Comprised of founding members Marvin Nygaard (bass) and Vidar Landa (guitar), along with Børild Haughom (vocals) and Espen Kvaløy (drums), the Oslo and Stavanger, Norway-based indie rock quartet Beachheads can trace their origins to when its founding members Nygaard and Landa were members of renowned heavy rock Norwegian band Kverlertak. As the story goes, Beachheads’ founding duo had dreamt of playing anthemic power pop based around fuzzy guitars and a strong sense of melody, along the lines of Husker Du, Teenage Fanclub and others; however, because of their primary project’s busy touring schedule, Beachheads endured as a dream reserved for their limited free time — and not their ideal situation.
Nygaard and Landa recruited the Stavanger, Norway-based duo of Espen Kvaløy, a local metal drummer and Børild Haughom, a locally-based synth pop singer to record three tracks, which were playlisted by Norwegian and British national radio, much to the surprise of the band, who didn’t have immediate plans for the project, besides maybe recording an album sometime in the future; however, the members of the band discovered that Haughom had a drawer full of lyrics based around his own personal experiences, including the death of his father. And building upon the growing buzz that the Norwegian quartet had been receiving, they went into the studio to record the material, which would comprise their highly-awaited, self-titled, full-length debut, slated for a February 3, 2017 release.
“Your Highness,” the Norwegian quartet’s third and latest single off the album is a ragged and anthemic single in which Haughom’s plaintive and achingly earnest vocals are paired with jangling and fuzzy power chords and propulsive drumming — and while drawing from 80s power pop and 90s alt rock, the song lyrically focuses on a relationship that’s somewhat unrequited and full of highly charged, yet unfulfilling emotional games that has the song’s narrator spinning.