by Chandler Christopher
Beach Fuzz is the collective work of the Philadelphia-hailing, surf-rock, DIY-band consisting of members Ross Aronow, John Crane, Jack Dratch, Eric Juelke, and Jack Venneri. The members of Beach Fuzz are super genuine people and seem to have a collaborative and playful spark amongst them. With their amplified sounds echoing a simplistic and authentic nature, Beach Fuzz possesses a collaborative and playful spark when creating their music. Inflicted with the effects of the pandemic, the crew has not been able to play live shows together in over a year. Along with this, each member of Beach Fuzz attends a different college, mostly in Pennsylvania except for one who’s in Miami. Because of the Covid difficulties in getting together to record, the group has spent the last year making their music through collaborative facetime calls, basement recordings, and, most importantly, their knight in shining armour – Google Drive. The guys admitted to actually enjoying this style of producing music, saying that they feel extremely comfortable in this setting which allows them to fully chase their desired sound without some of the pressures that having an allotted time in a studio can impose.
Beach Fuzz longs to get back to performing live shows in their hometown of Philadelphia, where the venues primarily consist of DIY house parties and venues. The group definitely wants to travel and tour around the U.S. when Covid settles down, saying that throughout the duration of Covid, their fan base has increased country-wide in a fairly dramatic way. Something I found to be interesting from the completely-independent group was how much Tik Tok has increased their follower base. I discovered the group on Spotify’s Discover Weekly, and they told me that they landed on this Spotify-curated playlist through the follower base they built on Tik Tok from posting some of their live sessions and music video clips. When I asked Beach Fuzz questions such as what their goals and aspirations are, who they make music for, and why they make music… the answer was always pretty much the same (an amazing answer, at that). They always circled back, saying that at the end of the day, they all felt one way – to make music that they, themselves, thought was bad-ass. Ross Aronow said, “I think that when we’re making music we definitely all think that at one point or another ‘this is the most badass song we’ve ever made’ and at the end of the day, that’s why we do this.”
There truly is an undeniable passion that these guys have for making music. It’s organic, refreshing, and it’s something that inspired and rejuvenated me, personally, in my current endeavors. Check out their latest EP, Holding On (2021), their debut album Casual Encounters (2019), and their self-titled, debut EP, Beach Fuzz (2018). I’m eager to see the next project Beach Fuzz puts out and to see them on their debut tour in the states, but I will certainly be jamming to their fit-for-swimming jams all summer long.
