Beach House “easily fall in love with places”, according to multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally. “It’s just the feeling you get in a place. It does something.”
Last year it was the east coast of Australia, where Scally and bandmate Victoria Legrand played a number of shows. In 2013, they’re returning. “We’d been to the big cities of Australia,” he says. “And [the coast] just felt so interesting and provincial and it had a different energy… I never relax, I don’t actually enjoy myself ever, and I was so exhausted from jetlag that I lay on the beach all day there, and it was the first time I ever enjoyed myself at a beach.”
The restlessness seems to be paying off for him, however. The Baltimore duo released their fourth album, Bloom May, this year and it debuted at number 7 on the Billboard album chart. One of Bloom's defining characteristics is its emotional intangibility. Are Beach House more interested in exploring complex, ambiguous feelings than writing a straightforward joyous or sad song?
“I can’t speak for Victoria, but we have similar musical tastes. I’m just not interested in music that’s oversimplified. I think simple feelings – why make a song about them when they’re so easy to understand already? Someone says ‘I’m happy’, you don’t have to go further into that. Okay, great. I’m happy you’re happy.”
Bloom was recorded at Sonic Ranch, Texas, among 2,300 acres of pecan orchard, where the relative isolation made it easier to concentrate. “That place is completely amazing. It’s in the middle of the desert and you really can fall into what you’re doing and not have to worry about anything else.”
Scally says one of the most interesting things about putting out records is “having no clue what people are hearing in your music”.
“Sometimes people will come up and say stuff to us and it’s mystifying. I can’t even imagine someone would feel that way about the music. Stuff like ‘I love to listen to your music, it just makes me so happy’. I’m glad that happens but I don’t hear any explicit happiness anywhere in our music. It’s cool that so many people hear so many different things though. It’s a joy of existence, I guess.”
Written by Daniel Wynne
Beach House Tour Dates
Fri Dec 28 - Tue Jan 01 — Falls Festival @ Lorne (VIC)Sat Dec 29 - Tue Jan 01 — Falls Festival @ Marion Bay (TAS)
Fri Jan 04 - Sat Jan 05 — Southbound (WA)
Thu Jan 03 — Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
Wed Jan 09 — Forum Theatre (Melbourne)
Fri Jan 11 — The Tivoli (Brisbane)
Sat Jan 12 — A&I Hall (Bangalow)
