Victoria Legrand

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Victoria Legrand
Legrand performing in San Diego, 2012
Legrand performing in San Diego, 2012
Background information
Born
Victoria Garance Alixe Legrand

(1981-05-28) May 28, 1981 (age 44)
Paris, France
OriginPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
GenresDream pop[1]
Occupations
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • musician
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • keyboards
  • piano
  • guitar
  • bass
Years active2004–present
Member ofBeach House

Victoria Garance Alixe Legrand (born May 28, 1981) is a French-American musician, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter and keyboardist of the dream pop band Beach House.

Early life

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Legrand was born in Paris, France, the daughter of painter Olivier Legrand (fr)[2] and niece of the French composer Michel Legrand and vocalist Christiane Legrand of The Swingle Singers.[3][4] She is of partial Armenian ancestry through her father.[5] When she was six years old, she relocated with her family to the United States, where they resided in Baltimore and, later, rural Cecil County, Maryland.[6] The family subsequently moved to Philadelphia, where Legrand spent her adolescent and teenage years.[7] She is fluent in both French and English.[6]

Legrand studied piano throughout her early life and adolescence,[8] and, as a teenager, performed in a Led Zeppelin cover band.[9] She graduated from the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in 1999,[10] and subsequently attended Vassar College, where she majored in drama.[11] After graduating in 2003, she relocated to Paris to study acting at the International Theatre School of Jacques Lecoq.[12] After becoming "disenchanted with theater school"[13] and more interested in songwriting and in musical artists such as Le Tigre and Yo La Tengo, she dropped out of the program and returned to the United States, settling in Baltimore.[7]

Career

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Main article: Beach House

In 2004, Legrand met Baltimore native Alex Scally, and they quickly formed a two-piece band.[14] Legrand often mentions how organically they work together, and how, in Scally, she found her "musical soulmate."[15] The two have recorded eight studio albums as Beach House: Beach House (2006), Devotion (2008), Teen Dream (2010), Bloom (2012), Depression Cherry (2015), Thank Your Lucky Stars (2015), 7 (2018), and Once Twice Melody (2022); as well as an EP, Become (2023).

Musicianship

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Vocal style

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Legrand possesses a contralto vocal range.[16] Some music outlets have compared her vocals to those of Nico, and Hope Sandoval's.[17]

Songwriting and influences

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Legrand and Scally write music anywhere between eight and 16 hours a day, and strive to create thoughtful music they feel strongly about.[18] Legrand often emphasizes the honesty, thoughtfulness, and authenticity Beach House tries to get across in their music. Legrand laments the references to Beach House as being "wafty, wavy, floaty, dreamy," and insists on the band's loudness and all-encompassing soundscapes they create: "We are a loud band. OK, so it's not abrasive, but it's not soft."[19]

Legrand has said in interviews that she wishes audiences would focus on the craft of their songwriting. She commented, "what you're feeling is the craft, that everything is there with intention," as opposed to the individual sounds that surround "the real meat of it all....There's a lot of great sounds in music, but it's not gonna necessarily make you feel something."[18] She is protective of the identity of the band and cautiously chooses how they expose themselves to their audience.[20]

She has remarked on her love of The Cure, the Cocteau Twins, and Gene Clark,[19] and cited Courtney Love of Hole[21][22] as an influence.

Discography

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See also: Beach House discography

Guest appearances

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Title Year Other artist(s) Album Contribution
"Slow Life"[23] 2009 Grizzly Bear The Twilight Saga: New Moon (soundtrack) Featured vocalist
"Two Weeks" Veckatimest Backing vocalist
"Seven Stars"[24] 2011 Air Le voyage dans la lune Lyricist, featured vocalist

References

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