Canadian indie band The Beaches have exploded over the past few years.
The band, which consists of Jordan Miller on lead vocals and bass, Kylie Miller on guitar, Leandra Earl on keyboards, guitar, and backing vocals, and Eliza Enman-McDaniel on drums, have really shown that the indie rock scene belongs to women for a reason. In 2023, their song “Blame Brett” went viral and reached number one on Billboard Canada’s Rock Chartland album Blame My Ex won the Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year 2024, earning the band international recognition and success.
This year, the band are even busier, entering a new era with a new album No Hard Feelings. Featuring new singles “Jocelyn” and “Last Girls At the Party”be released, the album is even more cathartic, relatable and fun. The new album is a mix of personalities, featuring music from the perspectives of all band members, reflecting on relationships, break-ups and dealing with their explosive fame. Truly the musical equivalent of getting together with your friends with a few drinks and discussing boyfriends, girlfriends, breakups, crushes and feelings that comes with dating in your twenties. The album will release on August 29th, as the band embark on the No Hard Feelings Tour across Canada and the US between August and November, the band’s longest tour so far – we’ll have to wait a little longer here in Europe!
1883 Magazine sits down with The Beaches guitarist Kylie Miller ahead of the album release to discuss the new era, dealing with fame, their enthusiastic fanbase and more.
he songs that have been released are so far amazing. What would you is the main difference between the Blame My Ex era and the No Hard Feelings era?
Well, Blame My Ex was primarily about Jordan’s experience with her breakup with her longtime partner. So it’s all kind of like focused on her perspective versus no hard feelings. It’s kind of like all of our perspectives. In between releasing Blame My Ex and writing this album, Leandra and I also went through breakups. Well, actually, two breakups now, so I don’t know what that says about me. Basically, the creation of this album was kind of like a therapy session.
So every day, one of us would come to the studio and we’d have something new to discuss and talk about. So there are many perspectives, which is really nice. There’s kind of a song that each of us is the primary focus on. There’s a song on the deluxe record that will come out about Eliza. I’ve written some from my perspective.
Obviously, there’s a bunch of queer heartbreak songs from Leandra’s perspective. And so it’s really kind of a nice way of like, including all of us a little bit more and you can really kind of like hearing the different personalities come out on this record.
Takes One to Know One is the sister song almost, I’d say, to like “Blame Brett”. Was that like a really fun song to write? I don’t know how involved you are with writing that song. But could you tell me a bit about that song? Because I know that kind of led into this era.
Yeah, so that song is exactly that’s kind of the vibe. So on “Blame Brett”, she [Jordan] says that she’s not going to take accountability, but she’s not going to go to therapy. But she did start going to therapy at this period in time, and is trying to kind of also realize that maybe it’s not super appropriate to just blame your ex for all of the issues in your relationship, like also definitely like we’re a little bit to blame. Takes One to Know One is just so fun and has like such a good like kind of summery like feeling but then the lyrics are like really kind of twisted and fucked up and funny so it’s like a nice juxtaposition of those kind of different feelings.
May I ask which songs you wrote if you’d like to talk a bit about those for you because as you said you went through two breakups – I’m so sorry!
Oh, it’s okay, it’s absolutely fine! So the first track on the record is called Can I Call You In The Morning and I kind of wrote that about just you know dealing kind of with like the end the fizzling out of my relationship and you know I would just definitely get like overly emotional and angry and like when you bottle all that up and just kind of like you know don’t process those emotions that well eventually obviously it’s all gonna come out and like a big like lash out kind of situation. I went through that kind of like this toxic cycle with an ex-partner of mine, where we were living together and then you know just like weren’t communicating and then things would blow up into this like huge fight you would say like kind of terrible things but then try to apologize and try to like, you know, end up fixing it. But then eventually, obviously, that doesn’t work. And he broke up with me on a three hour drive back from his cottage at the beginning of the car ride.
Oh no, that’s a way to do it.
Oh, it was incredible.
Maybe just save it for the end of the journey, you know, but the end of the trip because it’s like, oh my gosh, such a great weekend. I never want to see you again. Like, at least let me have some fun on the trip before.
Exactly. The timing wasn’t great, but you know, I wish him all the best. It’s not really the nicest song, but that’s okay.
I think that’s what a lot of fans love about your music. It’s so raw and it’s just so like, I saw actually like somebody said online, it’s like a song that you just wanna like scream with your friends in a car or like in the park.
