Brighton's Beach Riot are now streaming their fuzz-laden lead track taken from their debut EP out now via Vallance Records. These four songs were recorded by Blood Red Shoes' Steven Ansell who continues to be an integral part of all Beach Riot recordings. ‘Medicate For Success’ is arguably the band's heaviest single to date packing sludgy riffs and a driving bass line, layered with Beach Riot's signature double-tracked, melodic vocals of Rory O’Connor and Cami Menditeguy. It's a frustrated battle cry at the plethora of fake news accusations and public PR disaster of American President, Donald Trump and written with a strange condition known as synaesthesia.

Frontman O’Connor discovered his synaesthesia condition existed as a 17-year-old and until that point believed everyone had it until it was explained as a rare condition. It's a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences - such as being able to taste words, or to have the ability to actually see sounds. In Rory's world he hears music in colour form which helps, and sometimes hinders his song-writing:

“I don’t sit down and think ‘what colour shall I write in today, it’s more of a feeling and state of mind’, explains O'Connor. “So, I’ll start something new, like Medicate's intro riff, and in my mind's eye it’s a very blurry, hazy white noise grey, and that helps me really jump into the dimension that the song lives in, where the song can sort of just create itself as I play. It’s the same when I play live, without even thinking about it each song has a very specific colour and feeling, and I just get lost in that image and try and channel that through my guitar and vocals.”

Previous single, ‘Good To Know (That I’m Still On Your Mind)’, for example, is mainly a rusty yellow in Rory's perceptual state, but parts of it are tinged purple. "I’ve noticed that FX change the colour too - chorus and modulation tend to be purple/ blue and ethereal," he explains. "Classic valve sounding guitars are yellowy brown, sometimes it can be a dull green, slapback delay is a bit red, with a touch of purple."

‘Medicate for Success’ is one of four new Beach Riot songs that form their debut EP, made up of sublime, crunchy, fuzzy-pop and duel vocal harmonies collide, big riffs and a firm, unapologetic nod to the ‘90s. The band, whose live following has started to grow over the last six months, formed when co-front woman, Cami Menditeguy won a bunch of cash gambling on horse-racing to buy a plane ticket to London where she had always dreamed of fronting a band. 

See Beach Riot play live at the following shows:

December 11th – Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Brighton (Supporting Blood Red Shoes)

February 9th - The Good Mixer, Camden, London (FREE ENTRY)

Brighton up-and-comers Beach Riot have announced their debut EP release for January 25 via Vallance Records. Fronted by a fine slice of catchy, fuzzy pop in new single, ‘Good To Know (That I’m Still on Your Mind)’, the full four-track EP was recorded by Blood Red Shoes’ Steven Ansell, who continues to be an integral part of all Beach Riot recordings.

Beach Riot formed back in February 2017. Fronted by Rory O’Connor (guitars, vocals and songwriter) and Cami Menditeguy (guitar and vocals), and the rhythm section of Jim Faulkner (bass and vocals) and Jonny Ross (drums), Beach Riot’s line-up formed when Cami Menditeguy landed in London from her home country of Argentina in a bold move, as an 18 year old, to front a rock band in a new country. Living on a horse farm, playing guitar alone for so long was no longer an option, so to find funds for a move, Cami made her flight money by gambling on racing horses and then picked East London’s music scene as her prime new location. Isolated in unknown territory for two years of being in the big smoke, the breakthrough came when meeting O’Connor at a local show where they realised they had a lot in common: Ice cream, weird guitars, PJ Harvey , Mudhoney, 4am mozzarella sticks, dark comedy, Dungeons & Dragons and Brighton beach hangover fry-ups. Beach Riot was then born and the gamble paid off.

Their new single, ‘Good To Know (That I’m Still on Your Mind)’ “is the sound of broken relationships that linger in the dust once the decision to break up becomes reality” explains O’Connor. “It’s the emptiness of making that tough decision, the upside-down, gut-wrenching feeling of walking away from something that clearly doesn’t work anymore. Those urges that still pull heart strings when you see your ex-partner like a social media post, or ask you how you’re doing - and you realise they are still thinking about you even though they broke your heart.” It’s a driving track where O’Connor and Menditeguy’s duel vocal harmonies collide beautifully over meandering basslines and big riffs with a firm, unapologetic nod to the ‘90s.

Beach Riot will play live next at:

Dec 3rd - Sticky Mikes, Brighton w/ Gaffa Tape Sandy - EP launch show