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A Painful Transition

by Beach Street

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1.
Losing Steam 03:17
2.
Broken Bones 03:17
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
The Old Me 03:39

about

The timing was perfect because the times were terrible.

Before the world collectively held its breath and masked-up this past spring, the creative juices and hard work for the new Beach Street album, A Painful Transition were well at play. Songwriter and principal member Alec Boyd began 2020 by committing to the teachings and practices of The Artist’s Way, a long-acclaimed 12-week course created by Julia Cameron to help spark creativity.

Boyd had no idea that he’d finish the course and be in prime songwriting mode right as the Covid-19 pandemic set in across the country. Working a day job from his Austin apartment, Boyd focused on writing during the evenings when it was too risky to set foot around other people. Inevitably, the new Beach Street material became a snapshot of life marked by uncertainty and isolation.

The song titles on the eight-track album certainly point to a wounded psyche – “Losing Steam,” “Broken Bones,” “Isolation Song” to name a few – though Boyd insists he didn’t come out of the writing process feeling like he’d made a ‘bummer record.’

“I'd been spending a lot of time thinking about what a record is to the person who makes it and the satisfying answer is that it's a snapshot of what you're dealing with at that time. Not much more or less than that...At that time no one was leaving their house and it felt like even going to the grocery store was a life-or-death matter... that energy was hanging around. I must have pushed all that energy into the songs because I actually felt pretty good during the first couple months.”

Worries over personal health and safety meant Boyd’s collaborations on the album with Taylor Wilkins of Otis Wilkins and bassist Lolita Lynn were conducted remotely. The players traded files digitally-- akin to the songwriting process for The Postal Service’s Give Up.
An undeniable air of searching and a quest for healing pervades A Painful Transition. Though the title may suggest it too was influenced by the tumultuous reality of 2020, Boyd had already envisioned the album’s name before the pandemic set in. Boyd had an inkling that big changes were on the way for him and the world. Unfortunately, he was right.

“This began on day one of lockdown. The timing worked in my favor as I had been gearing up to start a new project, and then the decision was made for me. I felt very fortunate that as the world shut down I was in peak creative shape,” he said.

“This record is my snapshot of the first five months of quarantine and includes themes of isolation, nostalgia, adjusting, transitioning and, eventually, finding the new way forward.”

credits

released November 20, 2020

All songs written and performed by Alec Boyd, except where noted.

Drums: Kenneth Patterson - tracks 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7
Bass: Lolita Lynne - tracks 1, 2 and 8
Guitar: Taylor Wilkins - tracks 1 and 5
Keys & Synth: Kamila Swerdloff - track 4

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Beach Street Austin, Texas

Music recorded in an apartment within Austin, TX

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