Find me a Best-of-2010 list that doesn’t have Beach House on it. The Baltimore-based duo wowed the world when they released their third album Teen Dream last year. Moving away from the laconic dream-state of previous albums, Teen Dream had the uplift of something more forceful but still eerily divine.

Yet for guitarist Alex Scally, a year on the road can kill even the most beloved songs. Just before Teen Dream’s last – and most fun - tour, he reflects on the good, the bad, the cheesy, and why he never wants to play ‘Zebra’ again.

--

The last time you spoke to TheVine - actually it was Victoria whom we spoke to - was over a year ago when Teen Dream first came out.  You’d both had a big break from touring and you were rearing to go. Now you've been touring for over a year I’m guessing you’re in a different place now?

Yeah it’s been crazy. We toured way too much and now it’s time for the fun tours.

The ‘fun’ tours?

Yeah, all tours are fun, but you have to do your tours like America, because it’s the biggest country in the world. And [then] the ones where people are really mean, but you have to go anyway. Then you get to go to Australia, and that’s like the ‘fun’ tour of the year.

I’m glad we’re on your fun tour list.

[Laughs]

Victoria made a comment then, about how you learn more about the songs once you start touring them. What did Teen Dream reveal about itself during the touring process that wasn’t immediately obvious when you wrote the album?

I think what she’s talking about is that the actual process of playing songs again, again and again, makes you realise deeply what you never want to do again. And what you do want to do again. You say to yourself ‘I never want to play a song at this tempo ever again,’ or, ‘This song feels cheesy now’. And then that fuels future writing. Because I don’t want to feel that feeling again and I certainly don’t want to feel it 160 times in a year.

So what are some of the things that you do want to do again?

I just want to write awesome pop jams that aren’t stupid, so that’s what I want do again. I think we did a little bit of that and hopefully we’ll keep doing that in our life. I just want to keep making songs that are meaningful, but sometimes things reveal themselves to be cheesy and you get sick of what you’ve done in the past.


Beach House - 'Walk In The Park'

You must be aware of how popular and well received Teen Dream has been. 'Cheesy' hasn't been an adjective that has come up in reviews. Do you think you’re tiring of it because the feelings or stories that went into the making of the album aren’t really relevant anymore for you?

Yeah, I think artists are constantly growing up. All people are constantly growing up.

You hope…

…It’s about what feelings stick around and what don’t. You see Paul McCartney playing Beatles songs, and it seems ridiculous because it’s like a teenager making a song and an old man playing it. I do think we’ve matured this year while playing these songs and although we believed in every song we’ve written, we would never write them again. Looking back on Teen Dream, the songs seem too ‘easy’. That seems a weird way of putting it. And I don’t want to be too analytical because if Victoria were here she’d be mad at me. She doesn’t like dissecting things because she thinks it’s boring. Which it probably is. But I think people change. I’m sure our next record will not sound anything like Teen Dream. Certain things will stay the same because of who we are. We like certain rhythms, instruments and chords, and Victoria has this distinctive sense of melody, but we have tonnes of new ideas all the time. There certainly won’t be any ‘Zebra’ songs.

What are some of those new ideas that you’re aching to explore?

We have a million ideas, more than we’ve ever had before. The last time we recorded was July 2009 so we have an unreal amount of new ideas, and we’ll be playing a few new songs in Australia. Basically when we get home from this trip it will all explode because we’ll have no commitments at all except writing and having fun and getting really excited about music.

Was there a particular time or place during the last year that stands out as a defining moment that has inspired or pushed you in a new direction?

One thing we’ve realised this year is that time is quickly running out. Young people waste time so, so often. I think we’ve really come to see and value everything so much, because we’re starting to get older and realise we don’t have a day to not work. We don’t have a day to just watch some dumb TV show. Those aren’t things that we want to do anymore. There’s just no time for that in the world. I think that’s something that comes with age for sure.

So there wont be any lolling around when you get back from this tour.

Yeah, we’ve got so many ideas, why even spend a second not exploring them? Not going towards them and seeing where it will all go? I think we’ve definitely got more serious this year.

The US version of Teen Dream included an accompanying DVD of short films inspired by the music. Do you screen those films at your gigs?

No we don’t. It wasn’t meant to be definitive in any way. It was just an additional stimulating element for the record. They were very low budget. A lot were made by our friends and people we know. We just said ‘Here’s our music, let it inspire you and make whatever you want to.’ It was so that we could give people something with the album, so as you get the record you listen to it, have all your thoughts [about it]. And at some point you put on the DVD and revisit all the thoughts you had through another person’s mind. It’s just an aid for exploration.

Will you do something like that again?

No. I mean we love the visual world and we’d really love to work in film at some point if that ever became a possibility, but I doubt we’d do that exact thing again. We didn’t do any proper music videos for this record. We’ve never had the budget or time to make a video that we want but we’re going to try and do that with this new record. Music videos have gone in a really weird place. They’re so low budget and they always have to have the band rocking out in a corner somewhere, which is always a huge bummer. We want to put a massive amount of effort into something that we’ll really love.

Do you have any directors you’d like to work with?

They’d have to choose us, but I love the way the soundtrack plays out in Dead Man, the Jim Jarmusch movie, where Neil Young actually improvised the music while watching it. It would be really amazing if Victoria and I could do something like that. You don’t want to just write a pop song for a movie. It would be amazing to use the practices that we already have but apply them in a completely new way.


Beach House - 'Norway' live for P4K

What do you think of the label ‘dream-pop’ which is now almost ubiquitously applied to your music? Does it accurately contain how you would like to be heard?

Labels are a necessary evil. In this day and age where people’s influences come from every direction, they don’t make sense anymore. But people will always need categories and I think dream-pop is fine. We definitely use pop structures and love pop music and dream perhaps refers to the tempo, or actual instruments we use, so that makes sense too. There are other bands considered dream-pop, like Cocteau Twins, and I would be flattered to be put in the same category as them. I think they’re an amazing, wonderful band.

You once said ‘One thing Victoria and I can agree on is that our music is its own world. And, I think that’s very much what the “beach house” feel is: going off to a different world.’ Do you still feel like you’re going to the same world, creating the same 'Beach House', as when you first ‘went there’ so to speak? Or is it a new house with each album?

For Victoria and I, it’s been wonderful working together for five years and it’s a constant evolution. The three albums came from what we do when we come together and make music and it keeps evolving. It’s not the same Beach House that it was five years ago, but there are distinct things that will always be there. Everything comes from fantasy, from creating a world, and those things have changed a little bit but I think that will always be the way we see music.

Do you feel like that when you’re playing? That you’ve kind of arrived somewhere that’s different to the real world?

I think the best feeling musically is when you feel transported. Where you feel like you are leaving the banal two-dimensional universe, and you feel transported to a world of emotion or a weird combination of feelings. When music is really good it completely lifts you up, and it can happen in so many different ways, but you always go somewhere. Music doesn’t just hit you flat in the face and bounce off of you if it’s good, it really does something to you.

Ghita Loebenstein

--

BEACH HOUSE - AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES 2011

Jan 25 - Hi Fi - MELBOURNE
Feb 4 - Laneway Festival - Brisbane
Feb 5 - Laneway Festival - Melbourne
Feb 6 - Laneway Festival, Sydney
Feb 11 - Laneway Festival, Adelaide
Feb 12 - Laneway Festival, Perth