On her debut EP, Between Tides, Justine Beverley writes about childhood memories in France and an attraction her characters refuse to act on. She has developed the songs alongside images, places and a companion lyric journal.
Out today, 6th November, the four-track collection brings together ‘Passenger Seat’, ‘On n’oublie pas’, ‘Second Look’ and ‘Til It Crashes’. Written between Scotland and France, it explores home, attraction and the changes in how Justine understands herself.
Old boots, country music and a soundtrack
“The first line of the song has stayed the same throughout the entire process,” Justine says of ‘Til It Crashes’. “Someone I was working with at the time described me as ‘tough, like old man’s boots’, and I kept thinking that this phrase could be a strong opening line for a song, so I decided to use it.”
“I thought that it was something Lainey Wilson would say to speak about her strength and resilience, and I very much liked it. But then, I also wanted to contrast this whole attitude with the fact that the main character, despite being strong and independent, once attracted to someone, could very much be swept up in romance and forget everything that she stands for.”
“I wanted to explore that ‘will they, won’t they’ energy, because most times the build-up and tension are more powerful than the resolution.”
Producer Tim Prottey-Jones, a member of First Time Flyers, helped Justine develop the recording. She approached him with a reference from another screen drama.
“When I finally decided to record ‘Til It Crashes’, I had a very strong idea in mind – I wanted it to draw inspiration from the atmospheric arrangement of ‘Cold Little Heart’ by Michael Kiwanuka, which is the theme song of the TV series Big Little Lies. Essentially, it would need to sound like a soundtrack, with a country edge.”
“I reached out to Tim with a very, very long email, explaining the vibe that I was looking for, which I worried would make me sound like a psychopath. But thankfully, he understood right away, and we started working on the track shortly after.”
“I think he’s done an absolutely wonderful job – the instrumentation feels somewhat ominous, while the main vocals and backing vocals wrap themselves around you, almost like ghosts haunting you.”
The seaside setting came partly from watching The White Lotus. “I devoured all three seasons in a very short amount of time,” Justine says. “I loved the fact that the seaside played an important part, like a character in its own right, despite each season being set in a different location.”
“The camera would zoom in and out on the waves building up, and crashing on the shore, and then cut to the characters caught up in their drama – it felt like the waves were helping the viewer understand how much danger was looming on the horizon, and that something bad was bound to happen.”
“To me, the electricity in the air before the storm breaks, and the smell of petrichor when the rain hits the ground, feel like the tension between two people attracted to each other.”
Justine wanted the campaign visuals to carry some danger, too. “It needed to be a place that felt dangerous, not a touristy beach full of people acting without a care in the world. It was Will Langley, the videographer, who suggested Dunraven Bay, and it was perfect – it’s absolutely magnificent, but you know that one wrong step and you could fall off the cliffs, to your death.”
French memories and a journal to keep
For ‘On n’oublie pas’, the setting was closer to home. Justine wrote the song three years ago, during her first year of songwriting.
“Back then, I was constantly experimenting with writing alternately in French and English, depending on the topic that I wanted to write about. I was also determined to make French country a thing, which I feel less strongly about these days.”
“When it came to writing about my childhood home, and my core memories, it didn’t feel right to write in English – I spent my first twenty-odd years in France, so the lines came to me in French straight away.”
“But more importantly, I wrote it during the Christmas holidays, during a period where I was back at said home, surrounded by my French family.”
Those settings also have a place in the EP’s companion lyric journal, designed as a nature diary. Justine began making it in the summer, before recording ‘Til It Crashes’.
“I wanted my first piece of merch to be more than a T-shirt or a piece of clothing – an artefact that you could keep and come back to, always discovering something more, something hidden between the lines,” she says.
“The purpose of the booklet was to go deeper into the backstory of each song, and for the reader to be transported into another world, for a little while.”
“I’ve already shared some of the moodboards for ‘Passenger Seat’, ‘On n’oublie pas’, and ‘Second Look’ on socials, but I’ve yet to share the content about ‘Til It Crashes’, so that’s what I’m the most excited about. I feel like this is the first song where the visuals and the production tell a coherent story, rather than fighting for attention like the previous first three singles, which were more experimental.”
Find Between Tides through Justine’s release link and follow her on Instagram.
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