The Beaches and the power of girl bands today

AFFECT caught up with The Beaches : The all-female rock band you might know from their viral hit “Blame Brett.” But there’s so much more to them than catchy hooks and TikTok fame. From high school beginnings in Toronto to packed European DJ parties, The Beaches are redefining what it means to be a modern girl band: raw, loud, and refreshingly honest. We talked about friendship, burnout, heartbreak, and the power of girl rage.

AFFECT : We’re just having a conversation. Whoever wants to answer, answers.

Who are you, What are you doing ? Where could people know you from?

THE BEACHES: We are the Beaches. We’re in the middle of a DJ tour! We’re baby DJs.. just learning and we’re throwing parties across Europe so fans can connect with us in a different way while we’re between album touring cycles.(…) We’ve been a touring band for years, but our song Blame Brett went viral on TikTok a couple of years ago and opened a lot of international doors. That’s probably how you know us. We’re also promoting our new record No Hard Feelings, which drops August 29th

A : Can you take us back to the beginning – what brought you together as a band,

TB: We’re four best friends, including two sisters from Toronto. We started this band in high school, found success early, and eventually toured the world — which brought us to places like Germany.

A : How do you balance friendship and songwriting?

TB: It honestly makes a really good pair because I feel like the way that we communicate as friends so openly, we can take that into how we collaborate as co-workers as well. We're able to be honest with one another, but also try to make each other's ideas work. And it ends up being a really democratic process. Everyone's voice matters the same amount. And it's really a lot of fun. We all have the same kind of goal in mind. We're all on the same- Having a high mind. Same vision.

Songwriting is all about vulnerability. And if you can't be vulnerable with your friends, who else are you going to be vulnerable with, right? But also the working part to work together as friends. Obviously, there are times when, since you know each other so well, you know how to get under each other's skin almost. (…) At the end of the day, we are best friends.

So yeah, we just try to keep each other's feelings in mind. I always say to people, I would not recommend entering into a business relationship with a friend unless you guys are really, really good at communicating with each other. If there's any tension, it'll either destroy the business or the friendship. It can be a little dangerous, but we're really lucky and really have a very strong foundation with each other.

A: Has the way you write music changed since your first releases? What feels different about being The Beaches now compared to when you started out?

TB: Totally different. I think, you know, we used to write songs in a studio that we would rent. And we would sort of build it like live off the floor, but with our instruments. Now that we've included songwriters and producers, we're sort of the last two records, especially we've been building like the full song in the studio as we write. And it's a bit of like a chaotic kinetic process.

You have to be very good at listening to each other because, you know, I could be focusing on like writing a melody for the verse. And then Leandra might be listening to what I'm doing and creating like a counter melody on her guitar. And it's all happening like within a day.

So that's been new. And then I guess the main difference in terms of lyrics between our previous record, Blame My Ex, and this one is that I think most of the stories were coming from me and the previous record. It was like about my breakup. And this one, I'm super happy to say, is like about a lot of our experiences with heartbreak. So it's a lot of dialogue and lyrics coming from every member of the band, which is like a really fun experiment.(…)

A: Which films, eras, or artists inspire your style and sound – sonically or visually?

TB: Well, I think in terms of music, especially when I was going through my breakup during our last record, I was listening to a lot of like Joy Division and The Cure and a lot of like happy sad music. With breakups , you can feel very euphoric and free, but you can also feel just absolutely devastated. It's a lot of dancing while you cry kind of vibes. So I was super inspired by that kind of music.

And I think it's very reflected in what we're sounding sonically like. In terms of like movies, I love Bob Fosse films. The colors and the lights that he used are really beautiful and gorgeous. I think some of the aesthetic that he uses, it's sort of bled into our visuals for this next sort of party girl era that we're in.

A: Touring can be intense – emotionally and physically. What’s something you’ve learned about yourself from spending that much time together on the road?

TB: Yeah. I feel like we know everything now about each other at this point, but that's because we've been touring for like 15 years. We know each other's limits and what will make someone feel better if they're having a bad day. And usually what we want to do with our off days, we just know each other very well. The bits just kind of, that's the newest thing that collects over and over with each other. New bits, new laughs. Bits being like jokes. New like weird things. We have a quote book. We're always entertaining ourselves. We're never bored. You gotta just make fun in the moments. You're at an airport for like 15 hours. What are you going to do? You gotta have fun.

A: Why do you think it’s important that girl bands are having a moment again – not just as a nostalgic throwback, but as a real force in today’s music scene?

TB: We’ve been talking a lot about this recently. And somebody brought up to me that like I think women bands and women artists and girl groups have always existed. I think the main shift and why I think everyone thinks that there's a moment happening right now is because the culture is changing. The views and opinions of young women have always been sort of the dominating force behind who's popular. In the 60s it were the Beatles or Elvis or Spice Girls. Women have always sort of dominated the culture. But I think what's exciting to me now is that those opinions are no longer malign.

