Beverly – “Victoria” (Stereogum Premiere)

Beverly – “Victoria” (Stereogum Premiere)

We heard the first single off of Beverly’s sophomore effort back in the fall of 2015, and today we’re premiering a second single as well as announcing the album’s title and release date. The Blue Swell is due out in May by way of Kanine Records, and Beverly collaborated with a few likeminded peers to execute the new project. “Victoria” was co-written with the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart’s Kip Berman. Beverly’s vocalist and guitarist Drew Citron explained the scenario that inspired this single:

Scott Rosenthal (guitarist in Beverly) and I were upstate writing at Jonny Pierce (the Drums) lake house last winter, in a couple feet of snow, basically quarantined to our little studio setup there, which is my favorite way to write. Kip Berman came up for a few days and drove us around in a rental car playing some “Beverly”-esque demos he’d written for fun. Kip and I had toured together in Pains and we always talked about collaborating. He’s such a talented songwriter – anything he touches gets a really strong hook – and sometimes it’s easier to try to ape someone else’s style, it unlocks inhibitions and lets you make something you wouldn’t normally. So he played us a couple demos that were somewhere along the Dinosaur Jr. – Weezer spectrum in style and poppiness. The song that eventually became “Victoria” is one of those songs. We both went crazy over it, and what immediately stood out to us was the insane tone on the lead guitar. We both got really excited and took it into the studio immediately, and started laying down all the parts. Scott and I finished writing the song, and wrote the lyrics, but the lead guitar on the song is just the demo take Kip did in the lake house with his magic Japanese pedals and his humbucker telecaster.

Listen to “Victoria” below.

The Blue Swell is out 5/6 via Kanine. Beverly will play their next show at Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right on 2/5.

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