Manchester has a cool scene going on with a bunch of talented bands, musicians and artists. A lot of them are different from each other in their own ways, but that’s what also makes this community special in the first place. One of the many entities that are proof of this is Hell Beach, a high octane punk rock act consisting of lead vocalist and bassist Jordan Hill, guitarist Brenden Meade, keyboardist Megan Simon and drummer Kory “KB” Boutin on drums.
On August 9, they’re going to be releasing a new album called “Beachworld” and they have two shows happening in support of it. The first one is happening on the night of its unveiling at The Press Room in Portsmouth and the second is a hometown proper release show at Candia Road Brewing.
Hill and I had a talk ahead of both shows about the making of the album, hanging out at Hampton Beach this summer, his thoughts on the shows and what he hopes people take from “Beachworld” after giving it a listen.
MORE INFO
LISTEN: BEACHWORLD | Hell Beach on bandcamp.com
Aug. 9, 8 p.m.: Tickets to The Press Room: Tysk Tysk Task w/ Grub Lord, Hell Beach, & 2000s Tickets, Fri,
Aug. 10, 3 p.m. CRBC | Candia Road Brewing Co. | Manchester
Tickets to The Press Room: Tysk Tysk Task w/ Grub Lord, Hell Beach, & 2000s Tickets, Fri, Aug 9, 2024 at 8 p.m. | Eventbrite
Rob Duguay: Tell me about the making of “Beachworld.” What was the songwriting and recording process like for the album?
Jordan Hill: It’s been a long process with a lot of work that was relatively compressed into a short amount of time. Songwriting wise, I’m usually the one who starts a song and I think out of the 11 songs, there were three that I didn’t start. There are usually lyrics and melodies that I’m working on and then I’ll share those really raw song ideas with Brenden. He’s usually the one who helps me really make it into more of a real song and he’s also a drummer so he’s very good at writing those parts for the songs that I’m working on while writing much better guitar parts than what I had in mind. He kind of takes us to the next level and from there everyone kind of does their thing.
KB will mostly follow the ideas we have for drums while adding his own stuff and Megan is extremely good at writing vocal harmonies, synth parts and all those things. It kind of starts with me and everybody comes in to fill it out. We demo everything and for the album we demoed like 12 or 13 songs, we kept the best 11 around for the record after going up to Nada Recording in Montgomery, New York, which is in the Hudson Valley. We recorded with our friend Bobby Edge, who is one of the sound engineers there. We recorded the drums there, we recorded the bass there and we recorded the lead vocals there while being out in the middle of nowhere in January and February earlier this year.
We were kind of snowed in almost for the whole period, it was kind of like a cabin in the woods kind of situation. We saw some deer out there, there’s all these farms and we were able to hyperfocus on just working on the album because there was nothing else to do. For the guitars, the backup vocals and all the synth stuff, we recorded that back home in Manchester at Stabby Cat Recording, which is Brenden’s studio that he runs. He recorded a lot of the record himself, but the really cool thing about it is we were able to work with Reade Wolcott, who is in a band called We Are The Union and I’ve been listening to them since I was a kid. She helped us with pre-producing some of the songs and taking them to a more finished level while also mixing the entire record.
It was really cool being able to work with her and usually I don’t trust other people with our songs, but with Reade, I trust her very much.
RD: Was this Hell Beach’s first time contributing to the production side of a record or was this something you’ve always done with your recordings?
JH: It’s actually the other way around. We have always self-recorded and it’s really Brenden who runs that whole thing for us at Stabby Cat. We have an EP of six songs that we put out last summer with Uncle Style Records and Brenden self-recorded the entire thing, every part of it. Then we had it mastered by Blackheart Sound in Manchester, so this time around I assumed that we would just do it ourselves but Brenden really wanted to branch out a little bit and get into a really, really nice professional studio to do the drums and the vocals just so those sounded really, really good.
RD: From the singles I’ve heard so far, it all sounds great. One of those singles is “Meltdown” that you guys recently put out a music video for. It seems like all the scenes were done at Hampton Beach, so what made you want to pick that location and what was the experience like making the video?
JH: It’s funny because when a lot of local people hear the name Hell Beach before they know where we’re from, they automatically think we’re from Hampton Beach and everybody loves to trash on Hampton Beach. I love Hampton Beach because I grew up going there every summer and this summer I’ve probably been to Hampton Beach around six times. It just made sense to do the video there, we thought about going to a few other local beaches but Hampton has the boardwalk and we wanted to do some filming at the arcades. We just kind of know where to park, know where stuff is and it just made sense to do it there. I don’t know if it was for anybody else, but it was nostalgic for me to do it there.
We went out on a Wednesday afternoon after work and we didn’t really have a solid plan. We just goofed around while shooting some b-side footage with some more planned out and thought out with us singing the words and stuff like that, but it was a good time.
RD: It seems like it was. You mentioned that you go to Hampton Beach a lot and when it comes to the boardwalk there, what’s your number one place to check out?
JH: When I’m there, I’m usually on the beach. I love the beach, I love the ocean and I love looking for critters and stuff like that. That’s a happy place for me and it’s where I feel very good, so most of the time I’m over there. When I’m with people and we want to go over to the boardwalk, I will go over to Sal’s Pizza over there if I’m getting pizza because they give you a lot, one slice is like a quarter of a pie. Sometimes we’ll go over to Bernie’s Beach Bar to hang out at the outdoor patio and there’s also fried dough because that’s a staple, so that’s pretty much the big three.
RD: Very cool. What are your thoughts on these upcoming shows at The Press Room and Candia Road Brewing celebrating the release of “Beachworld” and what do you hope people take from the album when they give it a listen?
JH: I’m super excited about the show in Portsmouth with Tysk Tysk Task, the 2000s and our friends Grub Lord, which is the day that the record comes out but the actual release show is a couple days later at Candia Road. We’ll have the album available for sale at The Press Room, but the show at Candia Road is going to be a Sunday matinee with our friends Cape Crush, who are from the North Shore of Massachusetts, and Grub Lord is going to be part of it as well. It’s an early show at 3pm and that’s where we are solely celebrating the release of the record. I just hope that people enjoy it and it’s something that we’re really, really proud of. We put a lot of work into it and I hope that comes through a little bit with people listening to something a little bit different than they’re used to listening to, or something a little more upbeat.
When it comes to the bands in this area, we don’t fit in super well with a lot of them but a lot of them are friends of ours in the music scene. I just hope people check it out and I hope they enjoy it.