Beach Day consists of two ladies from Kendall and one drummer boy from Orlando. They all three live together in Hollywood and make some seriously upbeat surf garage, '60s-inspired jams. Last night, they opened with Lil Daggers for Black Lips, and we caught up with them to find out more about this trio from our side of the county line.
Kimmy, Natalie, and Skyler all played in a band before called the Black Rabbits, which had a "retro-mainstream" sound, according to Kimmy. They met in Fort Lauderdale performing in separate bands. Then through the magic of email, they became an inseparable group. A year and a half later and they're Beach Day, rocking a different sound.
Of the new direction they've gone in, Kimmy says, "It just organically happened." After practice with their former act, these mostly self-taught musicians liked to mess around with surf sounds, especially Skyler. "Beach Day" was a song that inspired the band's name.
They've recorded two songs so far, but they've been playing a lot lately. So much so that they can't even remember where they've been over the past few weeks, but a few places came to mind: Dada, Respectables, Uncle Lou's in Orlando, and Churchill's. The reason for performing so frequently is so that they're intent on raising money to put out their first album in May.
Beach Day claims that they're in a biker gang, but like a bicycle gang. "We all go biking around Hollywood," Skyler says. They also hit up the Everglades a bunch. In case you see three musicians flying by on two wheels in the swamp, you now know who they are.
The band opened for Surfer Blood on New Year's Eve at Respectables. Natalie wanted to say: "I don't know why Surfer Blood has such a bad reputation, but we all want them to know that we love them. They are the nicest people. It's very rare that a band comes early and watches all of the other bands." They also enjoy playing with the Cost and Honey Train. "All the local garage bands, we all play at places together," Kimmy says. A scene has solidified, it seems.
When asked where their music may or may not go, "We will never do electronic music," Kimmy says, not that there's anything wrong with that. "It's probably the opposite of what we're doing, which is like trying to keep it to basic good songs."
Natalie adds, "We have some cool organ stuff going on in our album too." They have plans to bring a keyboardist in on the onstage action.
Beach Day is playing next Thursday at Jazid (1342 Washington Ave., Miami Beach), where they're starting a new '60s garage-focused night called Dig! They'll be playing with Honey Train. At the end of April, the day after Record Store Day, they're heading westward to record their album. The "crazy roadtrip" will take them to Los Angeles to play at Silverlake Lounge and Burger Records. They're working with former Miami resident and Cat Power musician Gregg Foreman to produce their record.
Keep your ears and eyes peeled for Beach Day. They've got the sunny disposition of a band that can't fail.
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