Interview with Beachheads: ‘It’s got a Go-Betweens kind of vibe – it’s jingly jangly, which is different for us’

Oslo-based indie rock quartet Beachheads is working on a new album, Volume 2, from which they have just released the infectious, psychedelic pop rock single, ‘Jupiter’.

Beachheads was formed by Vidar Landa (guitar) and Marvin Nygaard (bass) who both play in Norwegian metal band, Kverlertak. They’ve also recruited ex-Kvelertak merch-slinger Børild Haughom on lead vocals and Espen Kvaløyon on drums, who is from the west coast of Norway like Landa. Of the name, Landa says: ‘We were just trying to find something simple and catchy and we liked the double meaning of the war reference and the summer, sunshine vibe.’

Last month, they released their single ‘Jupiter’, which is taken from their upcoming album: ‘We wrote it last year, when Jupiter and Saturn came together in the night sky, it’s sort of ecstatic, psychedelic, pop rock,’ Landa said. ‘It had more of a country vibe when I first wrote the chords and melody but it sounded pretty dull,’ he laughed. ‘In that version, the guitar solo was the melody line for the song, it had a Wilco feel to it, so I rearranged it with the electric guitar to get more energy out of it.’ 

He certainly succeeded in doing that. While they describe Jupiter as being ‘a celebration of love, ecstasy and adventurous sleepless nights’, the version they released erupts with a high energy bass riff of G, D and C before the drums sweep in and take the tempo up another notch, as do the fuzzed up guitars. As the track kicks off: ‘I touch your lips, fingers slip, feel your breath, I watch Jupiter…’ Some of the original song has been retained, according to Landa: ‘Some of the original vocal melody is now used in the guitar solo,’ he said. ‘I had the line about Jupiter and the explosion, which gave me the idea for the song to which Børild then wrote the lyrics.’

‘It’s sort of a nostalgic song about travelling and visiting coastal seaport towns in Norway’

Their album, Volume 2, will comprise 10 tracks. In addition to ‘Jupiter’, there will be a new version of their single ‘Death of a Nation’, which came out in 2019: ‘My favourite song on the new album is ‘Down South’, Landa said. ‘It’s more acoustic driven, it’s got a Go-Betweens kind of vibe. It’s jingly jangly, which is different for us. It’s sort of a nostalgic song about travelling and visiting coastal seaport towns in Norway. We’re from Stavanger on the west coast but Børild’s from the south-west side.’ 

In addition to ‘Jupiter’ and ‘Death of a Nation’, the album will feature eight new tracks: ‘They’re more acoustic guitar-driven in sound. They’re diverse in sound, from references to Swedish pop rock, indie rock, punk and power pop. Our label manager described the album as “A Love (the band) record if they had a couple of punk albums under their belt”. I liked that description.’

Typically, Landa and Nygaard write a lot of the songs together: ‘Sometimes, we try to get Børild to write something to go with how we feel but sometimes – most of the time – he’s in his own zone,’ Landa laughed. I tell him that one thing I associate their songs with is very catchy choruses: ‘To be honest, on the last album, a lot of it was about writing big and catchy choruses but we realised that we don’t necessarily have to make a song lead into a big chorus,’ he said.

I ask him what it’s like playing in both a metal band and a rock band and whether he has a preference for playing in one band over the other: ‘No, not really, the acoustics are so different. I really enjoy both, although it’s always a relief after touring with Kverlertak to sit down and write for Beachheads, it helps keep me interested in music.’

‘What we have in common with those bands is the punk approach’

Growing up in Norway, Landa says he was exposed to ‘a lot of extreme metal’ but also Nirvana, Guns ‘N Roses, The Damned and The Replacements: ‘What we have in common with those bands is the punk approach but we’re more about the melodies in Beachheads,’ he said. I say that I’m a big fan of their song ‘Una’ from their eponymous album of 2017, for both the fuzzed up guitars in it and its catchy melody and great guitar solo, which he plays: ‘That’s a song that I wrote but I’m not sure if I wrote it initially for Kvelertak or Beachheads. It has a sort of Scandi Hellacopters feel to it but there’s no screaming, so it wasn’t really for Kvelertak! The main riff is probably the closest Beachheads have been to something that could have been used in Kvelertak.’

If Landa could go to any local gig tonight, he picks The No Ones , a bi-continental collaboration featuring Scott McCaughey, Frode Strømstad, Peter Buck and Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen, a band that stretches from the southwest of Norway through Athens, Georgia to the northwest corner of the US, consisting of members from R.E.M., I Was A King, The Minus 5 and The Baseball Project. ‘Actually, the gig we played last night was to replace them because they couldn’t all be here. Their debut album last year, The Great Lost No Ones Album, was one of my favourite albums last year.’

Landa is clearly very grateful for what he refers to as ‘the very cool things’ he has got to experience as a musician: ‘This last week, I’ve been staying at a lighthouse, we had to take a boat there after recording in the studio. In the morning, we go for a swim before heading to the studio. A few years ago, I would never have imagined doing things like this.’

If he could collaborate with anyone, he is quick to say Paul Westerberg, best known as the lead singer and guitarist in former American rock band, The Replacements: ‘He’s written most of my favourite songs, such as ‘Unsatisfied’, ‘Answering Machine’, ‘Born For Me’ and ‘Alex Chilton’. It’s this punk approach, it’s very intuitive. I love his songwriting, it seems very real and authentic.’

(Photo from left to right: Vidar, Børild, Marvin and Espen)