Kiwi band shines bright
The Beths’ outstanding 2018
‘‘This is so indie,’’ writes a commenter after watching The Beths’ Future Me Hates Me video. ‘‘I suddenly grew a moustache and a whole bean-medium-decaf-venti Starbucks appeared in front of me.’’
The Beths, an alt-pop band from Auckland, are indeed pretty indie.
They’re so indie that the dog in their Christmas music video has its own MacBook computer, but has covered the Apple logo with brown packing tape.
They’re so indie that they listen to daytime public radio shows, and are aged under 35. (They’re big fans of Jesse Mulligan).
They’re so very indie that you probably haven’t heard of them, even though I’m about to tell you how they’re ripping it up offshore.
When I meet them for an interview, bassist Ben Sinclair interrupts to try to convince his band mates they should instead be down at the beach.
They’re just so indie, they’re the definition of cool – and I don’t say that lightly. I’d honestly rather not make claims like that at all, but who am I to disagree with the biggest music magazine in the world?
Rolling Stone is slightly obsessed with these four Aucklanders.
In the past year, it has published at least five highly complimentary reviews of The Beths. What makes their plentiful praise even more impressive is that The Beths have released just one album.
It’s called Future Me Hates Me and Rolling Stone said it was ‘‘a power-pop monument’’, ‘‘ excellent summery-pop punk’’, and ‘‘the hallmark of an altrock hero’’. The track Happy Unhappy was the magazine’s ‘‘Song of the Summer’’. High praise indeed. The band’s debut album has been rated the Rolling Stone’s 20th best album of 2018. The list’s top 15 includes the likes of Ariana Grande, Drake and Paul McCartney.
When you’ve got company as good as that, you could be forgiven for taking some time to rest at the end of a busy and groundbreaking year. Rest for The Beths, however, is a summer tour of New Zealand.
They have granted themselves a two-week Christmas break.
When that ends, touring starts again. Their first show is in Dublin, Ireland.
This past year, ‘‘it’s been nice’’, says Elizabeth Stokes. She’s The Beths’ principal lyricist, the band’s lead woman and namesake. She is also calm and suitably cynical about the future.
‘‘It’s nice to feel validated. You know, I don’t know how long it will continue,’’ she says of the praise.
‘‘People’s tastes change, especially when it comes to music criticism.’’
Her sensibilities are to be expected, when you listen to their music. Being a poppy guitar band, it’s easy to dance to The Beths.
Their choruses are full of repetition, too, which means you end up with a room full of people singing: ‘‘From stupid mistakes, future me hates me.’’ There’s extra harmonising on ‘‘mistakes’’.
This self-loathing music, Stokes says, is the result of her own inhibitions and concerns.
She says the concerns in her music are genuine, but they lather it up with snark.
‘‘I have a lot of insecurity, I guess that comes through,’’ she says.
Her music is serious, but said in a way where you could laugh it off if the conversation got too grim.
Guitarist Jonathan Pearce admits their presentation can be somewhat ‘‘silly’’.
On stage, he and Sinclair almost seem to celebrate despair as they do backing vocals together. Their smooth, high tones echo the lines ‘‘hates me’’ and ‘‘it ain’t right’’.
They can be a bit sarcastic, too, he says. When the lyrics begin to hit home, they crank out the ‘‘really loud guitar solos’’.
‘‘There’s a silliness to our playing, really,’’ he says.
Silly or serious, it’s worked well. This year, The Beths were nominated at the songwriter’s Silver Scrolls awards – New Zealand’s most prestigious music award.
They’ve recently moved to focus fulltime on their music, with Stokes leaving her job as a trumpet teacher.
‘‘Little things have helped, and now it feels like things have been steadily growing,’’ she says. Already, she’s working on new music to keep the momentum going.
It’s a momentum built, primarily, thanks to student radio stations and indie music lovers.
Graduates from the University of Auckland’s music school, Stokes says they used to convince their mates to let them onto the student radio station 95bFM.
The student stations have kept the band going. Pearce name-drops every university, he’s talked with them all, from Dunedin’s Radio One north to their home crew and bFM.
Without those stations, he says bands like his wouldn’t have much of a chance. ‘‘They’re just run by people who really love, and support, music.’’
Their plans for the next year: A tour in Europe, which will likely include radio spots on nationally broadcasting stations like BBC Radio 6.