Throughout its lively, five-year career, Scotland's Beta Band has been pegged as scraggly pranksters, art-school burnouts, masterful truth-benders and Britain's answer to Beck. The foursome fits all these definitions in one way or another (although they've passed the "British Beck" mantle to Badly Drawn Boy), but at heart, the Beta Band is undefinable.

Each of its three releases--1998's "Three EPs," 1999's self-titled debut full-length and 2001's "Hot Shots II"--is a hodge-podge assembly of lo-fi noodling, savvy samples and freewheeling grooves. The driving "Dry the Rain" (from "Three EPs") popped up in the 2000 John Cusack flick "High Fidelity."

Handpicked by Radiohead to open its eagerly awaited summer 2001 U.S. tour, the Beta Band is witnessing crowd-swells beyond its wildest imagination. Citysearch.com's Scott Henkemeyer checked in with the Beta Band's master of decks and samples John Maclean during a tour stop in San Francisco to get the lowdown on the quartet's sexy new album and on what it's like to open for the Most Important Band on Earth.

LiveDaily: This tour is a bit more grand than anything you've mounted before. How's it going?

John Maclean: Really good. It's a different thing for us. It's kind of strange because it's the first time we've ever supported anyone. I think [the audiences] are really interested in us. We're interested in them as well.

You're playing material off "Hot Shots II." How was its recording different than past efforts?

We made a lot of mistakes on the first album proper. Our mindset wasn't appropriate for making an album.

How so?

We just weren't very prepared when we went into the studio. It was a stressful album to make. It was kind of where we were [at the time].

We worked out the new album more beforehand. We met a lot of producers and found the right one. By the time we actually got to the studio, it was an easy ride.

It's rather slick. Did the band have different influences this time out?

The main thing for me was buying a computer and learning to sequence on it. Everything we'd done in the past, there's been no sequencing whatsoever. There's just been lots of loop running, and they're all about 15 minutes long. The three of us got computers and learned how to use them in our time off while [guitarist-vocalist] Steve [Mason] was songwriting. I think that's the main difference, and why the songs are quite edited.

Does playing the new material live feel any different than playing older material?

It's remarkably similar to all our stuff, the way we play it live.

When the Beta Band debuted in the U.S., much was made of its theatrical stage show. What's your perception of all the fuss?

It's hard, because we don't read a lot of the American press, but our music can work on loads of different levels. It can be in the background or it can be studied. Live, we really get a club atmosphere going. The music has to be top standard, but we also want to make it slightly jiggy.

Do you still wear the suit of human hair onstage?

[Drummer] Robin [Jones] is drycleaning it at the moment because it had almost turned into dreadlocks.

Are you enjoying the downtime between shows?

We're busy sewing, all of us. We're making our stage costumes up as we go around, so there's a hell of a lot of sewing involved.