{"id":1061,"date":"2014-11-20T03:54:30","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T03:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arielsheen.com\/?p=1061"},"modified":"2014-11-20T03:54:30","modified_gmt":"2014-11-20T03:54:30","slug":"interview-with-kimmy-drake-of-beach-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/2014\/11\/20\/interview-with-kimmy-drake-of-beach-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Kimmy Drake"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The first time I met Kimmy Drake was in Manhattan in 2010. I read the announcement of her upcoming show date in Brooklyn Vegan and was excited to go out and support a band on tour from my native Florida. I’d heard about them from friends before, so knew it would be good. Sure enough the concert crowd was invigorated by the musical energy of the band and danced wildly. I too got really into the music and while hanging out with the band afterwards drank to excess. I went into homing beacon mode and luckily for me a friend, photographer\u00a0Vanessa Rondon<\/a>, lived near me and made sure I didn\u2019t fall asleep on the L. We got off at Morgan Ave, parted ways at the Wreck Room and I woke up the next day with a hangover mixed with a smile from having enjoyed every bit of the night before so much. Lucky for me, several years later she agreed to sit down and talk with me about her musical process, touring and where she finds inspiration.<\/p>\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ariel
\nSo as an artist myself I\u2019m curious as to other people\u2019s creative methods. When you approach songwriting, do you have any special process for coming up with a song?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nNot really. I feel that as soon as you sit down and pick up an instrument you\u2019ve already started to do something creative. The intention is there, it\u2019s just a matter of letting it come out. And, of course, recording it. Which with the iPhone makes it easy to never lose anything because you don\u2019t have a way of capturing it.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nThat way you say that makes me imagine that you have a bunch of iPhone b-sides.<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nOh, so many! Today I used it to record two songs I wrote on the piano, which I haven\u2019t done for a really long time!<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nWhy haven\u2019t you written from the piano in so long?<\/p>\n

\"1\"<\/center>Kimmy
\nHaha, well… I couldn\u2019t get to my piano because it was behind the drum kit for like, the last year and a half. It\u2019s been trapped and I literally couldn\u2019t get to it! Last night, though, I pulled it out and I wrote the beginnings of two new songs that I\u2019m super excited about.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nDid you find that starting to write with an instrument you haven\u2019t been able to play in a while brought out a different emotional tenor to your lyrics?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nOh, definitely! Like lately I\u2019ve also been writing a lot of stuff on bass guitar, which I almost never usually do. I\u2019ve found that the last three songs I wrote for the band started from bass and they\u2019re just a totally different animal from the songs that start by me playing chords on guitar. The songs I wrote on the piano today were also something totally different. It\u2019s still in the same garage music vein, but a little different. Lots of stomping. Moving around the whole body around when you\u2019re making music kind of stuff.<\/p>\n

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Ariel
\nSo when you and Skyler are playing around with a new song do you normally find yourself coming into agreement about what sounds best.<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nYes. I\u2019m the bandleader so I, you know, lead. I\u2019m not a drummer so it\u2019s hard for me sometimes to explain what I have in my head, but I can make enough sounds with my mouth to convey what I want that he gets it. I\u2019ll do like choo tsk choo tsk tso he knows which ones to hit. Sometimes he\u2019ll come up with something and fight me over it but that\u2019s rare. Normally it works out at the end that we have a consensus.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nSo can you tell me a bit about your musical training?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nWell I went to school in Kendall for music. The school was divided between the classical people and the jazz people. I was doing classical, vocal stuff when I probably should have been doing more jazz, though I really wished there had been a rock and roll class because that was, that is, my passion. Being in an orchestra or something like that was not my dream, I always wanted to play rock and roll, so I dropped out after a while. You know. Talking about this is reminding me, going back for a moment to the piano we were talking about earlier, how my last instructor there would rap my hands with a ruler. I really hated that!<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nMy childhood piano teacher did that to me too! What\u2019s with that?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nI don\u2019t know! But if any of them read this interview hopefully it\u2019ll encourage them to stop doing it to their students! Hahaha!<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nAt the school was there a special teacher or friend there that inspired you to follow the rock and roll path?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nI feel like there should be, but there really wasn\u2019t. Being into what I was there made me an outcast. I still feel like I don\u2019t fit in anywhere.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nI can definitely relate to that and also makes me wonder where your attraction to garage and surf-rock come from?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nEver since I was a little kid that\u2019s all I wanted to listen to: the oldies station. I feel like I\u2019m a time-traveller. Like wait, should I be here. Back there. I honestly feel like that. I feel dissatisfied with current stuff. Like it was a more pure, more fun time. More pure, I guess.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nI get that. Yesterday I was reading an article the other day talking about people\u2019s attraction to superhero films, Mad Men and other such shows. It was talking about how the root of people\u2019s attraction to this stem from dissatisfaction with contemporary, mass-produced culture and the current economic system perpetuating such economic disparity. All of these possibilities and desires are presented and yet there are very real limits as to what people can have.<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nI get that. As for me, ever since I was a kid I would watch 60s reruns.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nTV Land!<\/p>\n

