HUNTER HALTERMAN
Staff Writer
“You can’t underestimate the power of a local music scene,” says Connor Bessey-Nolan, manager of Beach Tower.
Fredonia’s music scene in particular is one that produces many different bands. The people behind those bands, though, often get overlooked.
Beach Tower, an indie/rock band of current and graduated Fredonia students, is one that many hold close to their hearts—and for good reason.
Beach Tower was formed in 2019 for Music Industry Club’s “Battle of the New Bands.”
Recently, Beach Tower has performed in large venues and opened for even larger bands. This past summer, they had the opportunity to perform alongside Culture Club in the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, NY—site of the 1969 Woodstock festival.
In the summer of 2022, Beach Tower performed alongside Train at this same venue.
Throughout their success, it’s important to acknowledge everyone who helped it happen—most notably their manager, Bessey-Nolan.
Bessey-Nolan is a 2023 SUNY Fredonia graduate from Clinton, NY. He graduated with a bachelor’s of science in music industry.
He was always involved within the music scene, between going to shows, managing a band and serving as the music director for Fredonia Radio Systems from 2020-2021.
As music director, Bessey-Nolan was in charge of a team that actively listened to music sent to the station, organized it by genre and put it onto the airwaves.
Chris Sill, also a 2023 graduate, worked with Bessey-Nolan at this time by serving as the station manager. Sill looks back and enjoys the time that he spent with him.
Sill said, “even though it was the year we came back from the COVID shutdown, he always found a way to bring everyone’s spirits up.”
He also added that, “[Bessey-Nolan’s] passion for music is evident, even when meeting him for the first time.”
Relating it to Beach Tower, Bessey-Nolan was involved from the start.
“When they decided to form the band, they called me that night. So I think I can say I’m day-one Beach Tower,” Bessey-Nolan said..
When it comes to his responsibilities for the band, it’s a bit of a toss-up.
Cascio Fonseca, the lead singer of Beach Tower, says they “call Connor our ‘mom-ager’ for Beach Tower…He’s always making sure that we’ve got what we need when it comes to shows.”
Fonseca takes this one step further, saying, “He is always making sure that everyone’s okay.”
In addition to this, Bessey-Nolan also contacts venues and booking agents.
He said, “It’s pretty straightforward. You just kind of email them, tell them what you’re about, send them some links and be up front about when we can or can’t play. And it usually goes from there.”
The day of a show, Bessey-Nolan is in charge of getting the band to the venue on time with all the equipment, figuring out specific times and places to set everything up and getting the business aspect in order.
He said, “it’s just a lot of breaking down doors and saying ‘hey, what’s up, we’re Beach Tower.’”
Once the business is said and done for that night, though, it’s time to relax. “Once they’re on that stage and playing, it means I’ve done my job. And all that’s next is enjoying the music and loading out.”
Sometimes though, the manager isn’t entirely responsible for setting up shows. For Beach Tower, this was the case for their Bethel shows, where Bessey-Nolan said it was a bit of a team play. “Cascio works at Bethel Woods and they have this new artist program and we applied for it. And they enjoyed us.”
As for the second Bethel show, it wasn’t so rigid.
“They were like, we’re doing this program again and we genuinely all really like your music and want to have you back. [The staff] wear Beach Tower t-shirts welcoming people into the venue and it’s super cool,” said Bessey-Nolan.
This new artist program is a part of Bethel Woods’s “Emerging Artist Showcase,” featured on the Horizon Stage just beyond the main gates of the venue.
Eric Frances, CEO of Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, said on the Bethel Woods website, “not every performer at Woodstock was a household name in 1969… It’s in our DNA to support the next generation of artists, and what better way to get eyes and ears on talent than giving them a stage with thousands of people passing by.”
For Beach Tower, this sentiment is shared.
“I think it’s helped a lot in terms of exposing us to an audience that might not hear us otherwise. One part of that is we’re very closely associated with Western New York in general, which isn’t a bad thing but it’s sometimes hard to break out of that,” said Bessey-Nolan..
Overall, he feels as though these experiences with Beach Tower are a great learning opportunity for his passion within the music industry.
“I’ve learned a lot from classes which have kind of informed the process, but Beach Tower has been like learning as we go and it’s been incredibly helpful.”
Beach Tower was such an impactful part of Bessey-Nolan’s life that he attributes some of his success to them.
He does, however, mention another person completely unrelated.
“My brother has been a pretty big influence on being a good hypothetic[al] person trying to understand and work through things. He’s just a really smart guy.”
For now, Bessey-Nolan is taking some time after graduation to relax, but continues to work with Beach Tower for their shows.
And he has a dream gig in particular—sharing a stage with the band Beach House, an indie rock band from Baltimore, Maryland. It may not be for the reason you’d expect though.
Along with being a big fan of the band, he also shared that Beach Tower gets confused for Beach House often, because of the similar naming. “We were at Milkies, [Beach Tower] was on stage, and [one of the fans] was like ‘I thought you guys were Beach House for a second, I’m sorry I called you Beach House.’”
As for the dream venue, Bessey-Nolan hopes for Madison Square Garden in New York City.
“We’re taking it to the top, shooting for the stars,” he said.