I feel like it’s just like, it’s a very universal experience and it’s kind of like how Alanis Morissette did that for so many people like in the 90s. Those songs that you just want to scream the lyrics with your friends. But like we try to do it with a little bit of a sense of humor where it’s like it’s not all obviously super serious. Breakups are kind of messy but they can also be kind of funny. Like so it’s nice to also, like, poke fun at the situation and yourself and the person. Ultimately, as Taylor Swift said, if people don’t want you to write songs about you, you shouldn’t do they shouldn’t do bad things, something she said something along the lines, I’m definitely misquoting her,
But no, the vibes are correct. Because again, Jake Gyllenhaal didn’t do what he did, we wouldn’t have All Too Well the 10-minute version! Another song on the EP is about Jocelyn. As I understand it, it’s about your band’s rise to fame. And there’s a really funny line in it, that ‘Jocelyn, you have a PhD in politics’, which as a politics grad, I was like, wait.
You felt seen!
I felt so seen! You guys, really blew up after Blame Brett and Blame My Ex. How was it dealing with that sort of explosion of fame?
It definitely has been a bit of an adjustment, for sure. Our lives definitely are different than they were before that song blew up on TikTok. Like, you know, we’ll go out or something and at least we’ll get stopped like five or six times and that’s like absolutely, totally fine. But I think it was a bit of a struggle. you know, Blame Brett is kind of like this anthemic song about, you know, taking the power back or whatever. But ultimately, we all weren’t doing that well mentally, when that song was like blowing up. It’s like, oh, we actually are all still pining over our exes. And like, I think Jordan was still kind of like, maybe secretly like, talking to Brett. Like they were still like having this connection. And she’s like, you know, all these people are coming up to me saying that I helped them through their breakup, their divorce, this, but she’s like, but yet I myself am not over this situation.
And so, we wrote Jocelyn about that sort of madness. Jocelyn is actually, she is a real person. She’s a fan that we found on Instagram and she is a political science major. I haven’t been able to find her again since releasing the song.
Oh my gosh, we need to find her.
I know, we gotta put, we gotta make sure that she gets found at some point! We have to meet Jocelyn, she’s iconic. But that song was just about this incredibly smart, beautiful young woman and us not really understanding why she’s looking up to us and idolizing us when we don’t really have our shit together at all and just kind of dealing with that. But yeah, that song is definitely very beautiful, very powerful. But also, there’s a lot of Easter eggs in there which is fun because she is a real person.
That is amazing. We need to find her. At some point we need some sort of update on Jocelyn though we need her at a concert. I know she’ll probably be at one!
Well, we decide we pick a new Jocelyn at each show. One person can become Jocelyn so we’ve had quite a collection of them. Maybe you can be Jocelyn at the next London show that we have.
I do have a politics degree, so I do think I can be Jocelyn! But that’s such a raw and very honest take on fame. There is the idea of “well famous people should be role model” and of course so many people love and look up to you guys but you have this very take of well we are a little fucked up ourselves. Do you think that’s also why people love to continue to love you guys? Because it’s not manufactured authenticity?
Totally. I mean like we could all definitely use some media training and things like that but I think it’s kind of fun to just be yourself and not really have everything so together and to just show like the messy parts of yourself. But also showing it with the professional. I think we’re just like very real people and we try to incorporate that in our shows as much as we can and our online presence. It’s obvious, I think, that we’re very hard workers,but we can also be unhinged! That’s why we have a song called Last Girls at the Party on this record, because that literally rings true to a lot of the stuff that we’re doing.
And that, again, is such a fun song, because it’s like what’s life without a little bit of plot development?
Absolutely. It’s for the plot, for the story. You got to kind of just roll with it. And like, we’re only young ones, so might as well kind of go all the way right now, you know?
And so you guys are going on tour, of course, this massive North American tour, which looks to be doing really well. Congratulations! What are you most excited about touring and also what kind of other downfalls of touring? e
Yeah, that’s our longest tour that we’ve ever done, which is like a little bit scary, I guess, just like being away from home for that long period of time but honestly I’m really looking forward to it like I think that it’ll be so fun to be able to play these new songs and perform this new show for the fans and we’re playing some of the biggest venues that we’ve ever done in the States so that’s like incredibly exciting for us.
The positives of it are like being able to live your dream with your best friends and like my actual sister, like just being able to share that experience with them. It’s honestly the best feeling in the world. The downsides of that, I guess, are that you don’t get a lot of personal time. So if you’re introverted, it’s definitely hard to kind of get that solid me time like that people need for their batteries to recharge and stuff. I’m super extroverted, so it’s not really an issue for me. But like there are other people on the tour that might just need to have space, go out, get some coffee.
