Introducing The Beaches, a dynamic Canadian rock band that emerged onto the music scene in Toronto back in 2013. Comprised of the talented quartet, Jordan Miller on lead vocals and bass, Kylie Miller on guitar and backing vocals, Leandra Earl on keyboards, guitar, and backing vocals, and Eliza Enman-McDaniel on drums, the band first captivated their audiences with their first two EPs, self-titled "The Beaches" in 2013 and "Heights" in 2014. 

Numéro spoke with Kylie Miller ahead of the Beaches’ second studio album release, titled “Blame My Ex”, set to be independently released on September 15, 2023.

A: Hi! Where are you, right now? Are you on tour?

K: No, no, we’re not touring right now. I’m back in Toronto, but we have a… we have a couple of shows coming up over the next couple of weeks, but it’s been super fun.

A: Yeah, I just saw the photos from the festival. Looked really cool. I wanted to start from the beginning…where and how did the band start?

K: Yeah. We’ve been a band for almost ten years. My sister and I started playing together when we were quite young. We started learning guitar together. And from that point on, we started writing songs together. My sister is the lead singer in the band. And after that, we just kind of asked around and we met Eliza, our drummer in middle school, and we met Leandra in high school. Yeah. So we’ve been doing this for a really long time and it’s been super fun. It’s been like a nice, steady growth.

A: What does the name refer to?

K: Yeah. So we grew up in The Beaches. That’s where we all met each other and went to school. So when we were naming the band, it just was kind of fitting because it like was our home, you know?

A: How do you think where you come from has influenced your sound in general? And who are your early musical influences? If you can tell me a little bit about your childhood.

K: Um, when I was a kid, we all really, like listened to Avril Lavigne, and that was really our focus. But music wise it was, it used to be like the Rolling Stones and we listened to a lot of like classic rock growing up….that really played a big influence and why we wanted to be in, like, a rock band.

A: When I interview female rock stars and rock musicians a lot of the music that they play has to do with female rage. How do you feel about the media boiling down female rock music to being emotional, about ex relationships?

K: Yeah, I don’t know. I think like there’s a narrative where as female songwriters, like you can be painted as like a Taylor Swift or whatever, and I don’t really think that there’s anything wrong with that. I mean, she just writes good songs and writes from personal experience, and I don’t really think that people should be villainized at all just because that’s what they do, you know? But I definitely have noticed like a couple more comments on people things and stuff about that. But ultimately you just kind of have to like roll with the punches and not everyone’s going to be a fan, but a lot of people are connecting with the new songs. And that’s really been exciting to see.

A: What would you say the main themes are in the new album and can you tell me a little bit about the inspiration behind it?

K: Yeah. So it’s about Jordan’s breakup, but we kind of were more influenced by a lot of stuff from the 80’s and post-punk. So there definitely are some new sounds, that we’re really excited to explore. But really it is all about a breakup and kind of like how you go through those experiences and where you come out on the other side as a person. Like I’m personally kind of going through a breakup right now too. So I think that it can just be really therapeutic to write about personal experience.

A: When you’re singing and writing about such private stuff, coming from kind of the depths of your heart, and then you put it out into the world the inevitable criticism comes. How do you distance yourself from your art when it’s so personal?

K: Yeah. I mean, I guess it is hard when people can be critical and it’s such a personal experience. But I don’t know, you just try not to focus on that too much. Like you can’t get obsessed with reading all the comments and whatever, you know, it’s just we try not to focus too much on that.

A: How important do you think the visual aspect is for an artist, in terms of album visuals and music videos…how important is that to your band and how involved are you guys with the production and the creative direction of the visuals for the album?

K: We’re very involved, so we come up with all of our own concepts, and we… a lot of the time we work directly with people who make videos and do all the photos and stuff. I think like visually and musically, everything really needs to be cohesive for an artist and that’s what we focus on. So yeah, that’s my sister really is in charge of like most of that stuff, so.

A: What is your relationship with clothes and personal style and do you think fashion is a tool that helps you express yourself? Is it different from you as a person and from you as an artist? Like, as in like do you have a stage persona?

K: Yeah, for sure. I think fashion’s such a fun thing to play with. We connected with our stylist, Shea Holt, and she’s really helped us, pull pieces from our individual wardrobe that also work on stage. We can kind of… just want to be an amplified version of ourselves. But yeah, I think it’s super fun. And now we’re kind of, you know, with this new record, everything the stage, looks and, and all the clothes and stuff are like a little bit more casual. And it’s been really fun to kind of play a little bit more of that world.

A: Tell us more about your upcoming ventures and what can we expect from you for the rest of the year?

K: We’re going on tour in October and November and we’re playing a bunch of festivals this summer. And then yeah, we’re putting our record out September 15th and we’re so excited. So we’re just going to be basically doing all that. Yeah.

A: My final question would be. The theme for Numero’s latest issue is Genesis, and for this issue, we explore our beginnings and our creative journeys. Being that you have been in the industry for almost ten years now, what would be your advice to young creatives starting out?

K: I think definitely just have to have like a really good work ethic and you know, sometimes you have to put in a bunch of time and not see results, but if you stick with it, everything will just start to kind of turn around. Yeah, I think perseverance and the ability to kind of stick with it and ride it out is really important.

A: Thank you!