Were there any habits you had to learn or unlearn while reconfiguring your rehearsal space?

VICTORIA LEGRAND: When we recorded the first batch of songs, I noticed a feeling of, "Oh shit, this feels really different from the last time we were in a studio." I felt things inside of my body that no longer needed to be there.

ALEX SCALLY: You can't underestimate the power of being older. One of the great joys of being older is becoming a boss. When you're young, the naivete can be beautiful, but it also leads to so much confusion and inability to do things properly. You don't have full agency over your own existence. Getting older, you can be like, 'You know what? I didn't like any of that crap, so we're not doing it.' That was revelatory.

A trend in 2010s indie has been artists constantly reinventing their sound, regardless of whether or not it works. Even though you've changed a lot from the first album, you've still largely sounded like Beach House over the years.

LEGRAND: Yeah, and I don't know why that is. There's something about our combined personalities. People can say we're difficult, not true. We know what we like, and we know what we don't like. Maybe that's the key? I don’t know.

SCALLY: The types of songs that we like to make are just what people hear when they say it sounds like Beach House. I understand what people mean when they say that, though.

Victoria, you mentioned people saying you can be difficult. What do you mean by that?

LEGRAND: Mostly it's a press thing. We've never wanted to appear ungrateful for any kind of press. It's extremely wonderful to have fans and interest, and we've never been jaded about that. But people who aren't in your shoes don't understand that if they were, they would also want to control the quality of how your faces are shown.

Everyone has different levels. "You guys don't do syncs." We've done commercials. We've done TV shows. We'd love to do a soundtrack. Where is this myth coming from, that we don't want to do this stuff? Bring us the projects that would be awesome to do, and we'll fucking do them.

You've seen the industry change a lot, too. Over the last 12 years, the things that are asked of artists on all levels — beyond just making music — are much different.

LEGRAND: It's changed so much. Every time we put out a record, there are multiple things involved — internet acceleration, websites disappearing, everything's streaming. When we first started, it was like, "What's a Take Away Show?" Now, Take Away Shows don't exist anymore. I don't even know what's required of young bands anymore. We have no idea what it must be like to be starting out now.

SCALLY: It's harder to make that jump. It's largely happening through Instagram, or through a cult of personality. It's all about your presence, your humor, your story. It's a different energy.

LEGRAND: The machines are definitely back. You can't download anything from the internet anymore. The corporations have more power again.

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A lot of your contemporaries have signed to major labels since first coming up. Have you ever considered doing the same?

LEGRAND: From early on, we inherently had a sense that when we make decisions, it's never about jumping at the big things. If someone offered us $100,000 to play a party in Austin, that seemed like a really bad idea. We were never going to be impressed by money being thrown at our faces.

SCALLY: We always knew we wouldn't be able to be ourselves at those places. We have no interest in someone telling us what the single or the artwork is. We could never exist in that environment. We might do it if those people would actually work with us, but they have a way of doing things that we have no interest in.

LEGRAND: And we haven't been offered anything.

SCALLY: Well, we haven't looked.