Belle and Sebastian Want to Open Mexican Restaurant

Posted on Oct 12th 2010 6:00AM by James Lawrenson
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Andy Sheppard, Redferns

Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch has announced a desire to launch a side project from the band -- opening a Mexican restaurant.

Speaking to NPR (via NME), Murdoch said, "I have some ideas that I might have to act upon. One of them is to open a taqueria [Mexican eaterie] in Glasgow. There's no decent Mexican food in Glasgow.

"I've had this idea for a while, to open a Belle and Sebastian taqueria. You're laughing, but I'm about to get serious about this. Because this could be the thing that allows me to carry on doing music -- to serve a decent taco."

As Spinner recently reported, Taco Bell are giving away $500 (£315) of food to a number of touring bands -- it may be that Mexican food is becoming the zeitgeist fuel of choice for the self-respecting indie group.

The Glasgow band released their eighth studio album, 'Belle and Sebastian Write About Love' on Monday, Oct. 11, in the UK. It hits record stores in North America on Tuesday.

Murdoch says he managed to keep his living costs cheap in the early days of the band. "I got used to living very cheaply when I was younger, not really having any gainful employment. [I] kind of lived in a church building, where they let me live for free so long as I looked after the building and the grounds."

Belle and Sebastian depart for a UK tour in December, whose highpoint will be the Bowlie 2 weekend they have curated, which will feature Foals, Crystal Castles, the New Pornographers and the band themselves, among others.

In an interview largely focused on personal finance, Murdoch also revealed that life is tough, even near the top of the indie scene. "The music industry has become more difficult over the years. And as a group, we've had to become quite sensible because our margins are very tight."