Q&A: “Grow Up Tomorrow,” The Beaches’ Guide to Embracing Life as a Dirtbag
IT’S TRUE THAT THE BEACHES — aren't your average dirtbags. They can’t do their taxes on time, they leave their laundry in the hamper for weeks, and they can never keep track of their cellphones. But instead of letting it bring them down, the four choose to wear their self-imposed dirtbag titles like medals of honor. After all, life as a dirtbag is nothing if not fun.
The Beaches are composed of sisters Jordan Miller (lead vocals, bass), Kylie Miller (guitar), and friends Leandra Earl (keyboards, guitar) and Eliza Enman-McDaniel (drums, percussion). Together, the four Torontonians have brought their bombastic melodies to the ears of listeners around the globe, having earned high praises from legendary artists such as Elton John, and even opening for The Rolling Stones in 2019.
While the four’s musical collaboration comes marked by their vibrant energy, lively camaraderie, and knack for creating boisterous rock’n’roll tunes, at times, their amazing accomplishments feel overshadowed by seeing close friends participate in the classic rites of true “adulthood.” While The Beaches have been busy writing, recording, and touring, their friends have been settling down, adopting pets, and buying couches — bonafide adulting at its finest.
The band’s newest single, “Grow Up Tomorrow,” released July 20, skillfully captures their feelings of being in a state of arrested development. Though, instead of dwelling on all that they are not, the four cling to the beauty of what they are: four girls who know how to have a tremendous time. Co-written with the ever-so-talented Lowell, the track is a pop-infused summer anthem for discarding societal expectations of who you are supposed to be and embracing the beauty of who you are in the moment.
In a society that puts so much weight on productivity and concrete achievements, The Beaches find momentary reprieve within “Grow Up Tomorrow,” choosing to make the best out of their circumstances. The four are there to support one another through the highs and lows that come with life; they are a tight-knit group that truly cares for one another’s well-being. But this comradery not only exists within the group — their love and empowerment echoes throughout their discography, helping fans all over the world recognize the importance of accepting who you are and having some well-deserved fun all the while.
And thus, The Beaches prove that maybe, just maybe, being a dirtbag isn’t all that bad.
Read on to gather tidbits of wisdom from The Beaches’ Jordan Miller as she shares her thoughts on what informs true artistry, what changes must be made in the modern-day rock genre, and some of that lovable dirtbag energy heard in “Grow Up Tomorrow.”
LUNA: You all just released "Grow Up Tomorrow" last week — how has the reception to that track been?
MILLER: It has been unbelievable. I'm always nervous when we release something that's a little different. I felt the same way when we released "Blow Up" for the first time because it was more of an electric-sounding rock song than we'd ever put out. This song strays even more into the pop and indie territory than we've ever really gone before. I was really pleased that everybody has been so receptive. A lot of my friends have said that this is their favorite summer hit that we've ever put out. They love the younger, poppier, more female energy that's coming off the track, which I'm really happy about too.
LUNA: It's so fresh — it's very needed for the summer. It really invigorates people.
MILLER: It feels like a lighter, more fun-sounding song than we've ever put out before. It's an exciting change for us.
LUNA: Definitely! I read one of the comments on your Instagram post where a user commented, "Nice song, but please don't go full pop — keep the edge." How do you feel about the constrictions of genre and people being unsatisfied if you lean more into the pop sound than into your signature rock sound?
MILLER: It's really tricky. That's one of the reasons why I never read the comments. I know myself, I'll go into a pigeon-hole state and start to question everything. What we have to realize is that we have a pretty diverse fanbase. Generationally and gender-wise, we've got a range of ages, male, female, and non-binary people that are interested in us. Every time we put out something that's a little bit different for us, we run the risk of alienating a small percentage of our audience. When I do see that, it's not that I don't expect it. I know that there's those people out there that want us to write Late Show over and over again. But as an artist, your job is to pursue what makes you feel excited creatively and hope that most people will go along with you for the ride. If they don't, they don't, but if they do, then you can be proud that you are writing music that you want to write.
LUNA: Yes, you have to write what makes you happy because if you don't enjoy playing it, it's not going to be fun.
MILLER: Not to say that I'm not happy with any of our old material, but you always have to grow, evolve, and change if you're interested in art — no matter what you do.
