Interview with Beach Youth: ‘A song is like a postcard in a way, it’s a moment in time’

Caen, Normandie-based indie pop band, Beach Youth, will bring out their first full-length album, POSTCARD, on 16 April, offering 11 dreamy, languid tracks that are reminiscent of summer holidays.

The band comprises Simon Dumottier (vocals/guitar/synths), Etienne Froidure (vocals/guitar), Louis-Antonin Lesieur (bass) and Gautier Caignaert (drums). ‘At the beginning, none of us knew each other,’ Froidure said. ‘I did an advert and Simon saw it. We met the next day, it felt very nice, we liked the same music. Later, we put an advert out for a drummer and his neighbour was Louis!’ Caignaert and Froidure are room mates. Their name references The Beach Boys, of whom they are big fans and the fact that they feel like a beach band, according to Froidure. It also references Normandy’s landing beaches.

POSTCARD kicks off with a self-explanatory track, ‘Love Yourself’, that actually goes back to 2018 (there is also a Love Yourself II) and which was written by Froidure. The album title was inspired by their sound engineer: ‘He said to us, “When a band comes into my studio, I see it like a postcard, like a precise moment in time” and we really liked that because a song is like a postcard in a way, it’s a moment in time. Moreover, our songs sound like a holiday!’

As the song goes: ‘If you loved yourself like I love you, everything would change all around you. I’ll never feel complete if you stay that unhappy. If you can’t do this for you, can you do it for me?’

Froidure describes the album as having ‘summer vibes but a bit nostalgic’: ‘There are some strong moments but also some ballads as well. Simon writes the lyrics and I write the music.’

‘It’s about a farewell to a friendship or a partnership’

One of the most striking songs on the album is ‘Farewell’, which feels so summery that you can practically taste the sea. ‘It’s about a farewell to a friendship or a partnership, that’s how Simon explained it,’ Froidure said. As the song kicks off: ‘Don’t be sad, you don’t mean a single thing you say after all we had, you don’t want things to end this way.’

As Dumottier explains it: ‘I wrote this song after watching a movie in which an American girl had to leave her boyfriend because she was going to study in Europe. Funnily enough, a year after I wrote this song my girlfriend also went on a student exchange but luckily it was only in Holland and we didn’t break up, haha! These kind of coincidences happened a lot to me these last few years, finding myself writing about something fictional – usually sadder than I was at the time – and then experiencing the exact same feelings in real life. Even if it’s a little scary, it makes these lyrics even more meaningful to me.’ 

My favourite track is probably ‘A Changed Man’, which explores the feeling of isolation and distance in lockdown when the band members were living in different places: ‘Distance is a thing that we all know very well,’ Froidure said. ‘Last year, Simon was in Paris, our drummer was in Rennes, I was in Caen in Normandie.’

However, the song itself predates lockdown, Dumottier said: ‘We did feel this, but this song was written way before and is more about a relationship between two individuals. In fact, I wrote a lot about long-distance relationships on our first EPs and I wanted to write about the emotional distance which can arise between two people who see each other every day.’ 

That comes across very strongly in the song: ‘I’m not sure those things we shared can still last, tell me, what do you say?’

Despite their beachy vibes and their close proximity to the coast (15 mins away), Froidure jokes that none of them know how to surf: ‘It’s hard!,’ he laughed. ‘We have to try it.’ They recorded the album last summer in Creuse – which he jokingly describes as ‘the lost bit in the middle’ of France: ‘We didn’t have the Internet, we had to focus. It was great like this.’

‘The melodies on the chorus are flying, they’re quite high’

His favourite song on the album is constantly changing: ‘It depends on the time I listen to it,’ he said. ‘For example, at the beginning, it was ‘Love Yourself’ but now it’s ‘Out of Control’. I love the metronomic feel and the strong bass line. The melodies on the chorus are flying, they’re quite high.’

He’s a big fan of Rouen-based punk rock band, MNNQNS (pronounced ‘mannequins’): ‘They’re very cool, a bit dark but they have good melodies. He also likes Rennes’ Born Idiots: ‘Right now, I’m in the drummer’s house, they are good friends, they play great indie pop.’

In addition to The Beatles, he cites The Strokes as a massive influence: ‘I have to speak about them. Thanks to them, I know hundreds of other bands, they opened the door to many other things when I discovered them when I was 16. We were on the computer in the school library, each of us with an earbud, listening to music on YouTube!’

If he could have written any song, purely from a music perspective, he picks ‘When You Die’ by American rock band MGMT: ‘It’s a bit complex, there is a lot of information in it, lots of pieces. I don’t know if the other members would say that one!’ If he could tour with anyone, he goes with Toronto’s indie pop band, Alvvays: ‘I’ve only seen them on the Internet but they look very nice, so I think we would get on well together, it’s just a feeling. Our last gig was more than a year ago but they’re saying that gigs of 5,000 people or less will be allowed in France from this summer onwards, so I hope we can play again soon.’