Thanks in large part to an early 80s explosion of talent centred on Dunedin, and shared with the world via the Flying Nun label, New Zealand played a pivotal role in the evolution of indie music. The Beths, from Auckland, are the latest musical export to follow in the footsteps of the Clean, the Chills, the Verlaines et al, with a sound succinctly, and accurately, described by singer Elizabeth Stokes as “sweetly sung melodies and super-depressing lyrics”. That love of contradiction is also apparent in the video accompanying recent single Knees Deep (from their newly released third album, the excellent Expert in a Dying Field), a song about Stokes’s cowardice that features the four-piece band (completed by guitarist Jonathan Pearce, bassist Benjamin Sinclair and drummer Tristan Deck) bungee jumping.
Currently on tour in Australia and their homeland in support of the new album, they’re relishing the contrast with the more muted, pandemic-affected response to its predecessor, 2020’s Jump Rope Gazers. Stokes recently told Our Culture magazine that back then, “it was kind of weird putting a song out and then sitting at home, twiddling your thumbs being like, I wonder if anybody likes it”. This time around, “it’s been really nice seeing a song come out and then playing it the next day and there’s people who already know the words”.
Expert in a Dying Field is out now on Carpark. The Beths will play UK dates in spring 2023
