Most likely written by Andrew Eldritch, Ben Christo and Dylan Smith.

On the beach was first performed live by The Sisters of Mercy on october 30th 2022 in Sydney, Australia.

A few hours after the first perfmance a video was uploaded to youtube,    • On The Beach. The Sisters Of Mercy.  ...  . The intro and the first verse was not included in the video.

The band performed the song on the remaining 3 shows on the NZ/AUS-tour and on nov 5th a full version of the song, from the show in Perth, was uploaded to soundcloud, soundcloud.com/coelocanth-437970081/on-the-beach.

These 2 uploads made it possible to start recording a cover so huge thanks to you two uploaders! :)

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This is how I recorded On the beach

The lyrics were published on the official website on february 25th 2021.
The 3rd verse of the published lyrics is not used at all in the 2 versions I have heard of the song.
On the Perth-version Andrew starts to sing the first verse right from the first measure and Ben onto the 9th measure. I trust Ben more to when a verse starts so that's how I sang.

I use all8.com to tap the bpm of the song, 160 bpm. www.all8.com/tools/bpm.htm

I started recording the song on november 5th. Programming the drums, recording all guitars (ESP LTD), bass (GIBSON LES PAUL) and keyboard (EDIROL PC-50). The DAW I use is Cubase Elements 12. I've been using Cubase since the 90s.

I use Toontrack's EZdrummer 3 for the drums. The expansion-pack, or EZX, I have used is Dream pop except the crash-cymbals which are from the Made of metal EZX and the kick drum, 909, which is from the Electronic EZX. The kick is of course inspired by The Roland TR-909 which is a classic drum machine Sisters of mercy used in the early 80s. I'm not 100% sure how the hi-hat is played throughout the whole song but I tried my best to get some dynamic between the different parts of the song. I think there's the faster hi-hat, as on the choruses, on the outro but I felt that sounded a little too stressed so I kept it slower since this is MY version. :)

I recorded 2 distorted rhythm guitars that I use through the whole song and 2 clean rhythm guitars for the verses, bridge and outro.

I also recorded 2 more guitars for the choruses doing some octavestuff. I had a really hard time hearing how they were played so if more videos and versions of the song may appear some time I might record a 2nd version of the song. Ben plays some notes 2-3 times during the choruses and I tried to get them done while doing the octaves but the solution due to my lack of guitarplayingskills was to record those notes on yet another 2 more channels.

I use Toontrack's EZmix for the backing vocals, bass, and all guitars except the clean guitar where I use VST Amp rack which is included in Cubase Elements.

I use Cubase internal chains along with T-De-Esser for all the lead vocals.

The strings are HALion Sonic (Strings in church)

I recorded the "Andrew-vocals" on november 11th. I have this corner in the basement where I record all vocals. I usually use 2 or 3 channels of lead-vocals and this time it's 2. As a warmup I sang along the live-version 2-3 times and then hit record. I recorded the second verse a second time for both channels because on nr 1 the "we are rievers" didn't have the power I wanted and on nr 2 I, for unknown reason sang "dog eat dog WE'RED honored". It may sound as if I sing BOOTIES in verse 1 but listening to just the vocaltracks it really is BOONIES :) 2 or 3 channels of leadvocals singing the exact same thing is a good way to make the voice sound thicker and hide defects.

I recorded the "Ben-vocals" on november 17th. 2 channels. Nothing special, a little warmup and all done in 25-30 minutes. Dylan have a mic and in the video it looks like he's singing but his vocals are always somewhere between unhearable and really low in the mix. Too bad because Dylan sings great in I NATION and I know hearing Dylan sing would make the Sisters sound even better live.

The vocals during the outro are not the same on the 2 uploaded versions. In Sydney the line is repeated all throughout the whole outro and in Perth the line is repeated 3 times, a little breathing pause and then 3 times again before the final On the beach. I decided to sing it Perth-style.

I worked with mix and master while recording. I exported testmixes all along the process and listened to them in headphones, cellphone and in the car, making small adjustments until it sounds ok to me.

Enjoy and welcome back soon! 2 more Sisters-related recordings are already finished!

On the beach on The Sisters Wiki: sisterswiki.org/On_The_Beach_(song)
Official website: www.the-sisters-of-mercy.com/
Heartland - Fan forum: www.myheartland.co.uk/

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