After moving to one of the most idyllic, languid and reinvigorating parts of the west coast of Canada, a re-energized Daniel Wesley has returned with his first collection of new songs since 2015. The aptly entitled Beach Music EP is a relaxed, effervescent, highly compelling and bucolic listening experience, that is as memorable as it is danceable. The album was released June 21 on his own Beachgrove Records label.
Beach Music is actually the first half of what will be a full album, with Wesley choosing five songs that had much in common style and vibe-wise to release now, with a group of more singer/songwriter-oriented pieces coming later in the year.
“About a year and a half ago, I actually recorded a full album, and it was going to be released and it was going to be full on rock and roll. I was going to release it on my own. I had never recorded anything and not released it and it’s not because it’s not good, but I kind of felt like I had to put a different foot forward for myself personally as well as artistically. So, I decided not to release it, and spent all of 2018 basically writing and then recording new music at the end of the year and into 2019,” said Wesley from his home in British Columbia.
“We had 10 songs and we were going to call the whole thing Beach Music but thought, in this day and age of consumption and needing more music all the time because people’s appetite for music is short term, that we should release the summer songs in the summertime and then release the other half of the album in the fall. So, these are the summertime songs. And in the fall when we put the other five songs with these five, we’re going to call it the Beach Music LP.”
Beach Music comes four years after his last album of original material, I Am Your Man, and two years after his Live at the Commodore record. In between, he made a number of changes to his life that delayed new music from coming sooner. But they are changes that have improved his lifestyle, peace of mind and creativity.
“I also just wanted to take my time. I had spent four years going back to school and working full time as an electrician and having kids and still doing music at a full time pace too. So, I just took a year off. I stopped doing electrical after getting my journeyman ticket and we moved to the Sunshine Coast, right on the Pacific Ocean. I moved to paradise, this four and a half acre place, which is just awesome,” he said.
“I was literally able to grow my hair long and just get back to being who I was as opposed to just running all over the place. I think that’s really what happened with the music too – I just let everything happen naturally. When it came back to naming things, I was looking for something that tied it all together. When people ask what kind of music I play, I have been saying ‘beach music’ for a long time. I just felt like it made sense to throw that label on it, especially this group of songs.”
The title is pretty self explanatory in terms of the tone and vibe Wesley was aiming for when he wrote the songs for Beach Music.
“You don’t have to be at the beach, it’s more of where your headspace is at. You can be daydreaming of a beach. Basically, that’s what I love about this particular set of songs, and why I have always had trouble putting a label to what I do because it is what it is, and it will take you wherever you want it to take you. I say its music that makes you feel good and music that makes you want to get up and dance. I love writing songs that are more singer/songwriter too, that’s a very natural side for me. And I think it’s important to continue to release stuff like that for me to keep it interesting. But I don’t want to stay in just one lane,” he said.
“It is easy for a lot of bands and artists to say, ‘well, this style works so we’ll just do more music like this.’ I have never really thought like that. I have just always written songs and whatever I think are the best songs end up getting released, for better or worse. I like having different styles. I know I like artists that do something different each time, and not even consciously, but just because that’s who they are.”
As for his process, Wesley still operates primary on inspiration, and uses more modern technology only when necessary.
“I used computers a little bit, but I am not proficient at all. People on my music team would know that even me trying to send them a video over the internet is difficult. It’s always about trying to preserve the moment. And I am lucky enough in this day and age to be able to push record, whether its on a cassette tape like in the old days, and now it’s on a computer with a microphone and stuff,” he explained.
“If I have something rolling, or if I come up with something out of the blue, I have to put it down right away, and that’s always been the way I work. It’s like ice fishing, when you’re hot, they’re biting all the time, when they’re not, you’re not. You have to be there and be open to it when it comes. And that’s something that my wife understands, although my kids don’t quite understand it yet. And it’s a place where I wanted to take myself back to writing this album. I was just not having any time to be open to that process. I would go in and write some things, and things would happen and that’s what that other album that I trashed was. I felt like there was more for me to do, and it was really about being available for those moments to happen. I think it’s always something that I have tried to do and is definitely the most important thing for me as a songwriter.”
One of the tracks that is most emblematic not only of Wesley’s methodology, but also the overall tone of the songs on Beach Music, is the impeccably well crafted song, Fire, which is also the first single from the record.
“I was up in Tofino helping a friend move. And then we surfed and were sitting on the beach and, it sounds like I made this up, but I didn’t. I was just sitting there and had brought my guitar and it was like one of those first trips in a while where I brought a guitar with me, and I was like, ‘okay, I am going to be open and available to this.’ And I just started singing the chorus – it just happened. I literally picked up the guitar and just sang it. And when I got back to the house, I was humming it and my friend thought it sounded good,” he explained.
“When I got home, I sat if front of a computer and I brought up a beat and put some guitar to it and then some chords and then I came up with the verses and the verses just kind of happened naturally. Once I got a sense of where the lyrics were going, I thought I would just follow along. A lot of people are calling it a pop song. Well, it’s not. It’s about sexual abuse and it just references getting away from all that. I thought if people wanted an anthem for marijuana, it’s basically legal now, so I might as well do it. I love how it turned out. I wouldn’t call it an ode to marijuana, but it definitely has those themes to it. Honestly, I am always less of a lyric person and more of a melody person. I just think the song sounds amazing. Whether or not you’re a firm believer and supporter of what the lyrics are about, I think you would be hard pressed to not want to get up and shake your butt to it.”
Baby Gone is a sweet, heartfelt and very genuine song that has more than a tinge of darkness to it, but which is emotionally resonant with anyone who wistfully looks back at past relationships, or looks deeper into the ups and downs of the relationship they are currently in.
“Sometimes I write by just putting up and beat and seeing what happens naturally. I used to jam a lot with the guys I was playing with, but now that I am living over here on the Sunshine Coast, I don’t get to jam as much – me and the drum machine is about as much jamming as I get these days. With that song, I think that everybody has moments where things aren’t perfect with their spouse or partner. And it was just one of those melancholy nights where I was sitting there with the guitar and I kind of found a way to get through those feelings in a song. I feel like everyone has had that experience where they’re trying to reach back into someone and that’s what this song is about,” he explained.
Wesley spent much of his life and career living in more urban environments, including a lot of time in Victoria. For a better quality of life for him and his family, he made the decision to move across to the mainland, settling along the aforementioned Sunshine Coast in a community called Robert’s Creek, about halfway between Gibson’s and Sechelt.
“It’s such a beautiful place. Life is funny, I think this is one of the best decisions my wife and I ever made to move our kids up here. We’re still close to Vancouver, but I feel like we really have a beautiful life here. And the kids are growing up in a way that I never got to grow up, although I did have a great upbringing. We could do what all our friends are doing, and that’s fine, but I am always thinking about the lives we’re living, and I don’t want to be thinking, years from now, ‘oh, I wish I had done that.’ I just did it. Listen, I am sitting on the beach right now, a few minutes from my house, looking at Vancouver Island and the ocean. It’s just gorgeous.”
He recently completed a short run of dates in eastern Canada and is back for a couple of shows in B.C.: July 5 in Nanaimo and the following night in Victoria. Once the full Beach Music LP comes out, Wesley said he will embark on a significant coast to coast tour of the country, hitting as many markets as possible.
For more information on Wesley, upcoming shows and Beach Music, visit https://danielwesley.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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