Canadian rockers The Beaches are dominating the world right now and there is no slowing them down anytime soon. The Toronto based band is comprised of sisters Jordan (lead vocals, bass) and Kylie Miller (guitar), keyboard, guitarist, (and ‘lesbian of the year’) Leandra Earl and drummer Eliza Enman-McDaniel. They are currently on a headline tour across the U.S and Canada with most shows seeing sell out crowds and fans eager to hear their new album No Hard Feelings live. Their new album which is such a brilliant album that focuses on each member of the bands unique stories, through heartbreak, queer love, and just overall the messiness of navigating it all.
In the two years since releasing their sophomore album, Blame My Ex, The Beaches have learned a lot about themselves, and you can hear that in the new music. Recently we got the amazing opportunity to sit down with all four girls before their show in Boston on September 24th and chat about inspirations behind the new album, who they’d want to collab with, and some of the proudest moments of their career so far.
Before the interview had started I chatted with Jordan while waiting for the others and she had mentioned how all of them had all gotten matching Harvard sweatshirts and walked around Harvard which i thought was the cutest.
Hey ya’ll thank you for taking the time to chat and welcome back to Boston!
Thank you, we are so glad to be back here.
What has it been like being back on the road again and being back in Boston for this show?
Kylie: It feels so good. We love the East Coast. We’re from the East Coast in Canada as well, so it feels like a little piece of home. We love Boston as a city. We’ve had so many good experiences here. We’ve come here consistently since we started this band. And it’s a city that’s always showed up for us. And the crowds are always amazing. So we can’t wait for the show tonight. It’s our biggest show here that we’ve ever done. Yeah, we’re thrilled.
I remember when you played Boston Calling two years ago now and how far you’ve come since then, it’s amazing to see
Jordan: yeah that was such an insane time it was so much fun. It was also around the time Blame Brett had begun to blow up out of nowhere and it was such a wild thing for us to experience and playing to such a big festival crowd at the time. One of our favorite memories for sure.
Congrats on your album No Hard Feelings! It has been out for a month now and it’s such a work of art, what’s it been like having that out for the world to hear?
Eliza: Oh my gosh, thank you so much for saying that. Yeah, it’s been so much fun. We’re so proud of the album. And we worked super hard on it. So, it’s been so rewarding to see everyone sing the words back to us at these shows. And just to see which songs are resonating with different people. I think that was what I was most excited for on this tour. So it’s been super fun to watch that unfold.
Speaking on the album, which songs would each of you say you’re most proud of?
Leandra: Definitely “Lesbian of the Year.”
Eliza: One of my favorites is “Can I Call You in the Morning”? Because I just think musically, it’s really strong and it’s a perfect way to open the album.
Jordan: I love “Fine, Let’s Get Married”. That’s probably my favorite.
Kylie: I really like “I Wore You Better”. But honestly, every song on the record, really proud of each of them. They’re all our babies.
Pertaining to the theme of the album you guys have mentioned before that this album focuses more on the entire bands stories individually, how did that inspiration come to be?
Jordan: I think at the end of the record cycle for Blame My Ex, I was kind of hitting a wall creatively and mentally because we had been touring so much and I was really sick. And I had also just started a new relationship and was very apprehensive to poke holes in something that was so fresh and new. I felt very protective over that. So, when you don’t know what to write about, you often look to the people around you. And those people are my bandmates. So, it started just as a creative process where I would ask them if they had any crazy stories, and these three women always do. And then I thought it would be a really great idea to expand the scope of the storytelling device for our record and be more inclusive with the stories that we tell, not just me using their stories but still filter through my perspective, but for me to really empathize with them and get their voice correct and bring them into the lyric writing so that they were the ones in charge of their own stories. And it, I think, created a really great album and brought me a lot closer to my bandmates in the process.
Speaking of inspiration, how did the album cover photo come to be? shoutout to Meg Moon for shooting it.
Kylie: Honestly, we had tried a bunch of different things for the album cover, and that photo that was taken actually was not supposed to be the album cover.
Jordan: It was just a thirst trap that I wanted. I was like, look how hot I look in this bra. Can you take a picture of me, Meg? And then she took a close-up.
Kylie: But it just ended up being so beautiful, and we just really loved the photo. Yeah, pretty much. It also just represents a lot of femininity, all those things. We’ve also had a ton of tie-ins to the bra and to the underwear with the Blame My Ex small vinyl that we had, it was like the bra and underwear showing, and that’s kind of been a reoccurring theme. So it’s one of those Easter eggs that we’ve kind of had along the journey. So it felt nice to pay homage to that, and we’re going to do more with the No Hard Feelings bra for sure. There might be someone else wearing it soon who knows.
Fans mentioned you should make merch out of the No Hard Feelings bra.
Jordan: Oh my god yes it should be merch. I’d love to. They’re just so expensive to make. That’s the one bummer. That would have been such good merch. It’s pricey but such a good idea.
Another cool thing you guys have done is cover “Ultimate” that is featured in Freakier Friday the movie, how did that come to be?
Eliza: We are obviously massive fans of the movies. We grew up watching them. So when we heard about the opportunity, it was an obvious yes. And that’s like such a full circle moment for us. So that was so much fun. And we don’t do covers that often. So to be able to cover The Ultimate was really cool. And to kind of workshop it and make it sort of our own, but also in line with the original version was really fun. And I don’t know if not a lot of people know this, but also “Last Girls at the Party” is in there. It’s kind of low in the middle. It’s hard to hear. But it’s in there.
Leandra: I think Disney was looking for a lot of female artists, like the Linda Lindas are also in it, because it’s just such an empowering movie, especially the first one with Pink Slip. Well, it’s a story about female connection. So it’s important to have lots of female acts to reflect that.
On the topic of collaborations who would be a dream collab for you all?
Eliza: I feel like Olivia Rodrigo could be really cool. Like she’s just such a rock star. That would be amazing.
Leandra: I mean, Chappell, an obvious one.
Jordan: Of course, Chappell. Last Dinner Party would be really fun, to just do a massive super group. I don’t even know how we would all fit on stage, but I digress.
Kylie: And MUNA, obviously. We’re big fans. We wanted to actually write with them when we were in LA last time, but it didn’t work out. But maybe soon.
Jordan: We still are available if you want to MUNA.
I’m manifesting that for y’all!
Okay last question, what is, you’d say, your proudest moment of your career so far?
Leandra: We can’t say what it is yet, but I can say i’m really proud of something coming out at the end of October. there you go.
Jordan: The moment that I found, at least touring in different countries in particular, is seeing all of the young girls get ready to gather outside of our shows, you know, getting their makeup put on, making their blame, whoever, their exes, shirts. It just feels really special to create a safe space for, you know, girls and queer people to come and have fun and celebrate and be messy and chaotic. And it just makes me feel like all the hard work was worth it to create those moments for people.
Eliza: I think I’m super proud of us playing at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, which is something that we’ve always dreamt of doing. And so being able to play that is crazy. I’m going to be so nervous that day, but I can’t wait.
Congrats on everything and thank you guys for taking the time to chat!
Thank you it was such a pleasure!
Check out more portraits Erin Crowley took of The Beaches below
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