Interview with The Beaches (Kylie Returns!)

We had the pleasure of interviewing The Beaches over Zoom video!

The Beaches are doing everything their way. After more than a decade together as a band, sisters Jordan Miller (lead vocals, bass) and Kylie Miller (guitar) plus closest friends Leandra Earl (guitar and keys) and Eliza Enman-McDaniel (drums) are entering a new era. On new album Blame My Ex, the Juno Award-winning Toronto band channels heartbreak into self-discovery through 10 exuberant songs that revel in pain and redemption, finding strength, independence, and self-love. The result is an album of emotive transformation rendered in playful and passionate power pop. Blame My Ex is “the most authentic and real” version of The Beaches, Kylie says. Lead single “Blame Brett,” an acerbic pop-rock knockout Jordan calls “a song for all the hot messes out there,” has racked up more than 8.5 million streams on Spotify and more than 7.4 million views on TikTok.

Blame My Ex, executive produced and co-written by Lowell (Madison Beer) and co-produced by Gus van Go (Metric), is no ordinary breakup record. It’s about the love that comes out of separations: the love of friendships, of bandmates, of yourself. It’s not about finding happiness because of heartbreak, as Jordan puts it: “It’s finding happiness despite it.” It’s about rediscovery, being on the precipice of something new, which is true for The Beaches in their personal lives as much as their music.

Following a series of breakups—including a split from a major label they were signed to in their early teens—The Beaches are now free to make music that feels true to themselves. A period of uncertainty provided the perfect opportunity. Early in the pandemic, the band started experimenting with social media—TikTok and Instagram in particular—showing fans a more vulnerable, goofy, and down-to-earth side, referring to themselves affectionately and openly as “ur grls.”

Finding self-love out of struggle is how Blame My Ex came about in the first place. It started with the jangly and aching “If a Tree Falls,” the first of the breakup songs, which became the thematic North Star around which the other tracks were built. The dark, breathy, and echoing “Everything Is Boring” is hyper-honest about depression: It sounds like a rainy night out. And it led The Beaches to create Blame My Ex’s sonic mood: new wave-tinged indie pop that’s sparkling, misty, and powerful.

Blame My Ex showcases The Beaches at their most accomplished and mature, sonically and lyrically, and boasts Jordan’s finest vocal performances yet. “This is the first record I’ve ever done working with a producer who really cares and is engaged with me as a singer,” she says. You can hear the range of emotions in her voice like crystal—from pain and sadness to anger and triumph. Blame My Ex, she says, is a “diary of what it’s like to go through heartbreak: One day you’re avoiding the pain and going out and partying a lot—and the next you’re trapped in your room, facing your feelings, having an anxiety attack.”

“We’re growing and finding different things out about ourselves,” says Leandra. “And we’re doing it together as four best friends who are there to support each other.” Their unyielding bond and shared journey not only makes The Beaches a musical force to be reckoned with but also a testament to the power of sisterhood and friendship. How could you not be obsessed?

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