Beach House- Ask us Anything

What location would your dream beach house be at?

haha, anywhere would do

What did you think when Kendrick Lamar sampled one of your songs to make Money Trees?

What is your favorite Kendrick Lamar song?

we are so happy that he did, he is an amazing artist, all of damn, swimming pools

hi everyone, thanks so much for the questions. We are very appreciative and touched that you all checked in with us this afternoon. We will come back and keep answering questions when we have more time. We feel the love and look forward to the upcoming months and tours where we can give it back. love BH

Will there be any more installation shows in the future? I missed out on the last ones, and I can’t stop regretting missing out on all the rarities and the special audio-visual nature of the performance.

we loved those shows, but they were very hard to pull off, that said, i'm sure we will do something like that again, we just don't know when or how

gotta know because i think it's so cute: why does victoria always ask "where the ladies at" before playing master of none live?

love,

the ladies

for me it was always a natural moment in the set to acknowledge all the women and girls out there, i've only said it because i care

Hey! :) This is going to sound naive but do you or have you guys ever dealt with any insecurity/self-doubt about your music before it gets out there? I once that heard you guys have a policy of not letting any of that get in the way? I just ask because I have a hunch that the stuff I work on that I feel insecure about is probably the more interesting and worth hearing. Love everything you guys do! ✌️

YES, and it is perfectly natural. What we mean by "policy" is that we try our best to mute that voice. "policy of truth" by depeche mode just came to mind

Hello Beach House! My question is this: What is your favorite Cocteau Twins track?

merci beaucoup!

A: Cherry-coloured funk, V: lorelei

What was the inspiration for the cover of “7”? And who is the girl on the cover?

Can’t wait to see you guys in Seattle this summer!

There was a lot of inspiration visually for the artwork for this record.. black and white, op art, the Warhol Factory and the superstars within that world. There was also a deep draw towards a punk aesthetic so collage was a natural progression. The face on the cover is a compilation of fragments so it is not a specific woman.

Did you see me waving a picture of a zebra front row at the El Paso show?

yes, thank you for coming, we had so much fun there

Infinite thank you for “Drunk in LA”, it has been the most exquisite experience to listen live. Can you say anything about the “loving losing life” line?

Your music has helped my mental health through years, thanks for existing

its about coming to terms with the reality that we are all dying, but must embrace living all the same

What are the lyrics in Other People at 3:27 through 3:48? And Silver Soul where Alex starts at 3:48 through to 4:30?

Also you guys are my favorite band of all time and your music is beyond excellent. Love you! ♡

top secret, haha

I know fans tend to wait after shows in hopes of a handshake/autograph/positive reinforcement, and it seems as if y’all are irked by it. I suppose I would be, too, if I was trying to leave a venue two hours after a show and I had people waiting for me. However, is there a chance there could be occasional signings after shows? I know nobody wants to cater to large crowds after exhausting nights, but to us meeting Beach House seems like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

We used to do this more, we are definitely not irked by it, but for numerous good reasons, we don't do it much anymore. We have enormous respect for our fans and try to show it in other ways. We often have someone bring records backstage for us to sign.

Hello! What did you guys think about the third season of Twin Peaks? I've seen you perform on the Roadhouse multiple times in my dreams...

Cheers and love!

haha, We love it, we feel its some of his best work..

What's the best record you've heard this year, other than 7?

we love little dark age by MGMT

As a gay man, I have always found solace in your music for some beautiful reason. Maybe it's because there has always been this wonderful duality of glamour and darkness present in each album. I was curious, if you all are celebrating pride month with friends and family? Thank you so much for the joy and love your music gives me in my times of need.

THANK YOU, we are celebrating pride. We are pretty open with our political beliefs here, we have a lot of LGBT friends and stand by everyone being accepted for who they are.

What album changed your life?

many, loveless, odessey and oracle, highway 61, phantom of the opera, disintegration,

what is your favorite track off of 7 ?

girl of the year

My Bloody Valentine or Slowdive?

mbv

Its all dale cooper's dream. Correct?

yeah

what were you listening to while creating 7?

iasos, bo diddley, happy mondays, but generally we don't listen to alot while writing, but at the same time we are always absorbing music, and there is just too much to write down

Do you have a pet? :)

Have you met Trevor Powers (Youth Lagoon) in person? I was wondering since you were both in The Space Project Album

btw I'm gonna try use a fake id to get into one of your shows since I'm only sixteen I hope you don't mind

sweet sixteen! see you at the show

One sugar or two?

zero these days, trying to be healthy ;/

favourite books?

mannnnnyyyyy, visiting privilege by joy williams, left handed woman by handke, lots of classics, scifi, mishima, graham greene

Has anyone ever jumped on stage at one of your shows? How did/would you react?

yes, we ignored them and security removed them

Hello, I listen, get emotional and write poetry while listening to your music.

