Pitchfork

Beach House seemingly swept in from nowhere amid the late summer haze of 2006, their self-titled debut on Carpark (officially released in October) a most welcome sonic paean to all things autumnal.

But as it turns out, the duo behind the woozy magic-- Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally-- had been kicking around in "chaos" for some time before that. We caught up with Legrand and Scally as they prepare to record the follow-up to Beach House for a chat about the new songs, Beach House's foundations, artistic growth, and the ideal number of people to foster fruitful creativity (spoiler alert: it's two).

Fans can expect "a new sound, a new feel" with the second LP, according to Scally. "It's hard to describe exactly, but you'll hear it."

Legrand helped put it in perspective: "'Master of None'. I think that track would give a clue to what to expect of the style or sound right now. Less of the simpler songs, and more of the 'Master of None'-types."

The duo plans to record yet again with Rob Girardi-- who also helmed their debut-- at Girardi's newly inaugurated Lord Baltimore Recording studio. No album title yet, but working song titles include "Wedding Bell" and "A Monster". They're working titles because, as Legrand puts it, "I'm just nervous they are going to change. I'd feel bad if I gave a title that wouldn't appear."

Legrand and Scally attribute the "new sound" in large part to Victoria's evolving voice. As Scally puts it, with the new record, "I don't think anyone will say that Victoria sounds like Nico or Hope Sandoval."

"I think my voice is changing just from having sung these songs so many times," Legrand explained. "You know, even the way they sound on the recording and live now, they're just different. It's [about] growing into my voice-- into whatever it's going to become. But so far with these new songs it's becoming apparent that I feel like I was hiding something. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I'm letting it loose and [letting it] evolve by itself."

After a pause, she summarized: "My lazy voice is gone. I've woken up. I'm no longer asleep. I drank a huge cup of coffee."

Added Scally in jest, "The new album's called Coffee and a Shower."

For now, Beach House must pore through a number of new songs and decide which to round up for the late August recording session. "We're really trying to consolidate, like with the first record, family," said Legrand. "We're going to make sure that the songs that go on the record fit into the world. It's not a concept album, but an album where you listen to the whole thing and it'll make you feel like you're in a certain place."

Before there was Beach House, however, there was the chaos.

"We had other musical projects," Legrand explained. "Alex was doing like two things. He and I were doing something together that really felt destructive-- basically it was like a bomb that had just exploded and we were just musical beasts. I think, out of that chaos, Beach House provided a sense of serenity for us both ... a project that really, I think, was going down a path that we wanted to be going down. This is our livelihood now."

Their genesis was more or less instantaneous. "I felt really wild and [was] searching for something musically," said Legrand, "and it was literally born in one night. I think it was 'Saltwater' or something. We had written a bunch of little snippits that we still have recorded-- like random songs, about a cockroach or something. We were writing these little things with the organ and I think 'Saltwater' was the first song that night, and it was very apparent that this was the song. And we just kept writing.

"Before that I really think it was chaos. I was home writing things and taking them to a band practice and someone would add a part that seemed like a monster was on acid. [I was like,] I had written a simple piano part, where is this music going?

"Music can run away from you. You have to let it go, but if you let it go really far-- if you go with every possibility-- it's like a painting with too many colors. It eventually just turns into mud."

To keep creativity in check and chaos at bay, two seems like the ideal number of members for Beach House. "It's a good number," in Scally's words. "It's magical."

"It's magical," Legrand agreed, "but I think a lot of it has to do with how tense it can be. It's like any relationship, I think. Alex and I are neither brother or sister nor are we seeing the other person-- we're not romantically involved-- so we can break the fourth wall. We still have a very intense working artistic relationship."

She added, "I don't know if we could work with more people, but I'm sure at some point we'll need something or somebody. We're going to need someone to ring bells, or something."

Beyond their work on the new album, Beach House have been touring non-stop-- "blundering after the impossible beast," as Legrand colorfully puts it. Following a few London shows in celebration of their linking with Bella Union in the UK, the pair will play the Pitchfork Music Festival on Saturday, July 14. Expect refurbished versions of Beach House favorites, some new tunes, Victoria's voice version 2.0, and perhaps a surprise or two.

"We're flying straight from London so we'll probably be real delirious," said Alex. "We probably are at like 80% of our shows."

"That'll be great!" Victoria added. "Maybe I'll faint."

Beach House:

07-05 London, England - Fopp on Tottenham Court Road (in-store) *
07-08 London, England - The Social
07-10 London, England - Royal Festival Hall (Bella Union 10th Anniversary) $
07-14 Chicago, IL - Union Park (Pitchfork Music Festival) %
07-21 Baltimore, MD - Whartscape Festival
08-07 Philadelphia, PA - Fillmore #
08-08 Baltimore, MD - Ram's Head Live #
08-23 Baltimore, MD - Floristree ^
08-24 Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall ^
08-25 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge ^

* with Stephanie Dosen
$ with Howling Bells, Fionn Regan, My Latest Novel
% with Yoko Ono, Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues, Clipse, Mastodon, Iron and Wine, Girl Talk, Grizzly Bear, Voxtrot, Battles, Califone, the Twilight Sad, Fujiya & Miyagi, Oxford Collapse, Dan Deacon, William Parker Quartet, Professor Murder, Ken Vandermark's Powerhouse Sound
# with Blonde Redhead
^ with Papercuts