Kimmy\"10904026_10205686104368906_479159826_n\"<\/p>\n

Yes! Hahaha! Exactly! I wanted to be Samantha from Bewitched. I thought she was the best. I loved her clothes, her personality everything about her. I thought she was just the coolest thing ever. And I\u2019m like: where am I now?<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nHah. That\u2019s great! Now, to give the next question some context let me first ask: Do you know Tim Yehezkely from The Postmarks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nYeah, I know of them. Tim has such an amazing voice!<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nYeah she does! Memoirs at the End of the World<\/a> is really great. Anyway, so she and I first met in a poetry workshop at FAU, wow, over a decade ago now. She put some of the pieces we\u2019d gone over in class to guitar and started performing them at the open mic night at Nakamal. A couple of month\u2019s later she\u2019s all like \u201cOh yeah, I\u2019m producing an album and going on tour!\u201d Point of all this backstory is that I\u2019m curious if in addition to writing lyrics to music and music to lyrics if you also write poems?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nWell I used to write a lot of poetry when I was younger. I do that sometime when the inspiration hits, but that\u2019s really rare. Maybe once a year, when I have something that I know won\u2019t work as a song. I actually just wrote one the other day.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nAre there any creative disciplines that you maintain in order to develop and practice your art. Or is it that the inspiration comes and you follow it?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nI feel like discipline is something that I\u2019m working on. Now, normally, it\u2019s like whenever the inspiration hits, no matter what time it is I have to run to the guitar and grab my iPhone so I can record it. That\u2019s how it is for me whenever the inspiration hits. But I think it\u2019s good to be more disciplined. I\u2019m trying to do that as I have a couple of other projects and I have deadlines. And that\u2019s making me be more disciplined.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nI totally understand. I\u2019m writing a book right now and I find that the time between periods of writing can be very long. And when that happens I don\u2019t want to say that I hate myself… but I do have to fight my mental voices from reprimanding myself as that starts a negative internal dialogue that doesn\u2019t encourage creativity.<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nI know what you mean. And no, that absolutely does not promote creative production.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nSo what are some of the other projects that you are working on?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nI can\u2019t say. I can\u2019t talk about them right now so just scratch that whole statement.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nWhat genre of music would people be surprised if they knew you listened to?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nOh… I don\u2019t know if I listen to anything that would surprise anyone. I listen to mostly garage music and 60\u2019s stuff and girl groups. Maybe something that people would be surprised about is that since junior high I\u2019ve been super obsessed with The Cure? I\u2019m also really into Fugazi, Descendants and other punk stuff. But I don\u2019t know how surprising that is as we\u2019re kind of punky too.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nNo guilty pleasure artists that get rotation on, say, Power 96?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nHaha! Absolutely not!<\/p>\n