My question is:

Can you describe the inspiration/significance of "girl of the year" lyrics?

Love that song and thank you for your time xoxo, jen

a lot of it is about the double edge of glamour and celebrity culture, not just the spotlight, but the brutal crash on the other side, also, FYI, all the lyrics for the new record are on our website

With Last Ride, I get a feeling of something coming to and end, like a farewell of some sort. Was that intentional, and does it mean no music for a while?

it's the farewell of the record for sure, we never plan the future, but we love music dearly, we have no timeline, but we don't expect to never make music again

Which album do you believe is the Beach House magnum opus?

omg, no idea, thats for you lovely fans to decide

What's your favorite thing to do to relax between touring and writing/recording? Have you discovered any special spots around the world?

sleep,stare

i am excited to come see your show in new haven. the first time i saw your band perform was at bonnaroo 2013! at that concert, victoria said something that really stuck with me: she talked about feeling the crowd’s energy and visualizing that energy into silver snakes above the crowd. i really like the idea of visualizing energy and feelings and i was wondering if you have any other experiences similar to that, both performing or writing music, or intend for any of your music to have that “visual energy”?

i just get carried away sometimes live, in the moment, i only say what i truly feel. we loved our experience at bonnaroo that year, and got to see Tom Petty and it was unbelievable, speaking of feelings. music, live energy, and the energy of people are extremely powerful elements that when aligned just so, create intense experiences.

Hi Victoria and Alex,

I know artists arent usually fond of the idea of fans getting tattoos for them but Beach House has been a really important band for me since the day that i discovered you guys and I have always wanted to get a tattoo that symbolized beach house. I dont have any word tattoos on me because i usually like to pick a symbol/image/drawing that best represents what im getting the tattoo for but i can't seem to pinpoint something that would perfectly represent beach house so i was wondering if either of you had any ideas on what i could get done?

Thanks so much and i cant wait to see you guys perform in Toronto!

thats so personal, not to dodge, but we feel you should listen to your gut :)

what is your favorite song to play live? which city are most excited to play at? favorite colors? favorite foods?

drunk in la has been fun, all of them go in and out of our favor, haha

hello hello! do you guys dance to your own music? I sometimes can't resist the feeling.

also B-sides and rarities helped me find all the beauty in the world, thank you. 🍕

so happy that it makes you dance... music is very physical for us as well as emotional

My girlfriend and I became so much closer after we both became super fans of your music; thank you!

Question for Alex: What guitar model is your go-to when feeling out something new?

Question for Victoria: Will you please affirm to my aforementioned girlfriend Nayeli that magic is real?

A: strat

V: yes magic is real

Hello, I love your music so very much.

May I ask two questions? 1) What inspired Somewhere Tonight? Its magic gets me every time. 2) Did you ever have a feeling when you were younger that you would become what you have? An intuition?

Merci

no, not trying to dodge, but a lot is a mystery to us, we feel deep gratitude to be able to follow our intuition and make music, it comes out of nowhere, we are also very happy you feel moved

Hi there Beach House!

I read a while back that The Left Hand of Darkness was in mind during the process of 7 and I was excited to see such a great sci fi work being loved. Do you have any other key recommendations for science fiction or fantasy novels?

we dont know a ton outside of pretty standard popular stuff....checked out margaret atwood?

What’s your favorite film of 2018 so far?

think it was 2017, but florida project was so good

I love you two —

I read an article recently called “T.S. Eliot would have liked Beach House” (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/t-s-eliot-would-have-liked-beach-house), and it made a ton of sense to me as a huge Eliot fan. What do you think? Are you consciously trying to summon a state of mind that can only really exist in your music? Do you have literary influences that helped you realize this?

That was a really nice piece, very thoughtfully written.. we are just doing what we do naturally, letting things flow into and out of our world.

Hi Victoria and Alex! I love your music! What was the inspiration for the track Black Car? It’s my favorite song from the new album, and I feel like the driving bass is a new favorite thing you were experimenting with. Keep it up, it totally works

thx, like a lot of our songs, the instrument itself drove the creativity, that arpeggio....and at some point a narrative emerges and we follow it..