Also, on tour you have to stay healthy, which is so boring! But you have to go out of your way to find those options, and a lot of the time those options aren’t available, just like you have to really kind of work extra hard to make those good life choices to make you be able to sustain for that period of time. We start well, but like to fall off and we like drinking every day. You gotta find a way to blow off some steam. It’s like really fun to like, go out in a city that you have never been to and like after the show, go play pool and like have some drinks and stuff like, especially with like our crew is so awesome, so they’re super fun to hang out with and we’re taking some really cool opening acts out with us. Debbie Dawson, who I’m a huge fan of. Annie Derusso and our friends Valley are coming and doing the Canadian leg with us.
It sounds like such an amazing tour. It almost sounds like one big travelling summer camp! Do you have any favorite places that you’re really looking forward to going to; any of the band members that you guys are like ‘I can’t wait to go there!’
Well, we’re playing the biggest festival in Canada called Oshiega. We’ve been playing that for weeks, and it’s in Montreal, which is like one of my favorite cities in Canada. But honestly, we love going to London. We do have a lot of friends in London, and I’m not just saying that! It is one of our favorite places to spend quite a bit of time and I also love Paris and in the States, I really, I love New York City, like that’s my favorite city there. And I also really like Austin, Texas, but I don’t know if we’re making it there this time.
Are there any really funny fan encounters that you’ve had that have just stuck with you?
Yeah, there’s definitely been like a few, , you know, like, it’s, it’s just kind of funny because like, going to each place, you kind of like, you end up seeing kind of those people over and over again and so now like I recognize some of them who come .
But like, we’ve often hung out with some of the fans and like, you know, gone to see shows with them and had a bunch of fun but we’ve also, I’m trying to think if there’s any funny fan encounters.
I mean, Leandra definitely had some pretty crazy, some pretty crazy DMs from some fans and stuff where it’s gotten a little bit unhinged! Like people saying that they’re gonna leave their husband for her, like all this kind of stuff.
I mean, I get it. I, too, would leave my imaginary husband for Leandra! You guys have, very fun fan base but also the sadness of being a female all female band, you guys do get a lot of flack, I’m guessing from just idiots on the internet. Often, the comments are like ‘they’re just a chick band.’ and it’s like, so?
Exactly. Especially because women are dominating, like, literally the pop and alternative rock sphere right now, where it’s like, actually that’s like a compliment. Like, if you look at the biggest artists of this past year – Chapell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Clairo, and Charli XCX. I think that like women really have like taken over just in like such an incredible way where I feel like there’s just so much more diversity, so it’s not like enough diversity, but like the fact that there are like a lot of, you know, women like headlining these like huge festivals and stuff like that is definitely not a negative thing to be called like a chick band or ‘all female band.’ And with guys, we’ll just call them Dude Bands.
We can get very condescending and call them boybands! But like, you guys, , what’s it like to have kept and cultivated this, this very like band of very rabid queer fans (it’s not just me, I promise who just absolutely adore all the music and are very much looking forward to this new album. What would you have to say to them?
Well, we’re just, we’re so happy that they’ve discovered us. Like we really wanted to touch on like that fan base for so long because, you know, two of our band members are queer and like, they just wanna kind of see themselves represented in the crowd, like at our shows and so to, you know, be able to connect.
With them is like such an incredible thing, and also like, queer fans are literally they go the hardest, they’re the most fun. Like, if you’re if you’re not in a concert with a bunch of like girls, gays and theys, it’s not a fun concert. They are the best fans – single-handedly you guys have the best like taste and just like, are the most fun and will party the hardest and it’s like so fun to be able to connect and be able to like play and have those interactions and it’s , yeah, it’s just it’s been incredible to be able to experience that. I’m just an ally.
That’s the new merch! In the Jocelyn font, a shirt that says ‘I’m just the ally’. Also, by the end of this tour, will you and your sister still be friends? I couldn’t tour for months with mine!
Well, I mean when we were younger we would fight like all the time, but we’ve really kind of grown into being like best friends. We have pretty much the same thoughts and like vision for the band, so it actually is like an incredible experience to do this with her. We’ve been playing together since we were like 6 and 7 years old, so I can’t really imagine doing it without her.
No Hard Feelings releases next Friday.
Interview Michaela Makusha
Photography Meg Moon
