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Music

Beach Season: Making Waves

We spoke to the Calgary artist behind the "Booty Wave" genre about R&B music and his moniker.

Beach Season is perfectly suited for his moniker. The-20-year-old is laid-back, relaxed, and charmingly ignorant to his potential success. He calls his music “Booty Wave.” Part chillwave, part R&B, Beach is crafting a groovy, woozy brand of beats that are distinctly his own, complimented by his own buttery vocals and dreamy, delicate falsetto. His music is hard to classify: melancholic yet funky, rich and glittery in texture yet still somehow simplistic with an overall vibe that evokes the bliss of summertime and warmer days. While Calgary is quickly becoming a hotbed for musical talent, Beach Season (real name Sam Avant) stands out in a local scene that’s dominated by indie rock, hip-hop, and electronic acts. He’s quickly becoming Calgary’s poster child for alternative R&B, and could be poised to enter an arena that’s been previously dominated by artists from the genre’s mecca–Toronto.

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He’s no rookie to the local music scene—having produced and performed as part of hip-hop duo Obey The Crooks for a number of years—but thanks to his recent solo releases including an EP, Internet Evening, Beach has been making waves of his own beyond his city’s borders. His latest single offering “Midnights” and its accompanying video are getting quite a bit of attention, and with appearances at both Canadian Music Week and NXNE coming up, we thought it was a good time to sit down with this young triple threat to learn more.

Noisey: Who is Beach Season?
Beach Season: Ha—that’s a good question. Simon (also known as Monski, the other half of Obey The Crooks) and I always try to figure out what it is exactly we do. I’m guess a producer, a singer … ultimately I want to be recognized as more than a musician though. Music is a great way to say what you want to say, build your fanbase and let people know what you’re about, so I’ll always make music, but I want to be a renaissance man. An influencer.

How did you start making music?
It’s actually funny – my mom tricked me into taking piano lessons. My brother was playing guitar and he had a teacher that would come to our house. And all of a sudden one day Tom was finishing his lesson and my mom was like, “Your turn! Surprise, you are taking piano!” At the time piano was kind of lame. It wasn’t a cool instrument like guitar or drums. After a few years I switched to drums because my childhood best friend was playing them. And then I eventually moved on to doing more piano and doing singing lessons. I was really into like indie music back then and wanted to join a band. Then I started listening to electronic and realized “Hey I could do this! I could hop on my laptop and make music.” I downloaded Fruity Loops and it went from there.

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What was the music like that you were making back then?
To be honest, I was listening to our first songs that we ever released recently and I realized we have the nicest friends because none of them ever told us how bad it was.

Was that with Monski?
Yeah we’ve always made music together. He really introduced me to hip-hop music. I was making beats on my computer and one day Simon said he had always wanted to rap so we just went for it.

You said that listening to electronic music turned you on to the idea that it was something you could do. Who were some of the artists that you were listening to then?
Passion Pit. The song “Sleepyhead”, that whole album (Chunk of Change). It’s seems like kind of a lame album to say, “This is the album that changed me life,” but it did in a weird way.

Are there any Canadian artists in particular that you are digging at the moment?
Kaytranada for sure. I love the music he makes – such a funky and groovy style. I also really like Grimes. She makes some dope stuff. And actually I’ve been listening to a lot of my friend Mackenzie. He makes music under the name SKVTR. It’s rare that you’ll actually listen to your friend’s music on your own time or in your car, but he’s one person that I really do listen to.

Where did the name Beach Season come from?
Well, the beach was always a part of my life. As a kid we used to go and vacation on the coast and go to the beach all the time. My mom always had a ton of beach-themed decorative things around the house. But it’s kind of a funny story how I took the name. I had some bad anxiety problems right out of high school. I felt kind of lost and didn’t know what I was doing. Then I decided to go travel in Asia for a bit, which was a pretty crazy experience and a huge culture shock for me. I had a song called “Beach Season” that I listened to a lot on that trip. And when I was on the beaches in Thailand or wherever I didn’t have any anxiety or any worries. I felt like it was a good name because I kind of wanted to carry that mentality and feeling into my music.

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You wanted it to be Beach Season all the time?
Exactly.

Besides that, did traveling affect you or inspire you in any other ways?
Oh yeah. I think traveling, especially to poorer countries, really shows you what you need and what you don’t need. It also puts the bigger picture in perspective. On my trip, I realized what I wanted to do: I made the decision to drop out of school because it wasn’t what I really wanted. It’s crazy going to countries where people live in metal huts and are so unbelievably happy. Like, this guy has one change of clothes, he’s never seen a computer before and he loves life. He’s living right now. We definitely have so many opportunities here in North America. We are empowered to be whomever we want.

Tell us more about your latest song “Midnights”.
Well that song is sort of like a sequel or follow up to another one of my songs, “Evenings.” “Evenings” is about a break up with a girl, and “Midnights” is about getting over that breakup and starting to have a little too much fun.

So would you say that your songs are inspired by your own life?
Oh very much so. I can’t make music unless it’s from my own life or experiences. All of my songs are very personal, but I like it that way.

What reaction do you want people to have to your music then? Happiness? Sadness?
I just want to bring a piece of my world into theirs. Maybe convey a feeling that they can connect with. I would love it if they could realize something different or see thing from a new perspective.

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Will you always make music with Simon?
I hope so. Consuming music is definitely something to be shared – if you think about it there’s the performer-audience relationship and that in itself is sharing – but I think the act of making music is something to be shared too. I love making music with people. It’s inspiring.

Do you have any big goals for the next year?
I try not to get too specific with my goals. I just want to enjoy the ride I'm on and… be comfortable I guess. Be self-sufficient. Be able to feed myself and afford to live. Release my own music whenever I want to. To find success somewhere in between all that would be nice.

How do you define success?
When someone tells me they like my song I love it, of course. I feed off that; it makes me the happiest person ever. But I feel like success does come from within as well, like feeling you did something good and gave it your all. Ultimately I want to feel like I’ve made an impact, influenced someone or inspired some emotion out of someone.

Why should people care about you?
Hmm. That’s a hard question. I don’t know if anyone HAS to care about me. But I want people to take a listen and keep an open mind. Try to see something from someone else’s perspective. See a different side of things or a different life. Everyone has their own opinion so I understand if you don’t like it. Honestly I’m still not completely happy with anything I’ve ever made, either solo or with OTC. It can always be better. I’ve kind of come to the realization that’s the curse of being an artist. You’ll never be happy with yourself. The day I become satisfied is the day it’s over for me.

Josephine lives in Calgary but does not ride a horse to work.

This article originally appeared on the Noisey's Canada site.