BEAK> (L to R: Matt Williams, Billy Fuller, Geoff Barrow)

As if being friends with Banksky, running an underground record label (Invada), and producing/playing in Portishead isn’t exciting enough, Geoff Barrow has also spent the past year sharpening the sonic teeth of his new band BEAK>. Rounding out by Robert Plant’s recent bassist (Billy Fuller, also of Invada’s first-ever signing, Fuzz Against Junk) and Matt Williams (Team Brick), the power trio formed in early 2009 and tracked their self-titled debut at their first rehearsals. Slapdash start aside, the songs are the sound of three Bristol vets who are on some sort of spiritual plane together—right alongside everything from the classic Kraut-rock of Can to stoner-metal standards like Sunn O))) and Sleep.

It’s music you lose your mind to, in other words—an even weirder version of Barrow’s creative vision than the last Portishead record, if you can believe that. In the following interview, Barrow discusses everything from his favorite Madlib record to why the Horrors didn’t really need his help after all. BEAK> will be making a couple rare East Coast appearances this weekend, including a stop at Bowery Ballroom on Friday and a set at the upstate edition of All Tomorrow’s Parties on Saturday.