Life's a Beach!
Julian Casablancas and Grizzly Bear are fans. Now Baltimore duo Beach House look set to conquer the mainstream with their dreamy sound. They talk about the mean streets of their home town and confront the critics who claim they’ve heard it all before.
Ed Power, 10 Feb 2010
Beach House’s Victoria Legrand is chewing over some bad news. “ohymgod – I really don’t want Conan to go,” blurts the singer. “I’m a fan and I don’t want to see that happen to him.”
We’re discussing the epic power struggle between two of American television’s big kahunas: Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien. Both covet the choice 11.35 pm time slot on NBC and as of this morning, it looks as if Conan has finally lost out and is to be sent packing.
“Don’t say that!" grimaces the singer, who has spent the morning giving interviews and hasn’t been staying abreast of the story. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you. I’ve been living in denial about Conan these past few days.”
How did we end up shooting the breeze about late night television? Well, in a few days, Legrand and Beach House partner Alex Scally will make their network television debut, with a slot on the Jimmy Fallon show. Though Fallon doesn’t have quite the stature of a Conan or a Leno, they’re still psyched at the opportunity to perform to millions of viewers.
“It’s our first television appearance,” says Legrand, her syrupy speaking voice not that far removed from the disembodied coo she employs on Beach House’s latest, LP Teen Dream. “We’re nervous, but it’s a good nervous. It’s at that place where nerves run into excitement.”
Though they are the hottest new import from the American alternative scene, Beach House differ from their contemporaries in several significant ways. For one thing, they have steered clear of the usual scenester motherlodes of Brooklyn and LA’s Silverlake. Rather, they come to us straight out of the decidedly sketchy streets of Baltimore, Maryland, a city forever immortalised as a viper nest of crime, corruption and muddy diction in TV drama The Wire.
“I’ve no interest in moving to Brooklyn,” Legrand states. “I’d rather say I’m from Baltimore than from some more gentrified area. Gentrification is not working really well in the United States. It makes places too expensive for artists to live. We have a gigantic practice space in Baltimore. I shudder to imagine how much it would cost in some other city.”
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