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Slate Culture

Working: The Flawless Indie Pop of The Beths

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.42K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

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 [email protected] 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

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0:57.9

of crypto currencies can go down or up there's like the music that i want to be making and that

1:12.3

i want to be playing and that music is generally like it's upbeat and it's like fun and it's fast

1:16.8

and it's fun to play on the guitar and fun to sing it scratches all the edges that i want to

1:21.5

scratch and then just lyrically it's like you get what you get

1:30.3

welcome back to working i'm your host June Thomas and i'm your other host isak butler

1:36.0

isak it's always nice to see you but today i am absolutely dying to know whose voice we heard

1:42.4

at the top of the show we heard the voice of Liz Stokes who is the songwriter guitarist and lead

1:48.9

singer of New Zealand's premiere power pop band the baths you'll also hear on this episode

1:54.4

Jonathan Pierce who is the band's lead guitarist no they're not the full band right no there's

2:01.2

also a bassist and singer named Benjamin Sinclair and a drummer and singer named Tristan Deck

2:07.7

but Liz and John are sort of the ones in charge of the songwriting and the sound of the band

2:14.5

got it and why did you want to speak with them well June you may remember that way back when in our

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