Interview: Beach House Take Stock Of A "Very Intense" Year

Just before Christmas, we gave Baltimore dream poppers Beach House the honour of kicking off our Artists' Albums Of 2010 series. We felt it was only right, given that they were responsible for making our very own album of the year - just one of a plethora of such accolades to have came the band's way over the course of the last twelve months. We were also lucky enough to get to speak to guitarist Alex Scally just before the holidays kicked in. As well as reflecting on an excellent year for himself and bandmate Victoria Legrand, he discussed tourmates, working on the band's live game and the four seasons of music-making.

Hi, Alex. Season’s greetings! Thanks for taking the time to speak to us. I think it’d be fair to say you guys have had a pretty great year…

“Yeah, it’s been a very intense year for us, and we’re very lucky; we’ve always just done our own thing and not really been known by that many people – and I guess we’re still not known by that many! – but we’re certainly known by a lot more now, and they seem to be really smart, cool people who don’t just scream out for a single at a show and then leave. So we’ve been very, very lucky and it’s been a very good year. No complaints!”

We spoke to Victoria shortly before the new album came out, and she had said you guys were very aware of the increased level of expectation. Have the eleven months since then gone the way you had been expecting, or have they maybe exceeded those expectations?

“Yeah, definitely… They’ve gone better, no question. Playing to an average of three or four hundred more people every night doesn’t always mean better, but I think in this case it is. Luckily we’ve been able to grow enough as a live band – we’re trying to really put on a show for that many people. We’re not still trying to do our two hundred-person show for eight hundred people, we’re trying really hard to be as good as people might hopefully think we were.”

I know when you played Whelans in Dublin earlier in the year, it was one of the most thoroughly sold-out shows of 2010. Have you found that crowds are reacting really well to the new material compared to, say, their reaction a couple of years ago?

“One thing about out music is that it’s not that showy, so sometimes it’s hard to make it come across live. But we’ve tried to work really hard to make the parts that are powerful really translate live. It’s always different; some places we get lots of new fans, while in others it’s more older ones, but the reception has been pretty good overall. I mean, we’re never going to be a ‘crowd-pleasing’ band per se, we’re never going to be doing clap-alongs, call-and-response... Victoria’s never going to dive into the crowd, and nobody is ever going to get spat on at a Beach House show! We’re just trying to make it a very intense, visceral and highly emotional experience, but not necessarily hooting and hollering.”

Before touring Teen Dream, you had said that the increased dynamism of the new songs lent themselves better to a live setting, whereas Devotion was more still-sounding. Are you having more fun playing these songs live as a result?

“Definitely. I think they were written with our live show in mind, and they are certainly more enjoyable to play. We passed the hundred-and-fifty-show mark for 2010, and that’s the most we’ve ever played in our lives; but at the same time it doesn’t feel nearly as bad as it did before, and that’s because we’ve been able to keep some life in the live performance. We’ve also added a new live member (drummer Graham Hill), which helps us all keep it fresh.”

Being able to keep things fresh like that must help when you’re faced with a gruelling tour schedule, like that seven-week stint you did across The US with Vampire Weekend. How were those shows?

“They (Vampire Weekend) get some very big crowds, but very... I dunno, bland. I don’t actually want to say bland – that’s a terrible word – but people who are only ready to dance and sing to a single. There’s nothing wrong with those crowds, they’re all good people, but it’s a different kind of crowd than we’re used to having. It  was a massive learning experience in how to play to four- or five-thousand capacity rooms, and play to people who don’t know who you are – and don’t necessarily want to find out!

Is that tricky, or do you approach it in the spirit of “Hey, there’s something to learn here”?

“We have to take it in that way because otherwise it might get depressing. So we had some enjoyable shows and some difficult shows. I don’t think music sounds or feels as good when you get over a certain number of people – maybe a thousand or fifteen hundred… It starts to become a little impersonal, and there’s usually nothing you can do to get that feeling back like you get in a place like Whelans.”

In the same sort of way, you’ve been able to bring your friends Lower Dens on tour to experience bigger crowds than they’re used to playing to. There seems to be a good spirit these days of bands bringing other bands they love on tour – like Grizzly Bear might have done for you guys, for instance; is it nice to be able to do that yourselves now?

“Always. We’ve tried to bring bands we like out on tour with us, but it’s always this funny thing where, if a lot of people are coming to see you then you want everyone to see them, and sometimes you have to say ‘God, I’m sorry our fans talked through your set tonight’ afterwards. It’s always this mixed thing that you wish everyone would give them the attention they deserve, but thankfully a lot of the time it works out that way.”

For bands like that whom you’re bringing out on tour, do you think where Beach House are at right now might show them that patience and hard work can pay off? That if you keep bringing out great records and making steady progress, you’ll get there eventually?

“I think a lot of bands in The States do what we do: put out records and tour a tonne; and I really think touring has a lot to do with it, because literally every time we’ve come to Europe it’s always been a little bit better. It’s never been massively better, but this was our fifth time crossing The Atlantic this year – our tenth tour in Europe! – and after the first two or three were empty, every one since has gotten better. That’s true for any band who tour a lot and like what they do, they get much better. I’ve seen it a million times, and often for bands who nobody thought would be ‘commercial’ at all. I believe in that old motto that’s been around forever, which is ‘Get on the road, figure out who you are and have fun!’”

Has it been tough at times getting there? The two of you were presumably holding down part-time jobs in-between touring and recording up until not too long ago. For instance, I can remember you playing with Fleet Foxes in London during the summer of 2008 – it was supposed to be a double-headliner, but then they just blew up all of a sudden. Was that an occasion where you looked at them and maybe thought “Hang on, that’s supposed to be us…”?

“We didn’t, because we understood exactly why Fleet Foxes were doing so well: (a) They were incredible live, just amazing (way better than us!), and (b) Their music really had this commercial power that ours just didn’t. We make the music that we make, and they make the music that they make; they’re great musicians and great guys. Some things are just meant to go further and faster by the nature of what they are. We don’t ever plan to make music that’s all that commercial – it wouldn’t suit our personality, or our taste or style.”

Finally – and speaking of making music – have you had any time to think about the next record? Again, I remember Victoria telling us that Teen Dream was the result of months and months of touring and storing up lots and lots of ideas. Has the same thing been happening on the road this year?

“Yeah, it’s always the same for us. We’re very lucky that this feeling keeps on repeating itself; that at the end of a year of touring, you’re so sick of certain things that you’re excited to go in a new direction, and I think we’re feeling that now again. We have lots of new songs and ideas that we’re going to start working on at the end of the year. We often talk about being a bit like the seasons: one season is inspiration, one is recording, one is press and one is touring – the four things you have to be good at to make music your living!”