If Beach Weather were stranded in a desert disco, they’d be just fine — as long as they had a toy guitar, some Pepto Bismol, maybe a truckload of paper, and “copious amounts” of weed. That blend of humour, surrealism, and sincerity runs through everything the Arizona-based trio — Sean Silverman, Nick Santino, and Reeve Powers—touches, including their new deluxe album, Melt’d.
“One of the first songs we wrote was called ‘Melt,’” Santino explains. “I remember saying, ‘We should call the record Melt.’ That sent us down the rabbit hole of what that even could be.” Silverman adds, “The concept and the vision and the palette of the record was somewhat in mind from the first month of writing it, which tends not to be the case.”
Featuring bold new tracks like “Tulips” and cross-cultural collaborations like “Fake Nice” with Kevin Kaarl, Melt’d pushes the band’s dreamy alt-pop into deeper, stranger terrain. Through the haze of synths, grit, and west coast sunsets, the heart of Melt’d is disarmingly real. Beach Weather just happened to write a record that taps into the beautifully confusing, vulnerable middle space between joy and sadness, between the past and what’s still possible — between the desert and the disco.
1883’s EJ Saftner caught up with the band mid-tour at Oklahoma City’s Beer City Music Hall to talk about the creation of Melt’d, the magic of not staying in one genre (or language), and what they’d pack for a dance party in the middle of nowhere.
How are you all? Where are you?
BEACH WEATHER: (SS) Doing good. We’re in Oklahoma City. It’s nice and warm. At a venue called Beer City Music Hall.
(NS) We played there like a year ago-ish. So we got our poster over there on the wall.
So, you’re on tour. It just kicked off? How long will you be on the road?
BEACH WEATHER: We have a day off, kind of like a side show, headlining show for us. Then tomorrow, think we’re in Austin, Texas. And about a month for us.
OK, introduce me to the band. Could you provide a breakdown of how Beach Weather got started and a ‘who’s who’ for our newer fans?
(SS) Sure! I’m Sean.
(NS) I’m Nick.
(RP) And I’m Reeve.
(SS) We got together by being connected through other bands we were in, years ago. Touring with other bands, years ago. We all congregated in Phoenix about ten years ago. That’s kind of how we met, touring with each other’s previous projects, and that evolved into working on this band together.
Congratulations on the deluxe album, Melt’d! Tell me a bit about the album process. Do you write with a concept in mind, or write song by song and narrow down after?
NS) It’s kind of a mixed process, I feel like. Sometimes we do little sessions where we get together for a day or a week, and we will write as much as we can. Sometimes, it’s voice memos that get sent around on our phones, and then we’ll write on top of that. Sometimes, we get songs when we are already in the studio tracking, we’ll write one that day, or one will take on a new form or a new life. I think that’s kind of how we’ve always written, and no different for this new stuff. Some of the new stuff, we added some features onto it later, and there are some songs that we wrote early on that didn’t quite make the record, but we received them later on the deluxe. They all come from the same sort of vibe and place, but different starting points, whether it’s a voice memo or half a demo Sean’s already started. Something that just kind of starts in the room organically.
(SS) I also think the main difference, I would say, from previous albums is that we had the concept early. I don’t know if we’ve always landed in that fashion, but this one, the concept and the vision and the palette of the record, was somewhat in mind from the first month of writing it, which tends not to be the case. I feel like you discover an album as you’re diving into it, and for this one, we had the concept.
(NS) Because one of the first songs we wrote was called ‘Melt.’ I remember saying, you know, ‘We should call the record melt.’ That sent us down the rabbit hole of what that even could be. And then, red and black paired nicely, and we thought we should go a little darker with our colors and visuals and all that. It did help, not necessarily make a theme, but it helped us keep a solid idea all the way through.
Yeah, that sounds so rare to have a name chosen early for an album. To have it as an overarching guide is so…
(SS) It’s very lucky, yeah.
(NS) It’s so perfect. We didn’t really argue it too much. I don’t think we ever came up with another title. We always went with that.
(SS) It’s always been hanging out.
This album features a mix of Western, UK rock, and pop influences. How do you approach features? And, a bit of an odd question, but if you could name an album that ‘Melt’d’ sits next to in a record shop, what would it be?
(SS) I don’t think we were intending on being so diverse in that way. In the same breath that we had the idea of ‘Melt’ from the jump, I don’t think we intentionally sought out a vision for that component. I think it was just that this person elevated the song. The idea of features can oftentimes feel forced, and we didn’t want it to feel like that. We have this artist, BEL, who is featured on one of the songs and she’s somebody that I had had the opportunity to work with previously and I just think her voice sounded really cool. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, she fits in the world of Beach Weather,’ it was just that she sounds pretty on this song. With Kevin Kaarl, we all thought his voice was so interesting and it brings a whole different feeling to the song. So, if we are going to do a feature, it should feel singular so it doesn’t take away from what the song is. So in that regard, I think we would love to be near artists with a similar intention. I always thought bands like Wilco did a good job of always having artists. Jenny Lewis always appeared randomly on records. Those are artists that would be cool to be thinking about.
(NS) You could put us next to a Mac Miller album.
