Toronto’s Beaches Have Gradually Built a Devoted Fanbase

Back in 2009, two sisters and their two best friends casually formed a rock band in middle school in Toronto. Now, that band, who became the Beaches in 2013, is headlining theaters across North America, playing to large festival crowds, and opening for The Rolling Stones.

The Beaches bring their Blame My Ex Tour to the Agora on Wednesday, Sept. 25.

In the Canadian foursome’s early days of high school, they had already begun kickstarting their professional careers.

“It was weird,” says drummer Eliza Enman-McDaniel in a recent phone interview. “We were doing a residency once a week at this bar in downtown Toronto, and we’d have to go to high school still the next day. None of our friends were experiencing the same stuff we were. So, it was kind of crazy and isolating at the same time. But it was great because we were best friends, and we had each other, and we were able to lean on each other, when we needed it.”

The Beaches are leaning on each other in the same way, now that their careers have taken off. The band’s next single, “Jocelyn” details the members’ imposter syndrome since rising to notoriety.

“People are looking up to us now,” says Enman-McDaniel. “It’s an interesting feeling, but we can connect to each other on that. We’re still the same people that we were before we even started this. We keep each other in check.”

The Beaches find it especially mind-blowing that fans travel across oceans to see them play.

Excitement continues to build for the band’s next single, as it teases it on its social media accounts and adds it to the setlist. Fans have been spotted in the crowd holding up playful “Who’s Jocelyn?” signs.

The track details how wild it is that all these cool, impressive, intelligent people are looking to the Beaches for advice when the band members aren’t exactly confident in their role model status.

As for “Jocelyn,” the band just liked how the name sounded, so the girls checked their Instagram following to confirm that they did, in fact, have a fan named Jocelyn.

“The funny thing is, Jocelyn — I don’t even know if she remembers that she follows us,” laughs Enman-McDaniel. “So, we’ll see what happens. It would be cool to do like an Instagram post with the actual girl.”

The Beaches have been building a devoted fanbase for many years, but the success of the angsty girl-anthem “Blame Brett” elevated the band to new heights. “Blame Brett” finds lead singer-bassist Jordan Miller struggling after a hard breakup.

“I’m not ready for therapy, to take accountability,” Miller sings, as she grapples with how legitimate it may or may not be to scapegoat one person in the unraveling of a two-person relationship.

Enman-Mcdaniel’s favorite part of the Blame My Ex Tour and the post-“Blame Brett” success is that the band’s new fans dove deeper into the back catalogue than surface level.

“For me the most exciting part, playing these massive venues, is people actually singing the songs you don’t expect them to know,” says Enman-McDaniel. “Not just that overnight sort of vibe, not just something that then disappears; it actually felt like it had some substance to it.”

She is proud that they are building a sustainable fanbase, and truly capitalizing on the moment.

“Playing ‘Blame Brett’ is amazing, but just hearing them sing all the songs back is just the most rewarding feeling.”

“Edge of the Earth” is Enman-Mcdaniel’s favorite song on Blame My Ex to play live.
“It’s a bit of a different drumming style for me; that’s why it’s fun,” says Enman-Mcdaniel. “It kind of pushes your boundaries a little bit. And people often sing that one back to us, which is so fun.”

The album features other fun denial or deflection-born songs like “Shower Beer,” which was written prior to Miller’s breakup.

“You can tell,” says Enman-McDaniel.

But the band balances it with thought-provoking, deep-diving introspective tracks like, “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Paranoid,” inspired by trying to pick up the pieces and adjust to a new, lonelier social life after a breakup. The band wanted to balance the serious, melancholy lyrics with upbeat production. They were inspired by ’80s music and bands like the Cure.

“They’re singing about something sad, but the music sounds happy,” says Enman-McDaniel.

“We were discussing the highs and lows when you’re going through a breakup. Kind of the concept of happy-sad. Those feelings of euphoria, but also just total heartbreak. And so, we wanted to convey that within the music.”

Since last year’s album, the Beaches has already released a couple of singles, including “Takes One To Know One,” which Enman-McDaniel says was written to counteract the themes of “Blame Brett,” and unpack the dichotomy.

Miller brought in the concept of her pattern of getting herself stuck in messy situations, and the band explored from there.

“It was kind of our follow up on ‘Blame Brett,’” says Enman-McDaniel. “She is also accountable for putting herself in these situations.”

Besides soaking up the success of the Blame My Ex Tour, the Toronto-based band is planning on fitting in more writing sessions and L.A. trips before they take a break for the holidays.

Reflecting on where it all began, the band members feel grateful and motivated to keep the fun that they’re having going.

“I think we all had the goal of ending up where we are now. So, it’s pretty crazy that we’ve achieved our goal,” says Enman-McDaniel. “It’s all led up to this moment.”

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