Melbourne’s most talked about band Beaches tell TIM SCOTT they’re more Slayer than Judas Priest.

As far as promo shots go, it’s one of the more interesting you’ll see. Five young women sitting in a circle by the banks of the Yarra. Dressed in a style that could be described as Amish/inner-city cool. All but one is blonde. A eucalypt branch hangs overhead. It’s all very serene in a Virgin Suicides/*All the Rivers Run* kind of way. But it’s their distant stares off camera that draw you in. Much like Beaches’ sound, the photograph is beautiful yet mysterious.

“There is a bit of mystery about that shot but that’s the concept we were going for,” explains Ali McCann, one of the band’s three guitarists. “Our friend Lauren Bamford shot it down near the Fairfield boat sheds. We wanted it to be very Australian, kind of like a Norman Lindsay painting only with ladies with their clothes on.”

Not that the band really needs a promo shot. In their short time together, Beaches — McCann, Antonia Sellbach, Alison Bolger, Gill Tucker and Karla Way — have attracted loads of interest in the Melbourne music scene with their sprawling guitar jams that take on elements of psych rock, ragged reverb and free-flowing fuzz.

While Beaches’ formation is not all that unusual — mates getting together for a jam — the speed and impact of their rise has been meteoric. From their first show in October 2007, they have generated the kind of local buzz not seen since Eddy Current Suppression Ring.

“The first show was at a party at my house that we do every year called Rocktober,” says Tucker. “So we played in my lounge room and it was awesome. It was so good for our first show to play at a party in front of our friends.”

Beaches are a supergroup of sorts, with members hailing from such revered local bands as Love of Diagrams, Panel of Judges and Spider Vomit. ”Pretty much everyone we know plays in a band so it’s a pretty vibrant community really,” Sellbach says of her hometown.

“Melbourne is a good place to be in a band because you can play shows every week and still get enough people to come along,” adds Bolger. “There are enough venues and enough bands to play with. There is also a good variety of shows. You can play a party and then do a small pub, then a festival or a bigger gig.”

Sitting in the Northcote Social Club’s beer garden, it’s evident these ladies are first and foremost friends. They finish each other’s sentences and laugh while rolling cigarettes and drinking Coopers. You gather it’s this same sense of intuition, relaxed familiarity and understanding that makes their music so special; a shared stream of consciousness and sub-consciousness that allows a song like ‘The Sky Was White’ to move on its own.

“It has always been about getting together as friends and socialising and having fun,” says Bolger. “Antonia went away for almost three months. We jam pretty much weekly and even when she went away we occasionally got together to play.”

When describing Beaches’ sound, the word “jam” is often used. But you can leave your Hacky Sack at home because this ain’t no Phish or “The Dead”. Songs like ‘Eternal Sphere’ and ‘Horizon’ are sprawling, yes, but also deliberate and precise.

“The songs do start from jams but there is definitely structure there,” Sellbach says.

“When we were showing each other the lyrics we realised that a lot of it related in some sense to nature. There wasn’t anything really about, ‘Oh my boyfriend left me’, or anything like that.”

“It’s not like anyone comes to practice with a full song layed out,” Way adds. “We build the song in the jam room. We might have a bass line or whatever and then it slowly builds up. There will be these long songs and then we look back and work out what parts we like about parts of that, so we kind of make a song by picking the best bits. So it may have a bit of a jam sound, but the songs are actually thought out.”

Beaches’ live show is semi-instrumental. While all members contribute vocals, it’s the three guitars that weave the magic. Theirs is a sound of vastness, with reverb celebrated in all its swirling glory. On their self-titled debut, the vocals don’t arrive until the third song ‘Sandy’, and then it’s only in the title’s refrain. “The vocals are sometimes just more of a texture,” Tucker explains. “Sometimes we try vocals for some songs and then ditch them and decide that it sounds better as an instrumental.

“The words fit with the music in a more natural sense. There is a nature kind of theme but it wasn’t really intentional. When we were showing each other the lyrics we realised that a lot of it related in some sense to nature. There wasn’t anything really about, ‘Oh my boyfriend left me’, or anything like that.”

While not exactly a bidding war, interest in the band from various labels had been strong. They eventually signed with local indie Mistletone, home to Kes, Pikelet and international acts such Beach House and High Places. While most of their labelmates delve in pop and light electro, Beaches are definitely a rock band. The Judas Priest of the Mistletone roster, perhaps?

“No, we are more like Slayer,” laughs Tucker.

Experimentation plays a large part in the band’s approach to music, both writing and recording. The opening song ‘Two Days Passed By’, is slowed down and used again for the final track ‘Field of Dreams’, bookending a truly awesome record.

“I’m really happy with the way ‘Field of Dreams’ turned out,” says Way. “It was the beginning of one of our jams that we really liked the sound quality of.”

Recorded by Jack Farley in Melbourne and mastered by Shellac’s Bob Weston in Chicago, the album has a very natural feel that sits well with the songs’ themes.

“Jack’s awesome. He’s very sensitive to the music. He’s a sensitive guy and he knows our sound and what we want. He mixed us live a bunch of times before we recorded which I think helped. He did the demo of ‘Sandy’ and he’s also recorded our other bands,” says Sellbach.

“I really liked the way he would go, ‘Okay girls, that was good but I think we can do it better’. It was his way of saying, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” jokes McCann.

As good as the new album is, however, it’s the live setting where the band truly shines. An air of excitement wafts over the table when I mention their upcoming slot at the Meredith Music Festival in December.

“It’s going to be awesome,” says McCann. “We are playing on Friday night at 7pm which will be the perfect time. Everyone will have arrived and settled by then. It’s gonna be pretty cool.”

Listening to a song like ‘The Sky Was White’ while sitting outside at dusk with a beer in your hand sure is a tantalising prospect.

“Yeah, it’s going to be pretty special,” Bolger adds.

+