PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT HARMONIES
The Beths' vocal harmonies come off so naturally, so charismatically. The New Zealand band members blend their voices like the Ronettes raised on Weezer. It didn't start this way. “We all wanted to sing, but none of us were singers,” guitarist, lead singer and primary songwriter Elizabeth Stokes said ahead of the Beths' Wednesday show at Atwood's Tavern. “I wasn't so good at singing live, or loud, or in front of a band. But we played together for a year. Then we recorded over a year. It was a slow process, but if you do something for two years, you get a lot better at it.
“We got better at this band just by being in this band so long,” she added with a laugh.
For locals who dig Massachusetts' sonic legacy from Dinosaur Jr. and the Pixies to Speedy Ortiz and Potty Mouth, the Beths mine much of the same sounds as our Mass. heroes on their debut LP, “Future Me Hates Me.” Stokes writes indie pop songs, then guitarist Jonathan Pearce, bassist Benjamin Sinclair and drummer Ivan Luketina-Johnston pump them with punk energy, garage rock noise and those sweet harmonies.
While Stokes says she digs the Pixies and admits the band influences her, she says a lot of people hear their personal favorites in the band. She's fine with that.
“When we talk to people who are British, they say, `It's got quite a Britpop sound to it, doesn't it?'” she said. “I quite like that people claim our music because it means that we relate to something they find special.”
Stokes has been writing songs for a decade. She came up in a folk band in what she calls the “indie, all-ages Auckland music scene.” But in college, she and her fellow Beths studied jazz. After graduation, Stokes taught trumpet to schoolkids while the Beths built momentum. With ringing guitars and upbeat melodies paired with grim lyrics, “Future Me Hates Me” has zero jazz influence.
“We all love a lot of music, we don't like just one genre, but we wanted to try doing a `rock band,' and it's important to put rock band in air quotes,” she said. “But we didn't know what that would sound like until we started jamming together. I was very new to writing songs for electric guitar, but we had this idea of rock music, simple chords, uptempo. We decided we would follow just the rules of rock that we liked.”
The results, whether you call it Mass. indie rock or Britpop or straight rock, have captured fans across oceans. For “Future Me Hates Me,” the Beths landed a deal with Washington, D.C.'s Carpark Records and will tour from Texas to Boston, and Dublin to Berlin.
“It's strange to have all these things on the calendar, it's strange to know I am working on plans for next summer already,” she said. “But it's nice.”
The Beths, with Happy Little Clouds, at Atwood’s Tavern, 877 Cambridge St., Cambridge, Wednesday. Tickets: $12; atwoodstavern. com.