LUNA: Yes. And the industry moves so fast nowadays that there's always something new popping up so you can never really be behind. "Grow Up Tomorrow" is such a fun track — you guys call it a "dirtbag summer anthem," which I love. It throws societal pressures aside and embraces enjoying the moment that you were in. What was the inspiration behind the track?
MILLER: I wrote the song with a very talented writer, Lowell. She's also Torontonian. We've been friends for a while but hadn't ever written together. [...] She has way more of her life together than I do, but I brought the song up to her first as me feeling like I'm in a state of arrested development. A lot of my friends are climbing up the corporate ladder in their jobs — they've been done with university for a while. A couple of them are pretty serious in their relationships, moving in with their partners, getting pets together. I'm still living in my parents basement and I never went to university. I never did all these things all my other friends have done, but I'm also incredibly happy. She was like, "It's crazy that nobody writes about the time in their lives that are messy. When you see them discussed in films or in songs, it's always like, 'My life sucks, I live in my parents basement.'" Then she was like, "We should write a song about this being fun — I'm living in my parents basement and I'm such a dirtbag. I know that I'm going to grow up, but I'm not going to have to grow up until tomorrow. I want to grow up later, but for now I'm just going to be this in-between weirdo, dirtbag person." We were both drinking negronis trying to make each other laugh with specific things that we do that are ridiculous for people our age.
LUNA: I love it. There's this freedom that emanates from the track because you're not dwelling in the fact that you haven’t accomplished things like buying a couch.
MILLER: That's a good way to look at it too!
LUNA: It can definitely be hard in this world, comparing yourself to people who have “grown up” or accomplished a lot of “adult things.” How do you personally maintain a healthy mindset when it comes to comparing yourself to others and their achievements?
MILLER: It's a struggle. Especially when COVID was happening, most musicians felt a particular need to compare themselves with others because most people weren't able to do their job. Every time you started to see people go out on tour again — especially Canadian musicians, when we were seeing other American musicians get back to work — we were all really frustrated. We're all kind of envious, psychotic, narcissists at the end of the day. Well, at least I'm a little bit like that. We were like, "Why can't we go back to tour? Why can't we go back to performing?" It's important not to dwell on what other people have. When I talked to my girlfriends recently about ["Grow Up Tomorrow"] and when I showed them the song they were like, "We feel that way about you guys sometimes — you're able to have all of these crazy adventures, pick up, go and tour, and perform live." It's a reciprocated thing — everybody wants the life or the experiences that they don't get to have, or they fantasize about them. Sometimes I fantasize about a 9–5 life or something with more consistency. It's not necessarily the one that I chose for myself, but you do think about it sometimes. [My friends] feel the same, so it was cool for me to hear them say [that].
LUNA: That's definitely a good mindset to have, that other people might be looking at your life and wanting it like you want parts of theirs. The last couple of lines in the track say, "Tell myself, I'm an artist / But I'm really just a piece of shit." How do you define “good artistry,” and what makes someone a bonafide artist or musician?
MILLER: If you listen to a lot of my music, you can tell that I'm a bit of a dirtbag party girl. I often give myself the excuse that if I'm going out to party, I can write about them later. I tell myself that it is for the art, but at the end of the day it's probably because I like having a good time. As for what makes a really good artist in general — for me, when it comes to songwriting, it’s being able to show a part of yourself, being really honest. The songwriters that I admire the most are people like Amy Winehouse, who are able to talk about such specific things that happen to them in their own lives — truly horrible and dark things — but then create a song like "Rehab” or "Back to Black." They're dark, specific experiences, but when people listen to them all over the world, they immediately know who she is and what she's been going through. [Artists are] able to collect an individual experience and be so honest about it that somebody in France can listen to it and know exactly what that feels like despite never actually having lived through that. That's real artistry: really knowing who you are, being honest with yourself, collecting those experiences, turning those into songs, showing yourself, and being able to connect that way to other people. It's almost like therapy.
LUNA: Let's talk about the music video for the track — it's so fun, carefree, and has this authentically fun vibe. It really captures the whole point of the song. What was it like with that production and shooting the video?
