Both Beach’s neo-soul influence and tenacious optimistic hustle are displayed front-and-center on “Music Maker.” With the hook directly affirming Willy Wonka’s assertion of O’Shaughnessy’s poem, Beach speaks to trudging through creative peaks and valleys, finishing tasks despite how they are perceived, and not being defined by your past or relationships. The track’s spellbinding groove and melodious hook are a hat tip to Erykah Badu’s “On and On” positioning it perfectly for the portion of the album speaking to redemption and finding your way to self-love.
“We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams,” Beach reiterates, “I think any artist is crazy to do it and do it this long, but everyone thinks the musician is crazy who can’t hear the music in their own head. So like Paul Simon I’m still crazy after all this year and will keep making music until the wheels fall off!”
Beach’s tenacity and life philosophy of exerting hard work and effort is further reflected in his book Side Hustle & Flow: 10 Principles to Live and Lead a More Productive Life in Less Time, which he was drafting at the same time he wrote the collection of songs that appear in Beach Please. Throughout the book’s ten chapters, Beach chronicles his journey of getting kicked off American Idol to finding success with his hit song “Confident” that amassed over 1 million streams and won the Grand Prize for R&B at the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in 2019. It speaks to the reality of starting passion projects while maintaining a day job through a detailed, realistic approach, rather than snake oil that promises you can be a multi-millionaire with minimal effort.
Beach Please’s 11-tracks (10 originals and one cover of Michael Jackson’s 80s hit “The Way You Make Me Feel”) are structured as a 3-part suite, each exploring a different element of love, heartbreak, and redemption. Suite One celebrates the joys of falling in love and the rush of emotions that accompany those early stage feelings. It contains "Crush on You," "Gotta Have That Girl, " "The Way You Make Me Feel," and "Stuck with You.” Suite Two speaks to heartbreak and the polarizing reality of pain and moving on through five songs "It's All My Fault," "Reminds Me of You," "Gotta Let You Go," “Final Goodbye,” and "Let Me Be Lonely." Suite Three comes full circle making its way back to moving forward and finding your way back to self-love in two songs “Music Maker” and “The Work.” The album was produced by Cliff Beach and recorded at The Road House in Topanga, CA by Lito Magana. The album's pre-mixing was done at 1192 Studios in Westlake Village, CA by Tim Hall with mixing by Dylan Brown and mastering by Doug Krebs.
On making the album Beach states, “Spanning songs over my entire career that never made it to an album yet everything has a right place and time to be born. The past is history, the future is a mystery and all we have is here and now. This album is as NOW as I’ve ever been and I am thrilled to be partnering with Color Red Music label for its inaugural release!”
Those in the Southern California area can catch Cliff Beach and his band at the following performances, including an album release show at the legendary west side venue, Harvelle's in Santa Monica on October 18th:
10/18 - Harvelle's - Santa Monica - Album release party with Chase Walker Band and The Chester Copperpot
10/26 Sam’s Place w/ David Franz - Ojai, CA
Beach Please will encapsulate a programmatic journey through all phases of passion, anguish, and vindication piggybacking off of the spring jazz release and prefacing a contemporary album to be released later this fall.
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