We had the opportunity to interview The Beaches.
"There is a real and important specialness to a group of young girls being drawn to rock and pop music as a creative pursuit. Their love of the genre and of forming a real relationship with their instruments—eventually foundational for their enormous fan base—was clear from the beginning.
Named appropriately after the Toronto neighbourhood they all hail from, The Beaches is as authentically rock ‘n’ roll as it comes. Their 70s aesthetic, vivacious attitude, and electrifying sounds all fit harmoniously in a modern rock context. Rock music is an experience; it’s a visceral reaction to a moment, emotion, or a mood. And all of that is all built upon the foundation of live performance. The Beaches prioritize and emphasize instruments, not backing tracks, when they are onstage, beckoning their audience to go on a hypnotic journey only live music can accomplish. “When people come see us live, they are only going to hear that live version of the song,” Jordan says. “It’s going to be slightly different each time. And that’s sort of a powerful thing to experience.”
The Beaches released their sizzling debut LP, Late Show, in October 2017 via Universal Music Canada. Late Show is representative of the band’s unity. After some time spent in Los Angeles, working on other tracks with a variety of rock and pop producers, The Beaches came back to Toronto, bringing the lessons of those sessions back with them. Working with Toronto Aughts rock legends Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw of Metric—and occasional Broken Social Scene members—The Beaches were able to truly define themselves as a rock ‘n’ roll project on their own turns. They are a fusion of past and present, defiantly placing them in a modern and future context where rock prevails.
Now, on their newest EP, The Professional, out May 16, The Beaches have further evolved as songwriters and musicians. On The Professional, the band worked with legendary producer Garrett “Jacknife” Lee. Lee has worked with important modern pop and rock musicians like The Killers, Snow Patrol, Bloc Party, and U2, as well as produced Taylor Swift’s eponymous 2012 record, Red. “We pulled from a lot of different influences because [Lee] is such a talented musicians and pulls from so many different genres of music,” Kylie explains. “We referenced Blur, obviously The Strokes are big for us. We were also listening to James Brown and a lot of 70s funk records. We listened to David Bowie.” For “Fascination,” Jordan says she listened to and referenced The Bangles a bit, tapping into all-girl band rock history.”
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