MILLER: It was crazy. This is the first sort of video that we've done independently in a long time. All the extras were people that the crew and our band asked to come ourselves. We filmed it in my parents house and completely destroyed it. At one point, we were having a moshpit on my dining room table, and in the basement dust was coming down. I was like, "Oh my God, we're actually gonna break my parents' house." It was sick. It was a last-minute thing — we came up with the idea and within a month we were shooting. It was really fast, and that's attributed to the talent and the competence of the producers and the directors of the music video. They were really on top of things, really smart, really talented. It was really cool. We had at least 100 people in our house at some point — most of them were volunteers. It was a madhouse. It was very cool that everybody came and wanted to be a part of it. We were also really excited about the idea of having a typical house party video, but we turned it on its head and it's just a house full of girls and non-binary people. There was a girl that brought her lizard, and someone let us shave their head. We had an awesome team of skateboarders come by doing tricks in our alleyway at 12 o'clock at night. It was a really fun and cool experience.
LUNA: You curated a perfect representation of what the song is. So, The Beaches have really come up within the music scene within the past couple of years alone. You've opened for The Rolling Stones and The Foo Fighters and Elton John. How have you guys managed that quick-paced, rapid rise and maintained your sanity within all that has been going on?
MILLER: It's tricky. I hate to bring up COVID again, but we had just released our EP and were doing all of these big shows. We were on this rising trajectory, and then all of a sudden everything stopped. That was one thing that made us feel slightly more normal about everything. It is very cool to meet superstars like Elton John and it was such a humbling experience to open for The Rolling Stones, but the most humbling thing for all of us in the band is when we get to play our headlining shows, meet fans, and see our audience grow as we keep getting older. For me, it was meeting people at our meet-and-greets on our last tour and having people share their own experiences about our music. They would say to Leandra, "You coming out helped me come out" or have people tell me that "T-Shirt" made them feel like they could laugh at themselves after a really bad sexual experience. Those things are so crazy and humbling, and never ever in your wildest dreams do you think that your songs will be able to reach people in that way. When you hear firsthand that they do, it's the craziest thing. I can't wait to hear more, and I hope that I get to share those experiences with people that like our music forever.
LUNA: I'm sure you definitely will. The industry is becoming more and more diverse and supportive of people who aren't the typical straight white males playing guitars. You all have been a big part of this with the production teams on your music videos and all around as a band with so many wonderful anthems that celebrate people with different identities and experiences. But obviously, the industry has a lot to improve on. What would you like to see change within the industry in this regard, and what little things can people do — even listeners — to help push this momentum forward?
MILLER: It's tricky, and it's dependent on everybody involved. Every musician that has power, the first thing that we can do is demand inclusivity in festivals or in shows that we're performing. We can ask for there to be equal representation of men and women, a more racially diverse group of people — insisting on things like that. That's one small thing. In terms of another missed opportunity, there's not having more diversity in rock music, specifically on the radio stations. You're hearing the same boring old perspective over and over again, the white, cis male. By excluding people of different races, people of different sexualities, people of different genders, then you're aging out your audience. You're going to lose profit at the end of the day too, by not incorporating new voices and not exciting listeners. There are radio stations in Canada, especially active rock radio stations, where they won't even play us because I talk about my tits and stuff, so it's “not really rock.” As a white woman, I have a lot more access that people of color don't have, and that really frustrates me. I was playing a rock radio show, and what really disturbed me was that they were honoring women in rock and they had no Black female rock artists that they were talking about. It was Blondie and Heart, who are obviously talented rock musicians, but I was like, "Where's Tina Turner? Where's Aretha Franklin? Where are The Supremes?” These women are the foundation of rock music. They are what Mick Jagger and Lou Reed listened to in order to create their version of rock ‘n’ roll, and we're completely excluding them from the conversation. There's a lot of things that I have privilege over that I also think we need to work on as an industry — including not just white voices in rock.
LUNA: Radio play is a really good point because people like The Beatles aren't everything, and they're hailed on the radio as rock gods and founders when even their music is founded in Black tradition.
MILLER: It's nuts! You're hearing the same songs over and over again and people will get bored. People are always asking, "How come hip-hop, pop, and rap music have taken over as the dominant genre? Why don't we hear Rock Album of the Year at the Grammys anymore?" People don't care about it because it's only for one group of people. If you want to inspire a new generation of people into rock music, then you have to expand the rock artists that you care about and talk about. It can't just be the same people over and over again.
