by Jane Roser
“Courtney Love. That may be when I decided that I really wanted to play music,” reminisces Beach Day’s vocalist/guitarist Kimmy Drake. “She’s just an amazing musician and a big inspiration for me, I love her so much.”
Releasing their second LP, Native Echoes, on Kanine Records August 19th and currently touring, the Florida duo (which also includes drummer Skyler Black) is ready to bring their version of garage rock/surf pop to the masses, so get ready to shake, rattle and roll.
“There will definitely be a lot of loud rock and roll,” laughs Drake, “and there will be more touring and recording for the rest of the year, it’s definitely a cycle. I’m already writing songs for the next record. I hardly ever write on the road because it’s just too overwhelming, I wait til I get home and just absorb everything that’s happened on the tour.”
After touring relentlessly to support their debut full-length album, Trip Trap Attack, Beach Day jetted to Detroit to work with producer Jim Diamond (The Sonics, The Dirtbombs, The White Stripes) on their second album in two years. Having worked with Diamond on Trip Trap Attack, the band knew that they would be working with him again.
“He mixed our first record,” says Drake, “and then we went into the studio and recorded a song [a cover of “Up On The Roof”] for a LensCrafters commercial and it was just so easy and fun; we got along so well.”
Native Echoes was an easy, streamlined process because the band was able to record the album in one place, whereas on their previous record, they hopped all around the country recording as they went. “In L.A., in Miami, in Atlanta,” Drake laughs, “we
recorded in three separate studios and the. It was mixed in Detroit with Jim.”
Originally starting off with more songs than what actually ended up being on the album, Drake added the hit single “BFFs” right before the album was completed. Five days before we recorded the second half of the record I had written “BFFs”, so we ended up cutting two other songs since I felt “BFFs” and [the album’s first single] “Don’t Call Me On The Phone” were the strongest tracks on the album. I personally believe in a 10-11 song record because I feel that when you have 14 songs, the listeners might not ever get to those last tracks.”
The inspiration behind “BFFs” is a toxic friendship and an overwhelming feeling of being left out. “I literally sat down and wrote that song in, like, five minutes,” Drake explains. The lyrics and music are all created by Drake, but sometimes she’ll collaborate with Black on the arrangements. “I’ll write a guitar riff off of a drum beat that he starts playing, he’s really amazing.”
Black was recently on Caught In The Carousel’s list of top 25 underrated drummers, a list which includes such percussion legends as Bill Berry of R.E.M. and Boris Williams of The Cure amongst others.
The track “All My Friends Are Punks” was inspired by a group house Drake lived in when she was younger. “It was a really awesome time in my life and I was feeling very nostalgic [when I wrote that song]. I had five roommates; we were all very politically-minded and we’d have these crazy discussions.”
In their dining room was a picnic table pilfered from a bank down the street and they hosted shows in their living room.
Drake created the album art herself, working hard to personalize the visuals and making drawings for each song. The cover is a collage of flower photos she took and it has a dreamy, ethereal look to it. You may want to just buy two copies of the CD so
you can frame one.
Kimmy Drake is one of the coolest girls on the block. She collects old vinyl, has bad ass fashion sense, a spunky personality, is a huge fan of girl bands from the 50s and 60s and absolutely adores The Velvet Underground. Native Echoes is a lovely sophomore album, with shades of Throwing Muses and The Shangri-Las, but with its own unique sound and originality.
