Courtney Love’s former bandmate, who leads her own Homerton based band, has blasted the current music scene, claiming, “nearly everyone in East London is in a band now”.
Bethia Beadman spent over a year sofa surfing and living in her car to support her fledgling solo career.
The singer, who has just finished recording her second album, believes the increasing number of people labelling themselves as musicians on Soundcloud has impacted her ability to get noticed.
She said: “People in the industry just look at artists online. No one really goes to gigs any more so they don’t see who transforms onstage.”
Bethia’s first big break was in 2007, when she joined Courtney Love in Hollywood as her pianist and backing singer.
Although the experience “was an absolute dream”, it fired up her ambition to carve out her own musical identity in London.
She said: “Courtney was wonderful and I related to her music a lot. But if you’re in someone else’s band, it doesn’t really hit the spot.”
“All the glamour doesn’t make up for singing songs that aren’t your own.”
Despite the financial uncertainty of being an unsigned artist in a changing industry, Bethia remains optimistic.
“The beautiful thing about not hitting the big time is that you’re always on the way up. You have to believe that, or you’d go mad,” she added.
Describing her music as “country-tinged rock and roll”, Bethia Beadman has played at Glastonbury seven times, the Isle of White Festival twice, and “just about every venue in East London”. Her latest album Chinatown will be released in February. She played a preview launch at the Union Chapel last week.
