There is not only rugby in New Zealand: there are also very good groups, pop and rock in particular, like The Beths, who have just released a reissue of their very good last album “Expert In A Dying Field”.
There is something irresistible in the energy that emanates from their music. The Beths are three albums forged in the love of power-pop, with a very 90’s sound, without ever denying this romantic energy specific to the genre. But The Beths are also four young New Zealanders who have crossed their distant borders to tour all over the world. They are just back home after a major world tour in France at the beginning of the summer.
Barely back from Europe, here they are in Auckland, at home. And Liz Stokes, the singer and author, returns to the theme that runs through the last album, Expert In A Dying Field, an exploration of past loves, for texts with universal reach. Behind the screen, she is categorical: “I don’t want to be the only one to feel things, or to talk about my life for nothing, it’s important to me… There are so many emotions to write about, to make songs about love, about friendship, on many things. I’m not one of a kind“.
While a reissue, enriched with new titles and alternative versions, was released on Friday September 15, Liz can finally sit down again, why not to write, and imagine new ways of recording. “Writing lyrics requires so much concentration, so much vulnerability, it’s very embarrassing too, she confesses. So you have to fill in pages and pages of stuff that’s really not great, boring or that doesn’t make any sense, to produce a good text. That’s what I do most of the time, but even today I can’t write when there’s someone nearby, even if it’s someone very close. It’s always weird“.
“We especially like being a band that plays live.”
Liz Stokes, The Bethsat franceinfo
From their native New Zealand, they have in any case managed to build a reputation thousands of kilometers around. And it’s not over: they are leaving these days for a new North American tour.
The Beths, Expert In A Dying Field, Deluxe Version (Carpark Records). Album available.