You are a group of girls, it’s not so common. Does it change something in the dynamics of a group?
When we started, there were not many other exclusively female groups. We grew up listening to April Lavigne, Paramore and other artists of the same kind, but it was a singer supported by a group of men. We really wanted to do this as advertising. For us, it was the only possible option. I could never be part of a group with a guy! I find that women are much more collaborative: they are listened to each other, they do not work on their feet; The goal is to take out the best song. It is a real force and today, we are more numerous, especially in rock music, like our friends from The Last Dinner Party who are a little in the same dynamic as ours. We hope it will inspire the next generation to do it even more.
I could never have been part of a group in which there was a guy!
Have you experienced more difficulties because you were a group of women?
At the beginning, yes: we received a lot of sexist criticisms from industry men. For example, during a concert, we arrived with our guitars in hand and all our equipment and at the entrance to the backstage, a man told us: “No fans, access is reserved for the group!” We replied: “We are the group!”. Things like it happened quite often, or people said: “Oh, I thought the concert was not going to be very good because you are girls, but in fact, it was really good!”. When is it a compliment? But now it’s more common, people are no longer commentary as at the beginning.
Is it easy to have this rock identity for a female group?
Let’s say that we have been faced with this problem: as a woman, either you are a pop artist, or you do hard rock. It was difficult for us because The Beaches is somewhere in the middle: we don’t do super hard rock, we don’t offer something super alternative either, we have pop songs, but we are not Charlie XCX either. The Beaches is somewhere in the middle. But people recover to play the guitar and it’s really nice to see.
Give an example to the young generation
Did you believe that rock and roll was dead?
I never thought he could die! Trends come and go. For a long time, rock has not been so popular but today I look at the artists who explode and the most influential people who play with guitars, like MK. Gee, a truly incredible guitarist who plays the guitar in a very different way. There are lots of musicians who really influenced today’s rock: just machine Gun Kelly managed to push a lot of young people to grab a guitar. We grew up with people like Green Day who have never disappeared but who had become a little exceptions in the music industry, because there was all this rap, this R&B and this pop music.
Do you think rock has given you more freedom?
It is music that has indeed gave us great freedom but over time, we also understood that if we wanted to be listened to, we would have to make our sound a little more accessible. We were really oriented towards alternative rock because we thought that is what to do to be taken seriously. But by bringing a little more pop sounds, with a pop vocal melody with guitars from the 80s below, this is where we found the right vein. It has exploded things for us.
Do you think that we are witnessing today a takeover of women in the music industry?
There have always been incredibly influential female artists, but something is actually very cool today. The greatest artists in the world are women. Next to Taylor Swift, there is Sabrina Carpenter, Charlie XCX, Chappell Roan, the three C! It is as if the girls are running pop music right now when this was not the case ten years ago. There were many groups led by men.
You recently played Coachella for the first time, was it a great memory?
It was incredible. It is a festival that is part of our list of things to do since always. We went there, we celebrated, we played very good concerts and we had a great time. I think that at one point, Glastonbury was the top of the top, but Coachella took advantage in the media; All social media influencers are there.
You play Pukkelpop this weekend and you played here last year at Rock Werchter. How do you feel about replaying in Belgium?
It’s something really cool, of course! The Rock Werchter concert remains our favorite concert, there were 40,000 people singing Blame Brett Almost stronger than what we could hear in our headphones, and it was a surreal, incredible moment. It is always an incredible feeling of being so far from home and feeling so welcomed. We did not expect it at all, especially since we played very early: we had literally woke up an hour before. It was really crazy because usually, there are not as many people so early. We have already played early in other festivals in Europe, but it was not the same thing. Here, people are really there. Pukkelpop is also a very good festival; There are many extraordinary artists on the bill with many women: we are very impatient.
On the album that will be released on August 29, you just worked all four or with producers?
We had a lot of different co -authors on this album. We are working in particular with Gus Van Go, an incredible producer based in Toronto and who also made our latest album. But we also worked with extraordinary songwriters: Justin Tranter, Sam Willows, G Flip … Many friends we have known for years and with whom we have fun writing.
Why is it important to have outside people to help you?
We need someone to help us structure the songs. Find the concepts and melodies, it’s okay but we need someone to use what we have written, put it in shape and structure it in a more pop format. We have been doing this together for twelve years, so it’s good to have someone else.
Is there someone with whom you would really like to work?
Who is the girl who made Sabrina’s disc (Editor’s note: Carpenter)? Amy Allen? She is really cool, she is very eccentric in what she says, her words are very funny. She also does a lot of rock: she wrote huge songs for Yungblud. She has just singed the new song by Royel Otis and she is super young and incredibly well established at this young age. I think it would be great to ask her for her opinion or even have a drink with her.
The Beaches, “No Hard Feelings” (released on 08/29) – in concert, at Pukkelpop, this Sunday, August 17.