I’m from Pittsburgh, so that is the perfect answer. But yeah, your features elevate the songs that already can stand on their own. So while we’re talking about it, let’s talk about ‘Fake Nice,’ featuring Mexican folk singer and composer Kevin Kaarl. I feel like ‘nice’ is such a backhanded compliment in most cases. Calling something nice just means you have nothing better to say about it. Tell me a little bit about how this song came to be and working with Kevin Kaarl.
(SS) Yeah, ‘Fake Nice.’ We had the idea while we were writing Pineapple Sunrise. The title has been there, and the skeleton was always around.
(NS) But, it was weird.
(SS) Yeah, it was weird.
(NS) The part that is the bridge, we thought, was the chorus. It just turned into a strange song, so we shelved it and kind of came back to it later. I’m glad we did. When we added the little spoken word song in the bridge, I remember half-serious saying, ‘It would be kind of cool if we could get someone to speak Spanish and do that part.’ It felt like an old soap opera or something. It was cool because we ended up doing the normal version with me singing the whole thing, but always wanted to do the Spanish version. So, Kevin, I don’t know. How did we even meet Kevin?
(SS) I think it was a weird thing. One day, we got a video of him singing it in a car. Like in the middle of the desert, he’s singing the chorus, and he’s doing the bridge in Spanish. We were like, ‘Is he going to record it?’ It was really cool.
(NS) Yeah, it was very organic.
(SS) He’s a very singular artist. When you hear his voice on something, it feels like he brings ownership to it in an authentic way. It felt exciting to let him be…
(NS) I like that he just sings in his own voice. We didn’t make him sing the whole thing in English, you know. He sings all his songs in Spanish, so we just let him do all of his parts in Spanish.
I feel like that also opens you up to a new audience, especially great while you are touring. Do each of you have a particular song that is your favourite to perform live, either one you didn’t expect or one you were looking forward to?
(SS) We all might have a similar one. We started playing the song, ‘Tulips,’ on the road. I don’t think we were expecting it to feel like… I think we expected it to feel bigger, playing a heavy rock song. For us, it’s a new thing cause we’ve always wanted to try dabbling in that. Something about the live element and playing in the spaces we are playing this summer, it feels really special. It feels like a different version of the band. That’s a cool feeling, and kind of unexpected. People who have been checking out the show have been responding to it, so…
(NS) Yeah, and we’ve been playing this new one called ‘Dressing Room Tattoo,’ that adds a little punk vibe to our set. It’s a cool energy in the middle. But I’ve always liked playing ‘Swoon.’ It’s an older one, but a really fun song.
(RP) Yeah, they named my two. I’ve been waiting for these bonus tracks to come out forever. I thought ‘Tulips’ would be my favourite to play, but it might be ‘Dressing Room.’
Yeah, ‘Clueless’ may be my favourite song on the record, but I can’t lie… ‘Tulips’ on the deluxe is creeping up there. OK, I’ve got an odd one for you. If you three were left in the ‘Desert Disco’ and could only bring three things, what would they be?
(SS) Ah, what would I bring to the disco?
(NS) I would bring a little toy guitar.
(SS) Yeah, maybe a toy guitar. Maybe some Pepto. And then, what else would be there?
(RP) I don’t know. I’d probably bring a lot of shoe polish.
(NS) I’d definitely bring weed.
(SS) Copious amounts. I don’t if we can collectively agree on three things. Those are all really good things.
That’s okay! Just throw out the ideas. I love it.
(RP) I’d say typewriter. Truckload of paper.
(SS) Truckload of paper?
(RP) Yeah, I’m going to need it.
(NS) For all of his thoughts.
(RP) When I’m going crazy out there in the desert? Yeah, I’m going to need it.
(SS) I’d use ‘em to make paper airplanes.
(RP) Or paper basketball.
(SS) Okay, scratch all of that. I’d only want to bring a mini-hoop.
That would keep you busy.
(SS) Exactly.
Alright, not bad. What a wild array of answers. Lots to choose from there. But if we could bring it back to this eccentric and lively record. If you could communicate anything to your fans about this record, the meaning behind it, what it means to you… What would it be?
(RP) Be yourself. Don’t stay in a box and make a record that sounds the same all the way through. You know what I mean? Have fun. Make music with your friends and have fun. Write shit that happened to you.
(NS) ‘Melt’ was a cool one because a lot of the themes are real life. There are some, I love you, break-up, kind of vibey songs, but a good portion are real, relatable things that people go through. I think with our song, ‘Sex, Drugs, Etc.’ from the last record, we noticed that’s our strongest thing with writing lyrics in the band. Writing vulnerable, relatable lyrics about depression or happiness or being fake nice… I feel like they always end up standing the test of time a little longer. Later, I’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s what that song is about.’ Like, eight years later.
(RP) When we finished ‘Stardust,’ I cried. Felt like I let go of a lot of shit after we wrote it.
(NS) That’s what is cool about ‘Melt.’ It’s open for interpretation. Anybody can listen to it and be like, ‘Oh, they wrote this song about me.’
Beach Weather’s deluxe album Melt’d is out now.
Intervew EJ Saftner
