Chicago – Since forming in 2013, Philadelphia punk band Beach Slang has been riding a musical rollercoaster, speedily propelling towards success, with a few ups and downs along the way, but as frontman James Alex would say, “That’s the beauty of life, right?”
The hardworking foursome – comprised of vocalist James Alex on guitar, Ed McNulty on bass, JP Flexner on drums, and Ruben Gallego on guitar – first gained attention in 2014, with the release of the EP Who Would Ever Want Anything So Broken? via Dead Broke Records. Later that year, the band released another EP Cheap Thrills on a Dead End Street via Tiny Engines. Then in February of 2015, Beach Slang released a split with five other bands, titled Strength in Weakness, via Lame-O Records, before putting out the critically acclaimed debut full-length The Things We Do To Find People Like Us on Polyvinyl Records, in October.
Aside from gaining a reputation for its hard work, Beach Slang has become known for its intensity, both with thrilling live shows and with honest, emotional lyrics. With Alex – who was previously a member of 90s pop-punk band Weston - seeing writing as a form of therapy, most Beach Slang songs are raw, cutting deep at insecurities and childhood trauma. By Alex wearing his heart on his sleeve, many listeners easily connect to the music of Beach Slang and some fans even find the band’s music helpful in healing their own emotional wounds. Just recently, Alex was reminded of how powerful music can be, when Beach Slang found itself careening down that crazy coaster, with the members having a bit of a blowout. Thanks to the good old internet, news traveled faster than needed be, with rumors and speculation across the interwebs that Beach Slang’s days were done. And indeed, for about an hour, following a heated argument, Alex had resigned the thought… until a fan reminded him that his music is important to his fans and himself.
James Alex took a break from touring to speak with Best New Bands about the incident, as well as how fatherhood has changed him, how his relationship with his birthfather has scarred his self-esteem, and his unapologetic love for the Goo Goo Dolls.
I’ve read so many pieces comparing you to Paul Westerberg, from The Replacements, but I was listening to your Tiny Desk Concert and couldn’t help thinking at times you sounded so much like Bruce Springsteen. Though, perhaps that’s owed to it being an acoustic session…
That’s incredible! I’ll take that any day of the week. Yes, that’s beautiful, thank you!
Are you a fan of The Boss?
Oh shit, yeah! I played “Born to Run” last night… The first track on our last album was really me trying to write my own version of “Born to Run.” Not that I could ever write it, right, but that was an amateur attempt at it. I think he’s wildly brilliant!
Now that you’re a dad, have you begun to approach music differently, specifically how you’re writing music?
Yeah, I suppose. My worldview is just bigger these days. Where before, it just used to be about – you know, you’re just inside your own singular head. You’re thinking about this work that you do. Now I’m still in that singular head thinking about the work that I do, but he’s knocking around in there, too. I’m like, “How does that reflect on him?” How does it – as I try to build this life for him, am I doing something [where] when Oliver’s going to be older, he’s going to be like, “You know dad, you didn’t embarrass me.” [laughs]
Have you written any songs about your son?
I haven’t, yet. Well, certainly nothing’s that Beach Slang, but I’ll be at home playing and kind of making up dumb things in the moment. [laughs] But yeah, I haven’t sat down to construct something meaningful for him. Will that happen? Without question!
Speaking of your son and writing him songs, I saw on Facebook that your songs have been turned into children’s lullabies on an album titled The Sleep We Lose for People who Look Like Us. That title is hilarious! Is that your son pictured in the album art? And who came up with this brilliant idea?
Yeah, it is really wild! I got an email one day from this guy Casey [Cole]. He is a composer, and he does these lullaby records. He was like, “I really love Beach Slang, and I’d really love to do it. Is this something you’d be interested in?” It took me like a fraction of a fraction of a second to be like, “Are you kidding? Absolutely!” I remember when he started, he sent me the very first song. He said I just want you to see what you’re in store for. I heard it, and I was really knocked out! I just couldn’t believe it! It just took those songs somewhere I never could have imagined. It gave them some really cool, weirdo life, that I didn’t even know they had tucked inside of them. There’s a really beautiful innocence to them now… [Sparrow Sleeps] let me do the artwork. I basically ripped off The Smiths, but that’s Oliver on the cover. It just became this really cool thing… [Casey Cole] took the time to deconstruct [the songs] and build these whole new things. It’s so humbling to me that somebody cares that much, and I just absolutely adore the record.
