Beach Fossils

Beach Fossils formed in 2009 in Brooklyn as a solo project by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Dustin Payseur. Guided by influences from the visual arts, literature, and philosophy, Payseur recorded the project’s first releases on his own, playing all the instruments on the self-titled debut album, released in 2010 by Captured Tracks.

With clean guitars, melancholic arrangements, and vocals steeped in reverb, the band’s sound moves between dream pop, jangle pop, post-punk, and surf rock. The project quickly gained traction in the independent blogosphere and became one of the central acts in the New York alternative scene of the early 2010s, which led Payseur to assemble a full band for touring.

In 2011, the group released the EP What a Pleasure, recorded in collaboration with bassist John Peña. Two years later, they released their second album, Clash the Truth (2013), an album that featured a more direct, urgent, and percussive sound.

The next album, Somersault (2017), expanded the band’s sonic horizons by incorporating elaborate string and wind arrangements, psychedelic nuances, and guest appearances. In 2021, the group revisited its own catalog on the album The Other Side of Life: Piano Ballads, reinterpreting songs through a jazz-inspired lens, led by piano and saxophone.

In June 2023, the band released its fourth studio album, Bunny. Produced by Payseur and released by Bayonet Records, a label founded by him and Katie Garcia, the album blends the melancholy of their early years with the production refinement achieved on Somersault.