Christian Beach, a longtime fixture of the New Jersey music scene, is celebrating the third anniversary of the release of his DoubleLife EP by offering fans (a little over) a third off his discography available on Bandcamp from Friday, April 7, through Monday, April 10. April 7 is another Bandcamp Friday, when the music distribution service waives its revenue share to help support artists, while April 10 marks the date of DoubleLife's release in 2020.
The six-track DoubleLife EP represented Beach’s first official release since his acclaimed 2009 self-titled solo debut album. DoubleLife can be streamed/downloaded at ChristianBeach.net.
“There is an Americana sound at the heart of DoubleLife,” said Beach at the time of the EP’s release. “But there are a lot more layers to this EP than there were on my 2009 album. I did a lot of experimenting with sounds and textures. From a production standpoint, it sounds like Americana meets Alan Parsons Project.”
Beach wrote all six songs and played most of the instruments on DoubleLife, which he also produced. It was mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music. Mandolin on “Desert Places” was played by Gorgo Beach.
From now through 11:59pm ET on Monday, April 10, fans can buy Beach’s entire Bandcamp discography (1 album, 2 EPs and 2 singles) for just $13.00. For individual purchases of Beach’s music, fans can take 35% off by using the discount code BEACH35 at checkout.
DoubleLife was released at a time of uncertainty, as COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns and safety measures went into full effect just a few weeks earlier. But Beach was undeterred.
“Music has always been my release—an escape,” he said in April 2020. “I’m putting these songs out into the world so, hopefully, someone can listen to them and escape from the stress and anxiety of these times—if just for 24 minutes or so.”
Despite the challenge of releasing new music at the height of a global pandemic, Beach reached out to backing band member and longtime friend/collaborator Brian Kelley (Ferocious Designs) about remotely assisting with the production of music videos for the EP’s two singles, “Highway Sun” and “Food on the Table.” The added degree of difficulty was that neither had ever worked on a music video before.
The video for “Highway Sun” was compiled from footage shot by Beach in his still-under-construction home studio. Beach then shared the video through a private YouTube channel with Kelley, who downloaded that footage and edited it together into the final video.
The video concept for “Food on the Table” was much more ambitious, but came about after Kelley suggested the concept to Beach, who said he had the same idea in mind. Both agreed it should be black and white with public domain imagery suggestive of the dust bowl era or American folklife, in general. Several public domain images from the U.S. Library of Congress were used alongside shots of Beach in his home studio for the finished product.
Christian Beach is a New Jersey-based singer-songwriter who has been part of the tri-state-area music scene since the late 1980s. As the driving force behind several bands (Slave of Id, Artists That Kill, Ton of Bricks) from the early 1990s through early 2000s, he played some of New Jersey’s legendary clubs like the Green Parrot, The Stone Pony, The Brighton Bar, and The Fast Lane. In 2005, Beach spent time playing keyboards and guitar for Michael Ferentino’s (Love In Reverse, Dog) band Transfusion M, appearing on its lone 2005 album and accompanying the group for a leg of the 2006 Vans Warped Tour. Upon his return from the road, Beach branched out on his own as a singer-songwriter inspired by American roots and folk music, and heavily influenced by Bob Dylan, Hank Williams Sr., The Band, and more contemporary artists like Jeff Tweedy. Beach’s first solo album, Christian Beach, was released in 2009. Music journalist Gary Wien ranked it as one of the top 100 albums by New Jersey artists between 2001 and 2010, with its lead track “Open Spaces” in the No. 77 slot among the top 100 songs by New Jersey artists in that same span. Beach released Direct and Free, a four-song EP, on March 18, 2022. In 2020, Beach released a six-song EP, DoubleLife, which was followed by the release of Basement Noise, a collection of remixed, previously unreleased tracks released on January 1, 2021.