Have you played it for Oliver?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. He seems to dig on it. He’s not old enough to be able to tell me that, but…
There’s a sparkle in the eyes. [laughs]
Yeah, he lights up in a cool way, so I’m choosing to believe it, like, “He really digs this!”
I was listening to your Hear & Now interview, and when you talked about looking to your father for comfort after your grandfather passed but not quite finding it, I – well, for one, I cried – but also I thought that perhaps a silver lining to that, is in writing about that experience in “Dirty Cigarettes,” you’ve become a comfort to so many of your fans. I imagine fans regularly express their gratitude, either online or in person, while you’re on tour. Have you found some comfort in that?
I have. Without a doubt. That’ll be the thing, I’ll be at shows or online or reading letters or whatever it may be, and people are incredibly gracious with telling me things and sharing those experiences with me. The sort of overlying thing I say to people is like, that sort of healing is a two-way street. I can write these [songs] and put them out there, and there is a catharsis in that to me, for sure – just the process of writing and digging into feelings – but to me, the real sort of healing happens when I put those out and they connect with somebody, who gives that back to me. I never feel like I’m fixing people; I feel like we’re fixing each other. There’s this really beautiful, reciprocal thing that happens. I always found that odd about rock and roll, where these people became these mythological creatures, that were larger than life. All that stuff is meaningless, if there isn’t somebody feeding it or giving it life or making it matter. The only reason these songs matter is because people have chosen to make them matter, and that’s not lost on me.
I go to shows and it happens all the time. It’s so beautiful. I refer to it as, we just hug the life back into each other, and that’s really what it feels like. I feel real lucky in that way. I write in this manner of very “heart on your sleeve,” unapologetically optimistic, and not everybody gets that. Not everyone is going to appreciate that, but I think for the people that do, my intended targets, we’re really gluing ourselves back together in the sweetest way. That’s really all I care about in doing this whole music thing. I’m not trying to have everyone like it, but I’m trying to take care of the people who need it.
You make think, in listening to this – and you’ve studied fine art, so I know you’ll understand when I say this – about the whole argument of art for art’s sake versus art as having a purpose. I’m an artist, and I feel like that is something I’m always struggling with: am I creating this for a reason? What is the reason behind it? Am I going to do some good or am I being selfish in making art because art is amazing? For you, you’re finding that purpose, and your art is the purpose.
Yeah, I am, and I feel real lucky. You can’t plan for that purpose, I suppose. It just sort of presents itself. At first, there is this – writing has always been my therapy. It’s always been the thing I do. My best friends, growing up, were always books and records. I always found comfort in those things, so I would write to help with those feelings of alienation or whatever I was dealing with at the time. I suppose the part I didn’t see or have the foresight to see, is that when you talk so openly about those feelings and put them out there, there are people out there waiting – like I’m not alone, in feeling this way. We all connect around that, and then all of a sudden, you get a bunch people who felt really alone and so misunderstood before, seeing all of the other people who felt alone and misunderstood before. Then suddenly, you don’t feel so alone and misunderstood. There’s sort of a gang of us.
I get asked a lot do I feel pressure for the next record, given the first album did pretty alright. I never feel pressure; I feel responsibility… I don’t want to let people down.
I want to talk about “Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas.” Does the title come from your own insecurity, as an artist – which, I think most artists at some point look at their work and think, “This is shit!” – or does it stem from people around you, but particularly your father, attempting to tear you down?
Wow, that’s a really great question! I would suppose it’s both. I would say it leans more towards the first. I sort of have – I suppose though, and this is where I find the question really interesting – I have a very self-deprecating approach to my work. I’m always going to have those feelings of not good enough. My father planted those in me – my birthfather, I’ll refer to him as – he planted those feelings, so now when they come out in me, I’m like, no it’s not really any deeper than just feeling like I’m not that good. But that’s the ugly little chip he planted in me, when I was a kid. I think my conscious mind will tell you, “Oh no, that’s just me sort of poking fun at myself because I’m just a creative, like any other creative, full of self-doubt, just trying to figure it out, throwing a thing against a wall and hoping it works,” but if I analyze it deeper than that, I suppose you really bulls-eyed it there. If you’re torn down enough as a kid, you never completely shake that off. You know what I mean?
