“We are a full-on live band so I hope when you put the record on the energy just jumps out of the speaker”- Beach Riot on their debut album, recording in lockdown and plans for the future

Brighton's newcomers Beach Riot have been on the way up since early 2018 and had quite busy few years before the pandemic hit. Their debut self-titled EP was released to great success, with many radio stations picking up the tracks. Guys have just signed up to Alcopop! Records in early 2020, just before everything came to a halt.

The band was in the middle of a tour at the time and neither they nor the rest of the world could have imagined how long of a pause it’s going to be. We chatted with vocalist and guitarist Rory about the debut record and their plans to pick up where just they left off.

Thank you for making the time and congrats on the release! How excited are you, it’s been long in the making that album!

Thank you very much! Yeah, I’m so excited. It was supposed to be out in the summer originally, but it got pushed back a bit because we were going to be touring; first, at the beginning of the year, then summer, and now the end of the year. Very excited!

You had a few busy years before the pandemic with the first EP coming out, lots of gigs, and then signing up with Alcopop! Records – what stage was the album at when you signed up?

Not recorded. I would say 2/3 was written but we didn’t even know actually that we were going to do an album. We just had a load of songs and then when signed to Alcopop Jack (Clothier, founder and manager of Alcopop!) said it would be great to do an album if we could, and we were like ‘Yeah, we are ready for that’. There were a few songs that we wrote just after that but most of it we kind of already had. We’re quite prolific, we just write all the time so we had a lot of them ready to go.

So some of the songs you wrote were during the pandemic, did it influence the themes and the mood?

Maybe, that’s a good question. It might have influenced them in a sense of how they were recorded, we did drums in one go and then me and Cami did all the vocals and guitars, but Jim (the bassist) did everything at home pretty much on his own. He did all his vocals in the coffee shack that I work at! So I think it affected how it sounded but not in a covid-negative way. Normally we would have probably spent some time gigging but with these songs, they were brand new and we didn’t get to play them live. The first time we played them is when we recorded it, it’s quite weird but came out alright!

So you didn’t get a chance to get together at all to record these songs?

For those ones no, we didn’t. I mean we did for the drums minus Jim but other than that it was all kind of separate, which is a bit weird as we haven’t done it like that before.

Well now you know you can create in any conditions!

Yes, exactly, so it actually was quite good! We had loads of time, all of last year, to do it, so we could really just sit with the songs and get the mixes right, which is really cool!

How was it to work with Ally Jowett at his home studio?

Amazing, yes! He is the man! It was really nice, me and Cami would go in every morning, we did it for like a week and then came back to do the vocals. It was very sunny, we would have a coffee in his garden, stroke his cat and then go in and get started. It was a really nice time. And Ally is the man!

Are you planning to work with him more?

I think we definitely would, yes! He is amazing so we would always be up for that.

How did you survive the pandemic overall then, working mostly?

Yes, writing loads! I guess doing the album really helped us all, made us feel there was still something happening, even though it kind of wasn’t. If it wasn’t for that it would have been really hard, especially on the band side of things, kind of just waiting for however long. It really helped us to focus and still feel kind of relevant.

As the music industry was hit one of the worst did you consider at any point packing up and calling it a day?

Never considered that! My thinking is I don’t want to be beaten by this f-ing virus. We are very stubborn and all the way through when we had stuff canceled, we were thinking we are not going to let this be the reason it all ended. So yeah, that was never gonna happen!

That’s great to hear! A lot of bands and especially new ones faced this major uncertainty as it all kicked off and questioned whether to still pursue the music path.

That’s really sad, isn’t it? I actually feel worse for those sort of bands who might only played a couple of gigs before, and now we are at almost 2 years of this, that’s a long time.

It is still hard to believe it’s been so long, at the beginning no one would even think it’s going to continue more than a couple of weeks.

We were on tour just before the first lockdown and we had to cancel half of it. I remember our manager been like ‘just go home, spend 3 weeks at home and then we get back and carry on these shows.’ So silly!

Hopefully, now your tour proceeds as planned, kicking off in November!

Yeah, very very excited to get out and play proper again!

Did you play any gigs already this year?

Yes, we have done a few, 3 or 4 – some little day festivals and one gig in London which was very cool. So we had a chance to ease back into it, which is nice. Can’t wait to actually go on tour proper!

Knowing how much you guys love playing live – what is your favorite song to play at the moment?

It kind of varies, we go through phases of which one. There is one we releases a while ago – ‘Medicate for Success’ – and we have been opening with it recently. It’s a very pumping energetic song, I always like that because it’s like putting on a comfy pair of shoes, you don’t need to think about playing it, it’s really loud and it’s really fun. I always think this is the one that stands really good. So right now I will say ‘Medicate for Success’.

How did the name of the album come about?

Oh, that was Jim, our bassist! He is quite a wordsmith so he thought it was kind of a weird play on particles. Just sounded like something we would name an album, explosive energy. He sent it over and we were like ‘yep, cool, done, that sounds amazing!’

That’s cool – I thought maybe it was a reference to something I don’t get!

No it’s actually way more boring than that, it just sounded pretty cool

Do you have any more music videos on the way?

I don’t know, I don’t love doing videos but you sort of have to. I feel like these days unless you are a massive I don’t know if people care. But you just get told sometimes you have to. The one we just did for ‘Wraith’ was done in the woods, so it was quite cheap and quick to do. I have a couple of ideas, it’s just whether I can execute them.

You did the one for ‘Wraith’ yourselves, didn’t you?

Yes, I kind of thought that if we are going to do one that doesn’t really cost you anything and you can do it quite quickly then you might as well make it look quite silly, otherwise, if it looks like you are trying too hard it might look cheesy. We went for the silly route rather than the serious route.

This record is the first full-length and is the first proper introduction of Beach Riot – what do you want the audience to take away from the record?

I think just that, I hope the live feeling translates, we are a full-on live band so I hope when you put it on the energy just jumps out of the speaker and makes you think, wow I want to go and see that in a venue and jump around. And also, opposite to that, we have smacked it full of cool harmonies and bits and bobs, and more intricate stuff that I think is quite cool. There is one song in there that is, I don’t want to say a slow song cause that always sounds very cheesy for a rock band, it’s more like a trippy kind of one, me and Jim did. That one is quite cool and shows a bit of a different side to a band.

What is next for Beach Riot, any milestones you want to achieve in 2022?

Yes, I really want to tour Europe! I think there is a chance we could do that if everything lines up, I would love to do that. And I would love to do a ton of festivals next year, I think we are ready to hit some more of those. And then record more! We kind of have half of a second album written, not that I’m saying we will be lucky enough to do it but if that chance came I would love to get back in and do it. This first album is quite garagey and full-on noisy, fuzzy and there are some new songs written now that are kind of evolving to this really cool place, and I just really want to do that and show what they are. It’s another step up which is quite exciting and I’d love to do that!

That’s exciting, can’t wait to hear! How hard must be to sit on the material you want to show people for so long! Like with the current album, which was essentially finished in 2020 and only coming out now.

Yes, I wanted to start playing some of these new songs in the upcoming tour but my manager was like you have to play your album, it’s the release you are touring. I’m quite impatient, obviously, I love the songs from the album but for me, they are like old news, I want to start playing some new stuff but you can’t really do that. But we will definitely slot in a few, so that would be quite cool.

Sub Atomic Party Cool is out now via Alcopop! Records, Beach Riot are touring the UK in Nov and Dec 2021.

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