It’s nearly impossible to deny the astonishing past two years Beach Slang has had. Two highly acclaimed EPs, one equally acclaimed debut album, and several sell-out tours across two continents later, this Philly four-piece’s snowball continues to grow. Expectations have never been higher, and the amount of eyes watching their next move would normally make any other frontman lose his wits, but that’s not the case with James Alex, the mastermind behind the band.
Age and experience are in Alex’s corner. They’ve helped him keep a level head through it all. The praise from countless established music blogs and magazines, the vast amount of people permanently getting lyrics from his songs tattooed on their skin, nothing has changed this punk rock lifer.
Beach Slang headlined Neon Reverb’s third night at The Bunkhouse. They flew in from Philadelphia that morning. A little sleep deprived and still piecing themselves back together from a successful European tour, James was kind enough to lend me a bit of his time to discuss the whirlwind he and the band have been on, and how he deals with it all.
You’re fresh off a European tour. Tell me about it. What were some of the highlights?
It was great. Honestly, I have a humongous, gigantic dreamer head, and even when I put together in my little skull how cool I thought that could’ve gone…multiply that infinitely. We still play shows and I can’t believe people show up, you know what I mean? I guess that just feels like weird multiplication the further you go from home. It’s like, “we’re all the way over here.” We were playing in Croatia and people were there singing back to us. That was absolutely a highlight, because, we’re in Croatia, man. It was packed out and kids were really, really stoked. I got crowd surfed in Italy. I don’t know the last time I did that. We played in London, we put out a mixtape, probably like six months ago now, and we covered this song “Too Much Kissing” by Senseless Things and Ben Harding, their guitarist, came out and played it with us.
I know your guitar broke on tour, and you have a thing for white guitars.
A different one broke, my Dot broke. I just kept getting things patched up. I do [love white guitars], I don’t know what it is [laughs]. Typically when I see photographs or video, I’m a blur. I hate going to the gym, so this is like my exercise, but the guitar…the guitar looks really pretty.
How are you handling knowing that heaps of people show up and know all the words to Beach Slang songs?
It’s not lost on me. I never enter into this with “finally, I deserve this!” I feel so lucky and so flipped back. I think it’s been easy to digest in the same way you sort of wake up on your birthday and there’s a surprise party waiting. I’m just so happy to be in it that I’m almost not even analytical about it. I’m a hugger, I just kinda throw it out. I’m pretty much a wallflower, but touring around in a rock ‘n’ roll band, I get to make friends, and that’s really cool. So, there’s a benefit to seeing people singing along or smiling while we’re playing and I’m like, “I can say hi to you later and it won’t be awkward.” And that’s been really kinda cool, man. I don’t know that I’ve thought about it too much. I’m just kinda enjoying it while it’s here. ‘Cause, you know, like any cool thing you’re sort of waiting for the implosion. I just don’t want that to come.
You’re playing very personal songs. Do you overthink things when writing a song?
For sure, man. I’m writing LP #2 right now and I have about 80% of it done. We go in the studio April 1st to make it, and I think I’ve been otherthinking this one even more than other ones. People have asked me if I feel pressure now because the EPs and the first record did okay. I don’t feel pressure, but I feel a responsibility to the people that this has mattered to. So, now I’m thinking about them. I’m no longer just writing for myself, I’m writing for us. Which, in my head, in my heart, I was always doing, but now I have faces to “us,” you know what I mean?
I’ve been really, really, maybe tragically, overthinking it, so then I try to remove myself. Just go ride my bike, or go do a thing completely separate from it and come back to it with a fresh head. When I take off from it, within the first five or ten minutes of riding my bike, or whatever, some lyric hits me that’s what I was looking for those hours I was banging my head against the desk. I wanna keep them personal, that’s important to me. I think that’s been the thing that’s reached and connected all of us.
How did you spend your time between the end of Weston and the start of Beach Slang?
Music was still a big thing. I did a couple things that were really more just recording projects. I toured a little bit, but they were more based around recording. I was in a really weird life scrabble, because all I’d ever done was Weston. It’s like, what do I do with my life now? That’s how I identified being alive, you know? So, I went back to art school, and I was working as a designer for awhile. If I need to make a living that’s not my guitar, making art is pretty cool. That felt like a really natural sort of progression, but it never really…it’s not music for me. It just never really filled that thing.
Was making art not as cathartic as writing songs?
Without a doubt. And I was still working on the craft of being a songwriter. That’s always gonna be my favorite part of this whole thing. There’s this nothing that exists and then you build something out of it. I dig that. But, I’m not really a solo guy. I like being part of a band. I like that exchange in energies and ideas. So, I’d be working on these things and then I’d look around and I was alone in the world. I didn’t want that thing. Then when the thing happened it was like, “yeah this was what I was waiting for.” We had no plan for what this thing was gonna be, because you can’t map that stuff out. But, the very first time we played together, it felt so right. I was just like, “whether this thing flys or just completely falls, I’ve missed this.”
I think it happened because of the genuine sincerity you have with or without the attention. It came from a guy who’s gonna be doing this no matter what.
Without a doubt, man. That’s packed full of sincerity. In this point in my life, I don’t know what else to do to be alright. I love this life. I love everything about it. It’s from the guts to the guitar, there’s no watering down process.
Have people ever misinterpreted that positivity you always express?
I’m not trying to sell the facade that I never crack, fracture, or have a bad day. That’s part of the human experience. It’s not Disneyland. I think then you sort of see through it and it’s just a gimmick. There’s an importance to knowing there are days that are gonna be grey. There are going to be days where things don’t turn out. I guess what I ask people to do is shift the focus. Remember that you fell down but the important part is that you got up, right? I’ve always found romance in the struggle. If everything came easily, I’m not sure about the character building in that.
Are you the type of person who thrives in the struggling more so than when you’re content?
Without a doubt. I think sometimes I’m almost like a self-saboteur. I just came up that way where I need grain to go against. Days where everything feels in place, I’m just going to celebrate and be happy in this moment, but then I’ll look for something. But to be straight about that, I’m not trying to frame or concrete myself as a little sad heart. We kind of grow up and we’re figuring life out. I’m just trying to write about my little trip.
What’s the best possible outcome you see happening with Beach Slang?
The most important thing for me has always been about the work. I wanna make honest stuff that I believe in, that matters, because one day I’m just going to be dust. When that stuff’s left behind and my son is remembering who his old man was, it’s going to be like, “he did this.” If I get to keep the lights on by playing my guitar, that’s awesome, but this has never been about that for me. That stuff’s like very cool cherries on top if it happens, that I don’t have to go in and do a job that maybe I don’t dig all that much. But if that never happens, I’m not willing to compromise the work for anything. If people dig the work and that allows for this crazy little thing to continue, that’s fantastic.
-Alan Madrigal
James Alex photos by Aaron Mattern
You can purchase Beach Slang’s latest full length, The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us,’ right now via Polyvinyl Music Co.
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