Working: The Flawless Indie Pop of The Beths

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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, host Isaac Butler talks to Liz Stokes and Jon Pearce, who make up half of the New Zealand indie rock band The Beths. In the interview, Liz and Jon walk through their songwriting process step-by-step, from initial riffs and lyrics to their complex vocal harmonies and guitar solos. They also explain why the bridge is often the hardest part of a song to write. After the interview, Isaac and co-host June Thomas discuss why songwriting sometimes feels like magic. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Isaac’s daughter asks Liz and Jon some questions of her own! Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Big Mood, Little Mood—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, it's Tim Heidecker, you know me, Tim and Eric Bridesmaids, and Fantastic Four.
0:05.0	I'd like to personally invite you to listen to Office Hours Live with me and my co-hosts DJ Doug Pound.
0:11.0	Hello.
0:12.0	And Vic Berger.
0:13.0	Howdy.
0:14.0	Every week we bring you laugh fun games and lots of other surprises.
0:16.0	It's live.
0:17.0	We take your Zoom calls.
0:18.0	We love having fun.
0:19.0	Excuse me.
0:20.0	That song's...
0:21.0	Vic said something.
0:22.0	You said music.
0:23.0	I like having fun.
0:24.0	I like to laugh.
0:26.0	I like to meet people who can make me laugh.
0:29.0	Please subscribe.
0:31.0	No.
0:42.0	There's like the music that I want to be making and that I want to be playing.
0:45.0	And that music is generally like, it's upbeat and it's like fun and it's fast and it's fun to play on the guitar and fun to sing.
0:51.0	It scratches all the edges that I want to scratch.
0:54.0	And then just lyrically it's like, you get what you get.
	...

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