AS DISAPPOINTING AS it is, being in a heavy metal band is rarely a full-time job. If you want enough cash to record in a studio or tour nationwide, you are likely to need a nine-to-five for that financial backbone, and bands from Slayer to Conjurer have all known it. In Jake Leyland’s case, he’s moonlighted as the guitarist for sludge metal nasties Beggar since their formation in 2011; by day, however, he works for humanitarian healthcare organisation Médecins Sans Frontières, spending up to half of his year in the world’s harshest war zones.
“I started working with Médecins Sans Frontières in 2016,” the musician says. “I do what’s called ‘health promotion’, which is going around and saying, ‘This is who we are, this is why we’re here, and we’ll be coming back every week to give vaccines.’
“If people don’t know why Médecins Sans Frontières is there, they might attack us,” he continues. “It happened during our Ebola response in the Congo; misinformation led to violent attacks on health clinics.”
Since the start of 2018 alone, Jake has spent 12 months of his life protecting his co-workers in war-torn parts of Africa. When he’s back home in the UK, the intense things he’s seen on the front line manifest themselves into his riffs, all of which possess the slow despair of Iommi at his darkest. Combine that guitarwork with singer/bassist Charlie Davis’s black-metal-like screaming and you have the foundation of Beggar’s hideous soundscape.
“I love the idea that some of our riffs were born in Kinshasa or Bangui,” the frontman remarks. “When Jake comes back with a riff, it’s like unwrapping a present from a mate. But there’s always an awareness of where it’s come from. So, in that way, it’s complicated. You’re keen to hear what’s been cooking, but you know what’s been cooking may involve difficult stuff.”