An Interview With Actor & Musician Billy Boyd

Boyd Performing in Beecake, Live Photography by C&J Photos

The other day, I was fortunate enough to talk on the phone with Scottish actor Billy Boyd, best known for his role as the troublesome Pippin Took in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy, as well as ill-fated Barett Barden in Peter Weir’s Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World

Boyd’s band, Beecake, is on their first American tour, and will be visiting Philadelphia next Wednesday, October 7th. They’ll be performing at the Tin Angel, a small, cozy music venue located right outside of Old City. Rest assured, the Geekadelphia crew will be there, psyched to welcome Boyd and his band. After all, it’s their first time coming to Philadelphia, and we’re gonna have to show them around.

Boyd (Right) as Pippin in Lord of the Rings

In a phone conversation that lasted nearly 40 minutes, Boyd talked about his upcoming show at Radio City Music Hall with composer Howard Shore, his musical influences, his favorite video games and graphic novels, what it’s like partying with Russell Crowe, and the origin of his band’s name. He even mentioned his favorite kind of cupcake, the sort that our friends at Open Source Cupcakes will probably be supplying.

So read on! Boyd’s a great guy, and I can’t wait to his band next Wednesday.

So, Beecake is coming to Philly! Is this your first time visiting Philadelphia? Are you excited about seeing anything here in particular?

Yeah! Well, what we’re doing at the moment is trying to get together some suggestions from American friends who have been to the city. People we know are putting together a list of things we can’t afford to miss while we’re here. Gonna wait and see. Definitely going to have to walk around Old City. Looking forward to it.

Tell our readers about your band. Who are some of your influences?

Me and the guitarist BJ [Billy Johnson] went to school together, played music together all our lives. John, the drummer, we had our first band together when we like… 15 years old. So I played with him a lot. And Rick the bassist, he played in bands, and we knew him as a great musician. When we got this together, it was just friends getting back together again. And as I started writing, it became a lot more serious. It took off from there. We didn’t want it to be a serious thing, but the music is serious, but the more we got into it, the more serious it became. Spent a lot of energy trying to get the music right.

Influences? Everything from the Beatles to the Who kind of influence us. And Radiohead. Huge strain of influences. On our Myspace page, we have it written down. There’s like one hundred on there [laughs]. We tried to narrow it down to about 30.

And Beecake? What can you tell us about the name?

That came from Dom [Dominic Monaghan], a great friend of mine. He played Merry in Lord of the Rings. He was on holiday from Lost and took three months off, decided to go Spain. While he was in Spain he was sending me the photographs of everywhere he was. One day on a beach, one day in a pub with people he met, etc… and one day he sent me a picture of a cake cooovered in bees. He went into a bakery and one of the cakes was just covered in bees. All the way. There were bees flying around, but they absolutely loved this cake. He sent me the picture, calling it a “the beecake” and I just thought it was a great sounding word. That’s how we came up with Beecake.

Boyd talks about this favorite comics, video games, being an actor-in-a-band, Howard Shore, and more, after the jump!

Do you ever feel like there’s a stigma associated with being a successful actor who’s also in a band? Like Keanu Reeves in Dogstar? You’re way better than Dogstar, by the way.

[ laughter] thank you!

I think there is definitely a stigma to it. Sometimes it’s kind of good, opens doors for people who will hear the band who know the actors. Once people listen to it, you have to be 100 times better, because people like to pigeon-hole artists. Someones an actor, musician, painter, and that’s it. I don’t think human beings are meant to only do one or two things, you know?

I think it does make it difficult, but it makes you even more committed to making the best music you can. You know there’s always gonna be a little bit of actor-band kind of thing. I was in a band, before I was an actor, so it doesn’t worry me. But when people listen to the music, it HAS to be really good. I don’t want to be an actor who is in a bad band.

The tour coincides with a performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. What can you tell us about that show?

Yeah we’re going to open the show. I heard about it a long time ago, always wanted to go, thought it would be an amazing way to experience the film. The music is just so important in those films. And to see it with a live orchestra? To see ANY movie with a live orchestra is awesome, but in particular this will be an amazing experience. Shore did an amazing job, creating that world through music. Very excited about seeing that. The boys in the band as well. I’d say just as excited about seeing it as playing. Especially John [the drummer]. He’s a big Lord of the Rings fan.

What’s Howard Shore like? Have you ever met him?

Oh yeah I met him a few times. Went to a lot of the recording sessions for the orchestra, since I’m interested in music. Went whenever I could. Just purely amazing stuff. The intricacy of the instruments he uses, where he’s place a note… it all ties together and helps tell an amazing story. And also because I sang a song in the movie, we worked quite closely after I wrote the song. Met together in the city, worked on the score quite a lot. Incredible man. Very talented.

