Beach Slang

When it comes to James Alex – lead vocalist and guitarist of garage rock hopefuls Beach Slang – he reflects on the city’s sense of community and its positive upbringing of his own music over the last 20-plus years.

“Bands come and go, but I think the ethics and the hunger are very much the same in the bands from this city,” he says. “That’s what I think makes it so great. Philadelphia’s got this real blue-collar fighting spirit to it. When you come up in a scene like that, it’s kind of distilled into you. I’ve described it as being like a romantic grit that’s tattooed on all the bands that come up around it. People change, but I think the core elements – those ethics, those values – they’re still very much the same when it comes to the music that is coming out of here.”

Alex formed Beach Slang in 2013, having originally risen to a degree of cult prominence with pop-punk band Weston, in which he toured and recorded extensively for the better part of the ’90s. His fellow bandmates have also kicked around in their fair share of jam rooms and sweaty bars with groups like Ex Friends and Nona, meaning Beach Slang’s formation was not only one that made sense, but one that would stick.

“We all knew each other from a safe distance,” Alex remembers. “We were all about two degrees of separation from one another. It came to a head when I was playing a show with one of my previous bands. JP [Flexner], who plays in Beach Slang now, filled in for our drummer who couldn’t play that night. He found out that I was writing songs for this new project, and when I played some stuff to him, he immediately wanted in. He said he knew a guy to play bass – which was Ed [McNulty] – and that we should all have a jam. The seeds were planted, and it all kind of took off from there.”

The trio had an initially slow beginning – mostly due to work commitments on Alex’s behalf – but a refresh of direction (as well as the addition of lead guitarist Ruben Gallego) sparked the writing and recording of Beach Slang’s debut album, The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us. It’s a bold statement of a title, going hand-in-hand with a bold statement of an album – 26 minutes of raised fists, radiating guitars and wave-crash drums – that has become one of the year’s most celebrated rock records, despite only being released at the end of October.

“I tried to sit down and clearly define what I think of when I write,” says Alex. “I came up with this three-point system, which came to more or less define what this album was going to sound like. Sonically, I wanted it to sound like a John Hughes film. Lyrically, I wanted it to be like Charles Bukowski putting words to that. Musically, I wanted it to sound like what Paul Westerberg would put chords behind. I had these three touchstones, and I kept bouncing my ideas off them.

“These songs are about me and they’re about my friends. They could be about when we were 15 or they could be about yesterday – that’s the thing, man. It’s about what feels good to us in the very moment that we’re doing it. That’s where this record comes from.”

In just over 18 months, Alex has experienced the kind of success with Beach Slang that he never saw in nine years of playing with Weston. It’s something that is not lost on him – a man in his 40s, playing primarily to audiences half his age, has had his career blossom, and his dreams of living the rock’n’roll lifestyle are becoming a very clear and apparent reality.

“It’s been incredible to watch the band grow in real time while we’re out on the road,” Alex says with an audible pride. “When we first headed out on tour, the record wasn’t out yet. Once it was, the crowds kept getting bigger and bigger, the singing along getting louder and louder. We had so many shows sell out across pretty much every major ‘market’, if you will. It felt so rewarding, especially because of those nerves that you get when a record is coming out. You’re never sure if people are going to want the new thing that you’re putting out there, so to have that kind of response is so validating.”

The next question is a potential maiden voyage for Alex and co. to Australia for a run of shows, which is more or less confirmed by the man himself. “There’s not a great deal I can say right now,” he teases. “What I can tell you, though, is that Beach Slang will absolutely be in Australia playing shows next year. We’re so excited by the prospect of it – it’s going to be something completely new for us.