I was obsessed with a few of your albums and they’ve come to represent a part of my life that was very free, but very desperate and stressful.

Is it alienating or connecting to find so many people project so strongly onto your work? Do you ever worry for the people you’ve touched?

we feel connected, we worry for all of humanity, but also have to concentrate on what we love and what we can do

Hi, huge fan and first want to thank you both for the great music, it has helped me through some very deep lows and been a comfort during great highs. Now for the question

I lived in maryland for a bit of time and when I was a kid my favourite thing ever was going up to the Baltimore aquarium, have either of you guys ever been to the harbor aquarium and if you have, what was your favourite bit?

we love the descending ramps through the surround tanks at the end, very low light!

Hi V & A! Love listening to Levitation under the stars. What is your favorite national park of all time?

sounds great, havent been to many, the tetons!

What was your inspiration for further developing This Must Be The Only Fantasy (from the Rodarte film) into L'Inconnue? And why did you choose to include it in 7 instead of B-Sides and Rarities?

we believed there was a lot of life in that song, so we wanted to keep developing it

What song from 7 are you most excited to incorporate into your live set and why?

we shall seeeeeeee

I loved your installation show! I wish I could have gone to more than one. Would you ever consider doing them again? How did they feel for you, as a band? Did you achieve what you had set out to accomplish with those shows?

we did accomplish something, but felt we could have done better, we had to limit tix due to the type of show it was, and we didn't like the exclusive nature of that,, a future goal would be to bring that show/feeling to a bigger stage, but not lose the intimacy

Hey Alex and Victoria, As somebody who's used bloom and teen dream to brood over the past...:), how do you deal with lost loves?

you move on, and just know that sometimes the past fully goes away and sometimes it just stays inside you, in a little strange heart-shaped box

Are you into astrology or astronomy?

both

Hello! I was at you concert in Chattanooga on April 30th, Amazing show! I wanted to ask, how was your experience there? Would you come back to that venue again?

loved it, everyone was sweet, we'll be back

what’s the meter for l’inconnue? it’s definitely in 3/4 at certain points but in the intro especially it’s a bit more difficult to distinguish. this has been driving me crazy for months now 😆 especially because it’s my favorite song on the album!

the beginning feels like 3/4 but its 4/4 with 7 measures and odd chord change timing ,the tempo changes half way and it becomes more normal 4/4

Question for Alex. As a beginning guitarist I aspire to play as you do. Your style inspires me to keep going. Do you have any advice besides just practicing everyday?

ALEX here: the trick for me was learning another instrument first and then switching to guitar, so i already knew a lot about music but was able to have a naive approach to guitar, which helped me find a voice and not just imitate

I feel like purple is your color. Am I wrong/right?

haha, ravens

What was it like working with Sonic Boom on your new album?

Would you ever work with him again on another project?

Love u guys

he was awesome, a good fit for us, for sure

You guys are amazing and alluring live! How do you do it?

haha, thanks so much, its a constant work in progress, you may not have said that if you saw us in 2008

What was your first gig and how did you get it?

first gig as beach house was nov 2005, at the talking head in baltimore, our friend lexie asked us to play!

If each of you could learn a new musical instrument, what instrument would you learn?

Thank you

v:drums, a:pedal steel

HOW much is Queen an influence on the last (or any) albums? I hear soooo many guitar references to Brian May on 7.

hmmm, not really, but they are great

What do you think of Gram Parsons?

hes great. grievous angel 4ev

What are your favorite places to travel to?

endless places, but paris, japan, any mountains, mexico, the SW, the midwest, canada, korea, oz, wait, its everywhere

What's your top inspiration outside of music? Movies, photography or anything of that nature.

thank you bunches☔️

probably movies

Are there any cities you haven't played yet that you're hoping to in the future?

yes many, honolulu, most of asia, somewhere in wyoming, lots of south america, guadalajara, on and on

Yoyoyo, Hey Alex n Vic, big fan here, one question for both of you:

Whats the best comedy film yall have seen?

bad santa

What did you guys listen to as teenagers? How has your music taste changed?

oldies, motown, grunge, top 40, punk, hip hop, electronic music, music tastes change always and its hard to saw how, its all so slippery

Hi Victoria and Alex, thank you for a lovely new album! What was the inspiration behind Drunk in LA (apart from the obvious)? The song gives me a very sexy vibe and I'm just wondering if there is something specific that may have inspired it? Thank you :)

it was a psychedelic burst while in LA, lyrics speak for themselves in that one