It's like, oh, the girls like it. It must be really good. That along with like the Me Too movement and stuff like that. I think the opinions and values of women are finally being heard. And it's cool to be one group amongst many who are kind of like dominating the music scene right now. Not us necessarily, but women in general. Especially in the rock music genre where that's primarily been men, white, cis men dominating that for a very long time. So to see some diversity in that genre is really amazing. (…)

A: You said you finally feel respected, but do you feel more pressure to prove yourselves in a space still dominated by male bands?

TB: I think we used to feel that. You used to feel that, but you don't anymore.  And that's the difference. I think there was a pressure to be liked, because we were almost like a token band. There was a pressure to be perfect or get their approval. And now I could just care less what they think.(…)

A: Is it still easier for boy bands to gain industry support and be taken seriously?

TB: We made such a name for ourselves, we don't really have to deal with that luckily. But I think if you're up and coming, that's a really hard thing to go through. And we have gone through that. But the only way that you kind of get through that is to just literally address it. And say what the fuck. Like don't place any weight on those men's comments or on those opinions. I think that's like a radio-dominated world where like now you can just post on TikTok and get the support of all the girlies. (…) And the radio industry itself is still definitely a little bit of a toxic kind of male-dominated space.(…) But it does feel, I think, important that because social media has taken such like a big role in everyone's career, having that be ran by the fans and like a fan-fronted thing, it like helps give everybody a little bit more of a chance in a way. It's less gatekeeping.

A: So many of your tracks feel like anthems for modern girl rage. Was that intentional, or just something that naturally came out of your experiences?

TB: I’m so touched that you said that. Thank you. I think whenever we're writing a song, you're always either trying to... especially when it comes to heartbreak and trying to, you know, write songs about being good with yourself and being kind to yourself.

A lot of the times you're either trying to uplift yourself by writing about it and you're trying to make yourself feel a bit better about your messy life. Or you're trying to make your friend in your band who you're writing about feel better about, you know, whatever they're going through.(…) It's really cool that that a message also can be translated to somebody in Iowa, you know? The girlies have taken our songs as kind of like their own in a way. It's not just our stories now - it's kind of translating. Other people are like, oh my gosh, I feel this way too. And that's, that could not be cooler for us, you know? It's the coolest, it's literally the coolest thing about our job.

A: What’s one thing about the music industry today that frustrates you the most – and one thing that genuinely excites you?

TB: You guys have the hardest questions. I think, not frustrates, but like something that we have, especially in the last few years, have had to adjust to is the pace in which things happen in the music industry. With social media and with streaming and everything, everything gets digested so quickly. So it's not something that I dislike about it, it's just something to get used to, where the second, you know, your album comes out, you're already touring it, and then a few months in you have to start on the next project already but you haven't lived life other than touring. So there's not a lot of time to live life to write about.

I think burnout culture is just really prevalent in every industry right now. Especially the economy going the way it is. People feel like, oh, well, if I don't do all these things and dedicate all of my time and all of my energy to doing all these tours and all these shows and meeting every single fan that I can, then I might lose momentum and be stuck in a place where I no longer have these opportunities at all.

And at the end of the day, everybody deserves to have peace, rest, and just time to be a normal person. And it feels like artists these days really have to fight for that. (…) I mean, I especially feel like the things I tell myself is like, well, maybe when I finally get to this level, I'll be able to rest.

But then I hear about Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX and what they've been doing, what their year has been like, and they're at the top of their fields. And they're also experiencing such devastating exhaustion.(…)

It's probably a constant fear of getting irrelevant. People say, we'll be here for you, we'll support you. But then if you do take the time, you see the comments of where's the album? (…)  But at the end of the day, the thing that sucks for this industry is, you kind of have to be a little bit of a workaholic. That's kind of the vibe that it is. Or you will fade into the background. But this fast-paced industry kind of doesn't really allow you to be... human.

This isn't just the music industry. think this is a problem amongst a lot of other things too.

A: What’s next for The Beaches : Can you give us a little glimpse into the future?

TB: Emotionally, we'd love to be happy.  I'd like to be less mentally ill. After this, we've got a little bit of a month off. And then we're starting to tour again. We're going to tour North America. Am I allowed to talk about this? (…) There will be lots of tours happening. But we're putting out a new album this summer, August 29th. But that's kind of what we're most excited about because it's our second independent release, technically our fourth studio album.

A: Last but not least, is there something that you haven't done yet in this whole career? Any dreams or goals that you would like to achieve?

TB: A Grammy. Even to be nominated.

Getting to play in Asia would be super cool. We've never been to Asia, so that would be amazing. Japan. Oh my god.

And doing different festivals in different places and just continuing to do this with my best friends.

A: Thank you very much.

TB: Thank you. Those were great questions.

Talent : The Beaches
Interview : Sophie Schiller
Editor-in-Chier: Noémi Zak
Interview Assistent: Helena Yousefi

Photographer: Angelina Kirlova