John MacLean – fused musical elements like ambient drones, trip hop beats and Pink Floyd-style introspective balladry to create their unique sound throughout their EPs, and that these releases "served as a fabulous taster for the band's self-titled debut." By the time of The Beta Band, the group had undergone a successful, quick American tour while having become known in Britain for their live performances. Their gigs typically featured films, a DJ set that they would perform before the show, and quirky on-stage sampling from Mclean. Although anticipation for the band's official debut album was high, McLean later admitted they were "sure a bit worried about doing an album." They would later tour in the United States in promotion of The Beta Band. Writing and recording Each song on the album was approached differently; some songs the band developed from a single idea or melody, while the chords and melodies of others were developed beforehand. Robin Jones stated "We never really had a master plan ... after we did a song, we turned around and tried to do exactly the opposite. The most exciting songs were the ones where we were making something out of nothing." Describing his lyrics for the record, vocalist Steve Mason explained he typically just followed "the rhythms of the songs, more like a percussionist", and mentioned that the songs "don't really tell a story. It's just words that go in there. They mean something, but they don't mean…anything." Despite some critics believing some of the tracks to be pastiches, the band explained to writer Lydia Vanderloo that they were not "really into pastiche or irony or anything", with Maclean commenting, "Everything's very serious and honest, hopefully. We're not so scared that we hide behind the irony that a lot of folks seem to hide behind these days." Mason later explained to Hedrickson about the creation of the songs: According to Steve Taylor in The A to X of Alternative Music, none of the songs were prepared before the band entered the studio, which is where they were "determined to keep their manual looping techniques". The band's original intention for The Beta Band was for it to be a double album with each side of the LP recorded in a different continent, "one in Tokyo, one in Mexico and so on". The band tried to plan this with their manager and Regal owner Miles Leonard, but