Exclusive Interview with TRANQUILITY BEACH

With their powerful single Only One, the Hertfordshire-based blues and roots duo Tranquility Beach make their eagerly anticipated debut. Only One confronts humanity’s frequently problematic relationship with the natural world in response to widespread calls for action on climate change and global nature loss. The band’s home studio was used to record the single, which gold and platinum album producer Al Scott then mixed.

In order to create a distinctive sound that combines the strength and rawness of blues music with the cozy atmosphere and poetic lyrics of folk music, Molly Francesca and Ben Tattersall joined forces in 2019. With her solo project, Molly Francesca gained recognition on BBC Introducing East in August 2021 thanks to her soulful vocals.

The duo is currently working on their debut album that is due in 2023, . Since the beginning, Tranquility Beach has taken pride in their commitment to the defense of the environment, nature, and the planet. This is just one of many themes that the upcoming album will examine.

The guitar, a traditional Hawaiian lap steel played through an electric guitar amp, along with the bass drum’s steady beat, form the foundation of the band’s debut single. With vocals that shift from the jazz-influenced smoothness of the verse to something raw and powerful in the song’s urgent chorus, Molly’s vocals add something fresh and exciting to the blues and roots scene. Check out the song and the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?

TRANQUILITY BEACH: We’re both from Bishop’s Stortford and started out just playing around with some covers in local pubs and village halls. We started to write the odd song together around two years ago. What really changed our direction was Ben buying a Weissenborn guitar – a Hawaiian lap steel. It was buying that guitar that really helped us to find our sound and write songs that really spoke to us. We released our first single – Only One – in October this year and that’s one of the first songs we wrote together. We’re aiming to release our first album in 2023.

2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?

TRANQUILITY BEACH: Ben’s fully self taught on guitar – or as self taught as you can be in the age of Youtube! – and the same with the lap steel. Molly has had a fair bit of vocal training growing up, but much her current vocal styling came through trying to emulate her favourite artists.

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘TRANQUILITY BEACH’?

TRANQUILITY BEACH: Ben: In terms of early influences, I’d love to say something quirky but really the first bands that influenced me a lot were bands like Nirvana and Elvis. I’ve always preferred listening to live albums, so Nirvana Live at Reading was huge for me. I used to be a metalhead too so that’s definitely influenced the heavier side to some of our songs. On my strongest influences today, I’m really into Aussie artists such as John Butler, and guitarists such as Ben Harper who can get a huge sound from a lap steel. When we’re writing songs though we love to draw on a whole range of different things – one of our favourite things at the minute is writing these guitar-driven songs with Molly’s huge vocals and backing that with a dancy kick drum beat. It gives the songs real energy and gives people something to move to.

Molly: My mum was a double bass player in a band when I was young, so much of my early influences revolve around Jazz and Blues music, in particular singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. But more recently I find myself drawn to emotive female artists like Lana del Rey, Sharon Van Etten, Angie McMahon and Angel Olsen. I think where Ben & I crossover is a mutual respect for folk inspired music, I love artists like Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake and after much convincing (by Ben) for me to listen to John Butler and Xavier Rudd – I’m now hooked!

Going to our band name, it really just represents going to your happy place. For us, that became “Tranquility Beach”.

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

TRANQUILITY BEACH: Putting a label on our sound is something we’ve actually really struggled to do to date, but we tend to call it Blues and Roots as those are the elements that first hit you when you hear us. Molly’s vocals have a huge soul influence, Ben’s guitar drives the blues element and then we often have this dance drum beat that sits behind everything. Mix that all together and you get Tranquility Beach!

5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style?

TRANQUILITY BEACH:

The fact we’re a duo has actually been really great in helping us to forge our own sound as – other than the White Stripes and Royal Blood – there aren’t that may duos out there in similar genres! Our biggest influences have been some of the Aussie artists that do solo gigs – they use a lot of interesting techniques to get a bigger sound, which is a big part of having an impact when performing without a full band. It’s something that’s always evolving for us as we’re always refining things to enhance our live sound – admittedly it’s something that’s become a little bit of an obsession for Ben!

As we mentioned earlier, it was really Ben buying his Weissenborn guitar that took us in a whole other direction in our songwriting and helped us to find our sound. Our sound at its core is this guitar and Molly’s voice!

6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?

TRANQUILITY BEACH:

We haven’t got any strict views on what our music should or shouldn’t be. Our first single – Only One – is about the environment, but all of our songs tend to be about different parts of our lives and the different things that influence us. What’s great is that everyone will take something a bit different away from the songs we write – some people might listen to the message of Only One, others might love the dancy feel or even find something that we don’t see in the song until they tell us.

7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfilment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?

TRANQUILITY BEACH:

We’re getting a lot of joy from writing songs together and playing them live. There’s something really satisfying about the snowballing momentum when you’re putting a song together. We’ve found that being a duo makes it quite easy for us to throw an idea back and forth and really shape it together.

Of course, as a relatively new band that’s just starting to release stuff we’re looking forward to growing our fan base and sharing more of our music with them.

8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

TRANQUILITY BEACH:

We haven’t got an exact formula but it’ll usually start with a guitar riff or Molly will have a few verses written out and we’ll work up a guitar track to it. We then build the drums in, either using a stomp or using the drums on Logic. That often gives the song a whole new energy and will mould how it develops. We usually get quite a bit of time to shape the songs by playing them live a lot before we actually record them, which helps develop a good energy and make sure there’s nothing we want to come back to and change once we’ve recorded it all and sent it off for mixing.

For a couple of songs – like our upcoming second single – Molly actually wrote the song without any instrumental and then we put this to a riff that Ben had written separately. Writing this way does mean Molly has to change the key or melody of her vocals (we play a lot of songs in an open C tuning) but it’s quite a cool way of collaborating! It also makes it fun to listen to the early demos and see how far the song’s come, as they’re always worlds apart when you write the songs this way!

9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

TRANQUILITY BEACH: In the early days we often used to compare ourselves to the other bands we played with each night, who’d be full on five piece rock bands. Playing in between two full bands used to feel quite disheartening at times, as a duo, we’re naturally going to bring a different energy.

But those nights actually did us a big favour in terms of pushing us to create a bigger live sound whilst also getting us to trust our music and not compare ourselves to something we aren’t trying to be. We’ve gotten to a good balance now and our live shows have developed a lot as a result of it!

10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?

TRANQUILITY BEACH: Getting our first single out was huge for us – we had a few setbacks that delayed the recording, so once we had it finished it was a great feeling. We sent it off to our producer – Al Scott, who’s produced a few gold and platinum records – and he’s done an incredible job on it. We had to do it all online over email and we’re amazed that he managed to get the sound we had in our heads onto the track without having been in the room with us.

We can’t wait to release our next single – it’s a nod to the counter culture of 1960s New York, in particular the life of Warhol’s muse and socialite Edie Sedgwick. It’s a track that had evolved and taken many forms so we’re very excited to share the final version with the world!