Ariel Ok. So then who\u2019s your favorite artist currently producing music?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nI love Sune Rose Wagner from The Ravonettes. I’ve always loved what he does. Love The Kills. Oh, and Mark Ronson I mean, he\u2019s produced Black Lips. I think he\u2019s a phenomenon. I\u2019d love to work with him one day, that\u2019d be my dream.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nSo you\u2019ve been to a lot of places on tour, especially New York. I\u2019m wondering if in your experience you feel South Florida\u2019s a more difficult nut to crack as it lacks an urban core that brings people together? Wait, let me restate that. Do you feel the vast sprawl of South Florida has an impact on audience and how you write and perform? For example, I\u2019ve never seen you play at the Hollywood band shell but I know it\u2019s so different from, say, Respectables and I know few people that will really commit to seeing bands they like if they have to drive more than twenty minutes to see them.<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nI get what you\u2019re trying to say. And yeah, I mean it does. But, well, every town is different. Some towns you\u2019ll play these amazing shows but everyone just sits like they\u2019re in a movie theatre. They just don\u2019t dance in that town. Some towns everyone is dancing and going nuts. It just depends on the town. Every one is completely different and Hollywood, well, is like weirdo central. You never know what you\u2019re going to get. It\u2019s like a wild card.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nOh yeah! Last time I was at the Hollywood band shell I would swear it was like the \u201cIndigent Jimmy Buffett Fans\u201d Convention, which is fitting considering they\u2019re building a Margaritaville there. The time before that it was filled with all these German tourists in speedos!<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nHahaha! I can see that. Anything can happen in Hollyweird. It\u2019s wide open.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nDo you enjoy traveling with the band?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nIt\u2019s super fun! You get to know people really well cause, well, you\u2019re stuck with them for a long time in the car, at the hotel, on the stage.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nYou don\u2019t find hotel living to be tiresome.<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nI mean it\u2019s not the best, but that\u2019s just what it is so you adapt.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nUnless you\u2019re able to stay someplace like the Sourpatch Band Space<\/a> in Brooklyn. Did you hear about that?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nYes, I did! I\u2019d love to stay there. The space looks awesome. Plus Sour Patch Kids are a delicious vegan candy and that rules!<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nSo you\u2019re really pretty and fit. How do you work out on tour?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nHonestly. I don\u2019t work out too much. Like hardly ever. If I feel myself gaining weight than I\u2019ll just eat a little bit less. And I\u2019m vegan. I think that helps a lot. But I\u2019m not focused on it that much. I don\u2019t know. And in fact, I usually lose weight on tour cause you just don\u2019t eat as much. It\u2019s a weird thing. You eat only two times a day. Breakfast and dinner. And I\u2019m never like: Hey, I wanna go get burgers! Let\u2019s eat McDonalds! Haha. Though last tour we were sponsored by Taco Bell. They sent us $500 in gift cards so we ate a lot of Taco Bell. That really helped with the cost of everything because there is no money in touring for a small band like us. And I appreciate my bandmates so, so much for that.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nSpeaking of money, that reminds me. I went onto The Pirate Bay to see if you were being shared on there and sure enough there were people seeding your music. How do you feel about that?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nI think that\u2019s fine, honestly.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nI can understand why. With this whole Taylor Swift thing I looked at some of the break downs of what artists are actually paid on Spotify and Pandora that people had posted and with so much going to the intermediaries I don\u2019t blame her from taking it off!<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nI definitely feel like if an album comes out and it\u2019s on Spotify, why would you buy it? You can just go to Spotify and listen to it for free. When I know that something is coming out I usually want to go get and the vinyl, but I\u2019m different, I want to go get the record. I’ve always been like that. I can honestly say I’ve never personally pirated music. That doesn’t mean that someone hasn’t given me a copy of something they pirated! Cause they have. I use Spotify as like a listening station at a record store. If I listen to a few songs from a band and I really dig it, I’ll go get the record! If I don’t, well I won’t be listening to them anymore anyway.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nSo the stuff that you said before that you\u2019re starting to record now \u2013 can you tell me a little bit more about it?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nWell, we\u2019re not yet sure where we\u2019re going to record. We don\u2019t have a plan. We\u2019re working on more videos for the record that came out in August. Other than that we have no plans. It’s so wide open. I find that kind freedom exciting actually.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nWell I have an idea, albeit a derivative one.<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nWhat\u2019s that?<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nI say this knowing your love for Hollyweird. Have you seen the movie Begin Again?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nNo.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nIt\u2019s with Adam Levine, Keira Knigtley and Mark Ruffalo…<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nOh yeah, I did hear something about that!<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nIt\u2019s really good. Anyway, the last part of the movie the protagonists set up portable recording studios all over New York to capture Keira Knightley\u2019s \u201cbreakup album\u201d thing. I don\u2019t normally like musicals, except for something like Hedwig and the Angry Inch, but this was really good. Anyway. Last question! I know you just came back from touring, but do you have any plans for another?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nWe\u2019re definitely touring in March. The next thing we\u2019re going to is Atlanta on the 22nd . Besides that we\u2019re just having a break because we\u2019ve pretty much been touring non-stop for the past two and a half years. We\u2019re just chilling. I also want to give myself time to process so I can start writing the next record.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nIt\u2019s definitely good to get settled to get back into a creative place.<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nAbsolutely. Also it\u2019s good to be home for the holidays. The whole month of December, It\u2019s awesome. I love Christmas, I\u2019m obsessed.<\/p>\n

Ariel
\nBig fan of Santa\u2019s Enchanted Forrest?<\/p>\n

Kimmy
\nI haven\u2019t been in a few years but this year I\u2019m definitely going, yeah!<\/p>\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beach Day’s next show is on New Years Eve at Respectable Street Cafe. You can find more info by going here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Also, be sure check out their video for their song “How Do You Sleep At Night” below!