This story is featured in CityBeat’s Aug. 9 print edition.
The Beths write songs that stick in your head days after exposure. The New Zealand quartet’s third album for U.S. independent mainstays Carpark Records, 2022’s Expert in a Dying Field, is a master class in indie-rock catchiness, pairing frontwoman Elizabeth Stokes’ wit-infused lyrics about relationships gone haywire with sublime sonic arrangements — played with acumen by drummer Tristan Deck, guitarist/producer Jonathan Pearce and bassist Benjamin Sinclair — at once familiar and utterly unique.
Proof abounds via the record’s stacked opening trio of “Expert in a Dying Field,” “Knees Deep” and “Silence Is Golden,” the latter of which careens from pillar to post through buzzing guitars and insist rhythms as Stokes’ modest but convincing voice delivers the following: “Maybe I’ll break/Just shatter, disperse/Like cracks in a glass/Never hold a drink again!”
CityBeat recently connected with Stokes by Zoom from a tour stop in the United Kingdom to discuss the Beths’ current live excursion, her approach to lyrics and the particulars of being a musician in New Zealand.
CityBeat: You’re playing a mix of shows on this tour — festivals, headlining your own shows and doing some opening slots with Death Cab for Cutie and The National. Do you approach shows differently depending on the context?
Elizabeth Stokes: It’s a slightly different approach. Obviously, you get to stretch out more on a headline show. The assumption is that most of the people have at least heard some of your music if not a lot of it, so we kind of tailor the set list to include a few more of the deep cuts and things like that. But there’s an element to both support shows and festivals which is playing to a lot of people who have no idea who you are. We’ve always found it a fun kind of challenge in the past.
CB: How are American audiences different from those in Europe or Down Under?
ES: It feels like in America there’s a real culture of enthusiastic music lovers. There’s less embarrassment about liking things. Maybe it’s a British hang-up — or hangover. It’s like, “Yes, hello, I like your band, I’m sorry.” Which is how I feel when I like things. I’m like, “I hope it’s OK that I like this.” It’s nice to be in America where that hang-up doesn’t seem to be as prevalent.
CB: You write songs from an intimate, first-person perspective but it’s not so specific that listeners can’t imagine themselves in the protagonist’s shoes. Why are you interested in writing so directly as opposed to using a more coded or abstract approach to lyrics?
ES: It’s a good question. You try on other hats. I’ve tried to write third-person songs or story songs but the ones that stick, the ones that are the best, seem to be first person. I’ve written songs where the song is first person but it’s about somebody that I know or it’s from the perspective of the person that is dealing with me. But it always ends up coming back to the first person. My songs are often addressing somebody. They’re directed at somebody. I’m not really sure why. Maybe it’s that the kind of music that I listen to, the stuff that I click with, does that. It can make it easier to insert yourself into the world of the song, which is something people do to make you feel like you’re not alone in experiencing something.
CB: On the sonic side, you guys are in a well-defined indie rock tradition of two guitars, drums and bass, but you also put your own spin on it. Why were you interested in employing that approach to your sound?
ES: I still just really love it. I have a musical bias towards it. I don’t know if that’s because it’s the music I connected with growing up. There are so many ways to make music. But there is something about guitar music and starting a band with your friends. I feel like kids are still using guitars and bass and drums and making noise in their garages. It does feel limiting but I feel like sometimes having some limits is good creatively. It means that you kind of have to keep exploring and reach a little bit to find something that you haven’t done before.
CB: Jonathan seems like the band’s secret weapon — he produces the records and his guitar playing, while not flashy, is creative. He comes up with some unique tones and unexpected leads. How would you describe his role in the band?
ES: So important. We started the band because I used to write songs in high school, and then after university when I was playing trumpet in bands and things, Jonathan emailed me and was like, “Listen, I’m starting to record some things. You should consider writing some songs so that I can record them.” And I was like, “No.” And then I kind of thought about it for a year and started writing some songs. Then I sent them to him, and he was like, “Cool, let’s start a band!” So, it’s always been him and me — and also Ben. Jonathan’s eye on things is just integral to the band. I feel like he would be humble about his guitar playing because he’s not necessarily a technical shredder, but he has a real, deep love for guitar music and guitar-isms and guitar sounds. He’s always practicing and always trying to get better.
CB: New Zealand has a long history of producing stellar indie rock bands through Flying Nun Records and beyond. Were you aware of that history growing up?
ES: Our generation’s particular experience growing up in New Zealand was in the early internet days, so primarily the way we were experiencing music was through pop radio and our version of MTV. And it just happened that at that time in 2003 and 2004 there were a lot of rock bands on the radio, and there was a lot of international stuff like Green Day and Fall Out Boy. And then there were local bands. I started to learn about that in high school a little bit more and started going to gigs.
Now obviously you have the entire world’s music at your fingertips no matter where you are in the world. I’m not sure what it’s like to grow up with it now, I just know that the moment I became a part of the local music scene in Auckland when I was about 15 or 16 and started playing with my first band, I felt a real connection. We’re so isolated in New Zealand, so it creates an interesting music scene. You have inputs coming in from overseas, but only recordings-wise. You don’t have smaller bands coming on tour. I think you start making music with some sort of ear toward the wider world because New Zealand is such a small place.
The Beths play Woodward Theater at 7 p.m. Aug. 21. Info: woodwardtheater.com.
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This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 8, 2023.