Working: The Flawless Indie Pop of The Beths

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Music, Tv & Film, Arts

4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2023

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we revisit host Isaac Butler's conversation with 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 an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey listeners, June Thomas here.
0:02.4	We're taking the week off to rest and recharge our creative batteries.
0:06.5	So in lieu of a new episode, we're presenting one of our favorite back catalog episodes from
0:12.3	2023.
0:13.6	It's called The Flawless Indie Pop of the Beths.
0:17.2	And the Beths are a wonderful rock group from New Zealand and we are so glad that two of
0:22.6	the members, Liz Stokes and John Pierce, were kind enough to share their songwriting wisdom with
0:28.4	working host, Isaac Butler. This is a fun and thought-provoking episode with plenty of music spliced
0:34.8	in, so we think you'll really enjoy it. Okay, on with the show.
0:51.8	There's like the music that I want to be making and that I want to be playing, and that music
0:53.0	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.
0:59.5	It scratches all the itches that I want to scratch.
1:01.9	And then just lyrically, it's like you get what you get.
1:09.6	Welcome back to working.
1:13.0	I'm your host, June Thomas.
1:22.9	And I'm your other host, Isaac, it's always nice to see you, but today I am absolutely dying to know whose voice we heard at the top of the show. We heard the voice of Liz Stokes, who is the songwriter, guitarist, and lead singer of New Zealand's premier power pop band The Beths.
1:32.2	You'll also hear on this episode Jonathan Pierce, who is the band's lead guitarist.
1:37.0	Now, they're not the full band, right?
1:40.3	No, there's also a bassist and singer named Benjamin Sinclair and a drummer and singer named Tristan Deck.
1:47.2	But Liz and John are sort of the ones in charge of the songwriting and the sound of the band.
1:53.9	Got it.
1:55.0	And why did you want to speak with them?
	...

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