LUNA: The music industry is changing, and rock is a little behind.
MILLER: I don't even know if you could classify us as a rock band anymore, specifically for that reason. You asked about genre bending, and that's also part of the discussion because of the internet and social media. In the way that music evolves, genres change and new genres are always coming up — that's what we're interested in. We have a lot of diverse music tastes so that's also a thing that can help rock. I love disco music, so our last record was a disco rock album, and we're inspired by a lot of female indie artists right now so that's showing in our new music. We're playing with different genres. We still are a rock band, but it's more than a rock band.
LUNA: Definitely. There's nuance to it; there's different ingredients. So, you guys have been working together for a long time as a band. What little communication tips and tricks have you learned along the way?
MILLER: Try not to be passive aggressive — It's never gonna work, and everyone's gonna hate you. We've had to learn how to be very good communicators. We've gone to mediation and therapy, and we've learned to not let issues between us fester. We can sometimes not be as direct as we need to be, but I would give us credit. We've learned how to be really good at addressing conflict, and we really don't have very much conflict these days. We're all very lucky — we really like each other. We're best friends and we like to do things together and work together. We're happy about it. We always miss each other when we take, like, one week off, which is cute. It's important to have support from each other. Leandra keeps getting these really horrible messages online — she came out a couple years ago — and there's been some really surprising comments whenever she posts about her girlfriend using our platforms. People say, "Cut out the gay stuff," and she knows that she can come to us and have our support.
Those dudes are assholes, and they obviously deserve to be called out. She deserves to know that she should love whoever she wants and that we love her girlfriend and that we love her for who she is. That's another privilege we have as a group of girls rather than just being solo artists. We know that we can come to each other and support each other and have each other's back. There's strength in that, there's strength in knowing that you're not alone in this. I do feel a little bit for the artists that are out there that have to deal with that stuff alone. I would say make sure you have a good support system in the way that we do because it makes it a lot easier.
LUNA: Definitely. Especially with female-driven bands, the industry has a way of highlighting the way that cat fights happen and why bands split up but it doesn't really highlight the really strong support systems that you mentioned. That's a really important thing to note.
MILLER: I hate all of the cat fight stuff! I'm sure that it does exist, but cat fights also exist with the boy bands. When I was watching the Oasis movie, I was like, "What the heck is wrong with these two men? They're brothers — they shouldn't be fighting!" They're my favorite band, too, so I'm so intrigued by how the relationship can get so bad. And then I'm like, "Oh, it's because they're rich men."
LUNA: Yeah, I mean, the second half of The Beatles' career was just bickering, so...
MILLER: They bicker more than we do, and it's always the girls that get called out for cat fights!
LUNA: Yup, they're incorrect. So, often artists are asked what songs they like to cover, but I'm curious as to what other musicians you would like to cover one of your band's songs!
MILLER: Harry Styles would be really cool. I really like his covers. I loved the one that he did with "Sledgehammer." I like that he incorporates a bigger band and backup singers. Oh, Miley Cyrus too! I really like her covers. It's cool when individuals from different genres cover your stuff so it'd be cool to see what a pop artist, especially of their caliber could do with our music.
LUNA: How do you hope that your music impacts listeners?
MILLER: This is such a generic answer and I'm rolling my eyes, but especially as a songwriter and a lyricist I always try to incorporate that it's cool to be yourself and that you should embrace your flaws and embrace what makes you an individual into my songs. To me, it's most meaningful when people do hear that in my songs. I've always tried to impart that in the music that I do, in the art that I create, and in the videos that I put out. Don't be like everybody else — find what's messy about you and embrace that and love that about yourself.
LUNA: I love it. Revel in the messiness. And we're at my last question, which is: What's next for The Beaches?
MILLER: We've got a busy summer. We've obviously got our two history shows coming up in a week, and then after that we're going to the States for a little bit, playing a couple shows down there as a headlining tour, which we haven't done yet! Should be very exciting. After, we're releasing a couple more singles that are going to be a part of this sort of Grow Up Tomorrow EP! So keep listening to "Grow Up Tomorrow!"
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