Since I run a Geek blog, I’ve got to ask. Favorite comic book / graphic novel? Favorite video games?

Yeah! Hm. I think the comic book, I hate to say it since it’s kinda hot, but I do love Watchmen. I got in a store in NY. I was working in NY, kind of there by myself filming something, and just sat around a lot in my hotel room. I walked by a big comic book store, and went up to the guy working there, and asked what graphic novel should I read. He gave me Watchmen and Pride of Baghdad. Preacher is also just brilliant. After all I’ve read, graphic novels, Watchmen is my favorite. In terms of straight comics, I love Spider-Man the most.

We used to play a lot of games when we made Lord of the Rings. Me, Dom, Elijah. At that time, it was all about FIFA and soccer games, sports games when you can bad mouth each other. God of War games for when I’m by myself. Also I love the JRPGs, oh, and SoCOM! LOVED that. It was challenging. Now I’m getting into the Nintendo Wii. It’s easy, you can pick it up for 15 minutes here and there.

Now some questions from our readers, if you’ve got the time.

Of course!

@mainpa Do you still keep in touch with your fellow Lord of the Rings actors?

Yeah! Still talk to the guys. I love Elijah, very close, talk almost every week. Me and Dom are pretty much best friends, we talk almost daily. Orlando, Viggo… you know, it’s weird, cause when we were talking about making the movie, we knew in our heads that it was cheesy saying the movie was special and we’d be real friends… but it’s absolutely true. TEN YEARS since we started filming the first one, we’re still great friends, we still meet up, go on holidays together. Proved it was special, real experience.

@dbanana What’s your favorite kind of cupcake?

Please note Billy, that this may result in you receiving a giant cupcake from our friends Open Source Cupcakes at your show in Philadelphia.

Ahh! Right! I love cupcakes! Wow, do they have different flavors?! They should definitely make a Beecake themed cake! Any sort of banana flavor in there. Banana bread, nuts, any sort of banana. I’m ready for a banana nut beecake.

@kwalska how did being Scottish influence your choices on playing Pippin?

Ahh, that’s an interesting one! Never been asked about that. We looked into that actually, Peter [Jackson] liked the idea of Pippin BEING Scottish. There’s a lot sort of hinting towards the Tooks, that they are actually the Scottish OF the Shire, they live in their own country within the Shire. Took is an old Scottish word, and in the writing they invented golf… wow, it’s all coming back to me now, and they had clans within the Shire. It was in all these things that we thought Tolkein was like writing the character like a Scot. It helped with the characteritzation. The Hobbits thought of him as something else, we all had different things that kept us apart from each other, made us unique. We didn’t want anything in there Tolkein wouldn’t have wanted, and we took all the of hints within the writing, that the Tooks were a Scottish race.

@brianstraka do you prefer working in the film industry or the music industry better? Why?

I kinda like both. The film industry is my love. I love watching movies, making movies, but there’s something great about being in a band. When you’re filming something, sometimes it can be quite a lonely experience, or it can be a great experience cause you’re not sharing with anyone. It’s a hard thing to explain.

The band though, this whole arriving-in-Philly thing, we get so excited about it. New places, go see new places like your Old City you were talking about, and we have these memories that we created as a band. And if you take that onto stage, its four friends together making this sound. Something really special about being involved in that.

I basically love doing both. When I’m doing one I miss doing the other. If I could do every other one every time, that’d be nice. Movie, tour, movie, tour. [laughter]

@apirwin do you have any favorite actor-led bands? Philadelphia’s own Kevin Bacon is in a group, you know!

Kevin Bacon’s band?! Any good? Maybe I’ll pick that up IN Philadelphia. I like picking up the music from where ever I go. Any music stores in the area?

AKA Music is in Old City. You should check that out. Lots of local bands are sold in there.

We’ll have to go then! Actor led bands… well, I had a great night the other night with Russell Crowe. He has a band as well. He had a party, he’s working on Robin Hood at the moment, and he sort of had the guys from the movie getting together, the cast from Master and Commander, and had this music party with guitars, pianos, etc., and everyone got up and played songs. It was great. It was a fantastic night. Great music and people.. I think a lot of actors like to play music, lots of down time waiting around to be used, so you pick up a guitar or harmonica and just play. Lots of actors can play harmoinca. Everyone tells me its great, the sound is good.

Alright, that’s all for the readers. I guess I’ll let you go now, It was really great talking to you Billy! Can’t wait for the show.

Same! Make sure you find me after or before we play. Thanks so much!