I get that one hundred percent. Alright, I have to ask about the recent break up rumors. Clearly, the band is not breaking up, as you confirmed on Instagram, but you acknowledged that you had planned to, until a fan ran up to you and said, “Don’t do this. We need you.” So, what’s the deal? Will you talk about it or would you rather not go there?
Look, the whole thing with Slang is, it’s an honest place. I think what happened – I’ll preface it with this: It sort was a spark that became wild fire because I think people – and I mean media – posted it without really fact checking. Almost before an article went up, you could have seen we were working on fixing things. It’s literally as cliché as a band had a bad night on the road. It’s no different than – you know, the headline could have been “Person Sleeps on Mattress,” you know what I mean? It’s not like we’re treading new ground here.
Yeah, it’s tour life taking its toll.
Yeah, like there’s never been a band that’s fought before. It was just a weird, dumb moment that we worked out relatively quickly. Quite honestly, the thing about Beach Slang is, it’s been this weirdo trajectory: it took off so quickly, really before we even knew what we were, who we are. You know, some of these guys I met starting this band. So we never really got to figure out – some of this stuff we knew was bubbling under the surface, like learning each other, just like you would with a brother or sister or a new partner in life…
I suppose I wish somebody would have just called me or our publicist or somebody at our record label and been like, “So, is this true?” We would’ve been like, “No, no. The band just thought they were The Kinks and got into a fight on stage.” I don’t know if that answer de-romanticizes it, but it was just that. In a moment, when I’m leaving, I’m like “This is done,” and then we get back to the hotel and are like, “What the hell are we doing? We love each other!”
You got caught up in the heat of the moment.
Yeah, it was just a dumb little happening, and when that girl ran down the street, hugged me, and did tell me that, I think that was that quick snap back, like “What are you doing, dummy? Keep your head on. This is the thing you love more than anything!”
You know, we’re all human beings, and there’s an understanding for human flaw, right? That’s all that was. There’s no need to apologize, and I mean that for us or anyone in the world. It’s these little moments of true emotion that differentiate us from, like, a plant. We should have moments and feel our feelings. While I’ll keep my fingers crossed that we don’t repeat that one, again, or certainly not often [chuckles], it was an honest reflection of how we were feeling.
And it might even inspire a song one day!
Oh, I’m sure it will! I’ve even said this, “If a book’s ever written about us, it’ll probably be the most interesting chapter”… I think inevitably, it was something that needed to happen, and I think we were able to address the root of some things we wished we had talked about before it bubbled into something so sloppy – but now those things are fixed.
That’s key.
Yeah, you have that feeling where you walk out of it with stuff settled, and you feel like I love you more than I did before. We feel stronger than we did before. I feel closer than I did before. Sometimes, unfortunately, it takes the rough and tumble moments in life to get you there.
I also have to ask about the Goo Goo Dolls. I read you’re a fan of the band’s early work. I was honestly a little shocked to read that, given you come from a punk background. I also listened to Goo Goo Dolls, growing up. I loved them, so I’m curious as to what your favorite Goo Goo Dolls song is?
Oh man, maybe “Eyes Wide Open” or “Cuz You’re Gone.” Those are the two. I love their stuff, unapologetically!
And we unapologetically love Beach Slang! The band is currently on tour with Dyke Drama and Potty Mouth. Beach Slang will be playing Shaky Knees, then heading to St. Louis and onto Chicago before playing the East Coast. This summer Beach Slang will also be touring Europe. A full list of tour dates can be found on Beach Slang’s Facebook page.
Photo credit: Greg Pallante
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Sarah Hess
After attending The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Sarah went on to study education at Dominican University, earning a degree in history. When not teaching, writing, or taking in a show, she is most likely to be found with a camera to her eye or hanging out in a darkroom.
You can follow Sarah Hess on twitter at @Sarahhasanh and view her music photography on her website: smhimaging.com.
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