Canadian indie-rockers The Beaches have gone from suburban garage band shows to opening for the Rolling Stones, knocking the spangly socks off Elton John and being pelted with seven Juno awards, all in less than 10 years since debut album Late Show.
Named after the neighborhood where they grew up, the band formed in Toronto in 2013 when guitarist Leandra Earl joined singer-bassist Jordan Miller, guitarist Kylie Miller (Jordan’s sister) and drummer Eliza Enman-McDaniel.
Working across Canada and the States in their early years, The Beaches racked up a devoted fan base, leading to a record deal with Universal Music. Late Show, released in 2017, was a hit – but international interest only sparked when they left the label in 2022.
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“It gave us the freedom to try new things and decide what we wanted to sound like and what we wanted to say,” Miller says. “I think that if we’d stayed, we wouldn’t have come up with the songs we did, or have the success we now do.”
Their 2023 platinum single Blame Brett featured on second album Blame My Ex. “That was the moment it all changed,” says Kylie Miller. “We were able to sell tickets globally and have a lot of excitement and buzz around us.”
The Cure-inspired four-piece have secured much more than their hefty collection of Junos.
“Elton John got into the band much earlier than a lot of people did,” says Miller. He’s shown continued support since then, often playing The Beaches’ songs at his shows. The group returned their gratitude earlier this year, performing John’s The Bitch is Back for the Glenn Gould Prize winner.
“Elton was at the foot of the catwalk and Jordan went up and started shaking her hair. It was a really crazy experience!” recalls Miller.
“He really liked T-Shirt,” adds Earl. “We were like, ‘How does Elton John know us? How is he a fan?’ We ended up FaceTiming him and then he got us backstage to meet him at one of his shows.”
The Junos are more than ornaments: “We’re the first girl band to win these awards,” says Earl. “We’re so honored. We hope it inspires other girls to do the same; we grew up watching the Junos and watching Avril Lavigne win, but never a girl band.”
“To have seven of them kind of speaks to that trajectory of the music industry changing, with more women being at the forefront,” says Miller. “It’s giving us women the flowers we’ve earned for a long time.”
The band have opened for The Rolling Stones on two occasions. Miller describes the first outing as a particularly welcoming show, as it came shortly after singer Mick Jagger had recovered from heart surgery in 2019. “He came back bigger and better. There was like 50,000 people there. Everybody was really into it.”
The band’s wall of sound is built with contrasting guitar tones, Earl preferring a Gibson-style sound and Miller favoring Fender. Their third studio album, No Hard Feelings, features a Les Paul and Stratocaster, although their live setups differ. Miller is currently sponsored by PRS and plays a Fiore, while Earl uses her Frank Brothers Radar.
We had a ton of fuzz and added more and more and more. It’s fuzz, delay, chorus and then all these layers that build the tension
“What I’m playing now kind of looks like an SG, which I’ve always wanted,” she says. “It’s their take on it. Playing the Frank Brothers with the humbuckers, everything feels like I’m playing a Gibson – but better.”
The Beaches’ live show is no static experience, which is why both guitarists use a Quad Cortex fit with synchronized lighting changes to create a truly immersive gig. “We put our time in with pedals and amps and being little rockstars,” says Earl, “but we’re focusing on the show itself, connecting with fans and whatever choreography we do.”
“Everything on the Cortex switches for us,” Miller says. “We’re able to move around a lot more. We used to have these massive pedalboards and had to look down all the time and stomp on them. It became a harder to connect with the fans. Now it’s all MIDI-synced, which is really helpful.”
No Hard Feelings, which hit the charts last year, is an unapologetically honest and infectious anthem-packed album, described by Earl as “happy-sad.” It kicks off with a chorus-soaked reverbed guitar, reminiscent of The Cure.
“Can I Call You in the Morning is in drop D,” Miller says. “It’s a really easy part to play because it’s two open strings. It sounds more complicated than it is.”
“It’s quite layered,” adds Earl. “I remember me, Kylie and [producer] Gus Van Go making a lot of noise and putting a riff within the noise. We mic’d up some amps and got them to ring out with feedback. We had a shit-ton of fuzz and added more and more and more. It’s fuzz, delay, chorus and then all these layers that build the tension.”
Asked to pick a personal highlight, Earl points to Should Have Known Better. “A lot of the songs are about angry and blameful breakups. But Should Have Known Better is like, ‘I’ve come out of all this and figured out I do deserve better than how I’ve been treated.’
“Getting to write that song with my best friends was such a powerful experience. When we play it, I love that it doesn’t feel like my song anymore. It feels like it’s empowering other people.”
