Beach House

For The Record...

Members include: Victoria Legrand, vocals; Alex Scally, multi-instrumentals. Formed in 2003; released Beach House (2006); released Devotion (2008). Addresses: Record company—Carpark Records, P.O. Box 42374, Washington, DC 20015.

Musical duo

Baltimore-based duo Beach House, consisting of Alex Scally on instrumentals with vocals by Victoria Legrand, are known for their dreamy, reflective, and melancholy sound.

Legrand and Scally met in 2003, when Legrand was singing with another band and they were looking for a bass player. Scally joined, but that band soon fell apart and she and Scally took off on their own. In 2006 they recorded their self-titled debut album in Scally's basement; the entire process took them two days. They toured to support the album, although the tour was difficult in some ways because they had been playing the songs on the album for a year, and it was hard to keep them sounding fresh. However, as Scally told an interviewer from Ear Farm, "I think you get a lot of energy from people enjoying what you made and that feels really great, and of course I think that sustains you."

In 2008 Beach House released Devotion, which was recorded at Lord Baltimore Recording, a much more comfortable studio than the dingy basement where they had made their first album. Recording this album took much longer and was more intense than the recording of Beach House. Legrand told Kristi Kates in Remix, "We filled that space with crazy energy, an average of 12-hour days just listening and listening." The album was heavy on organ sounds, and the duo used six different organs during the recording. They also added harpsichord, guitar, and vocals to create a sound that was both melodic and brooding. "We want our music to feel intense like syrup, very visceral," Legrand told Renae Mason in Cyclic Defrost. And although they used plenty of technology to record the album, they asked producer Alan Douches to run all the tracks back through tape when he was mastering the album. Legrand told Kates, "Tape has age and distance to it that feels very human and flawed. The imperfection is truly its most endearing and priceless quality."

In Wired, Scott Thill described the songs on Devotion as "addictive songs of love, loss and everything in between," and wrote that the album was "as understated as it is brilliant." Simon Vozick-Levinson wrote in Entertainment Weekly that for a two-person ensemble, Beach House conveys "an impressive, enveloping sound." In the Badger Herald, Lee Crickman praised the fact that there are no clear demarcations between the tracks: "Each song flows seamlessly into the next, creating a relaxing and calm album perfect for a cozy night in." A reviewer in Prefix wrote that the band's "main attribute is the sad, deep voice of Victoria Legrand. Her drawn-out drawl extends syllables well past their intended length; doubled by vintage organ tones, her gradual pitch changes provide the main melodic structure of most songs." The vocals were underlaid by Scally's delicate instrumentation. In Herohill, a reviewer commented that the duo's mellow sound may make many of the songs on the album sound alike; however, "Each listen unfolds a new sound; much like the slow development of a character in a book. With every note or turned page you are introduced to new wrinkles."

Legrand told Kates that the creative process involved both of them: "We are both song crafters and control freaks. We manage to coexist in an intense creative union. … Mostly what happens is that one person has parts to songs, and then we piece them together … together. I don't write Alex's parts for him, and he doesn't write mine." Both of them think of groups of their song as "families," since they are "all written in a similar phase and with similar energy," Scally noted in Ear Farm.

Legrand told Thill that she doesn't listen to a lot of music when she's writing her own; she prefers to keep her mind clear of any influences. "I don't want to sound like someone else from the get-go," she remarked. "I want to express myself and the world in my head."

In an interview with Rob Trucks in the Village Voice, Legrand remarked that she likes spontaneity in recording music: "I like first or second takes. I think after you do seconds then you're getting really obsessive and you're getting kind of nervous and your fingers are sweating and you're starting to think too much about it." She added, "When I write lyrics, a lot of the things I write … the things I'm happiest with, are things that came out pretty quickly. I don't like to force things too much. I think that forced things lose a lot of character."

Legrand commented to Thill that she often sees movie-like images when she writes her music: "Images run through my mind. Our music is cinematic in a way I'd like to think. I wouldn't mind writing a soundtrack someday." She told Mason that the band's songs were "personal stories, accessible to all who care to bring their own imaginings to the songs, to make of them what they will."

This appreciation of the listener's contribution to the songs has extended to the lyrics. If a listener hears lyrics incorrectly but still finds meaning in them, that's fine for Legrand and Scally. She told Mason, "A listener once heard ‘I want to picture the nature’ instead of ‘I want your picture but not your words,’" in one of the band's songs, and called this "a happy mistake."

When Scally is not working on the band's music, he spends time pursuing another interest: rock collecting. He studied geology in college, and when he travels, he checks out the local rocks. When the duo was getting ready to go on tour in Australia, he was looking forward to seeing Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, a gigantic rock formation in central Australia.

Legrand told Thill that when she and Scally tour, she still sees more male musicians than female ones. "Come on girls!" she urged. "I wish there were more female voices out there. It'd be so much fun."

Selected discography
Beach House, Carpark, 2006.
Devotion, Carpark, 2008.

Sources
Periodicals
Entertainment Weekly, February 29, 2008, p. 59.
Remix, February 1, 2008.

Online
"Band of the Week," Ear Farm, February 27, 2008, http://www.earfarm.blogspot.com/2008/02/band-of-week-beach-house-exclusive-ef.html (November 23, 2008).
"Beach House," Artist Direct, http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/news/article/0,,458902,00.html (November 23, 2008).
"Beach House," Badger Herald, February 26, 2008, http://www/badgerheraldcom/artsetc/2008/02/26/beach_house_quiet_co.php (November 23, 2008).
"Beach House," Headquarters Entertainment Web Site, http://www.headquarters-entertainment.de/English/bands/beachhouse.php (November 23, 2008).
"Beach House," Herohill, October 16, 2006, http://www.herohill.com/2006/10/reviews-beach-house-beach-house.htm (November 23, 2008).
"Beach House Interview," Cyclic Defrost, April 4, 2008, http://www.cyclicdefrost.com/blog/?p=1826 (November 23, 2008).
"Beach House," Prefix, October 3, 2008, http://www.prefixmag.com/reviews/beach-house/beach-house/15497/ (November 23, 2008).
"Interview: Victoria Legrand of Beach House," Village Voice, July 17, 2008, http://www.blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2008/07/interview_victo.php (November 23, 2008).
"The Worlds in Our Heads," Wired, May 9, 2008, http://www.blog.wired.com/music/2008/05/post.html (November 23, 2008).