originally intended for Proto Idiot. You could sum the theme of the song up by simply saying, we all make mistakes; we’re all the same.”
The Be Positives release ‘Monkey (Cheetah)’ on the 2nd July and the debut full-length will be out on all platforms from the 3rd September 2019 via White Zoo Records. Check out the video for ‘Monkey (Cheetah)’ – BELOW:
North England Tour
23rd May, Band on the Wall – Manchester
6th Jul, R-Fest, Retro – Manchester
11th Jul, AATMA (Supporting The Goa Express and Farfisa) – Manchester
16th Aug, The Red Lion – Winsford
23rd Aug, JT Soar – Nottingham
30th Aug, Hyde Park Book Club – Leeds
1st Sep, The Castle – Manchester
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