In the darkest times of lockdown, it seemed like the world had gone completely silent. With everyone stuck indoors, the sounds of bands soundchecking at local venues was sadly missing, that is except for in New Zealand. The country touted an extremely low number of cases which allowed bands like The Beths to go on tour during that time behind their fantastic 2020 sophomore album Jump Rope Gazers.
In the culmination of that tour, the band played their biggest and most jubilant show yet with a massive hometown gig at The Auckland Town Hall. The band was able to document this show with a live album and concert documentary titled, Auckland, New Zealand, 2020, out now on Carpark Records.
I recently caught up with The Beths’ Elizabeth Stokes and Jonathan Pearce to discuss what it was like to tour while the rest of the world was shut down, their thoughts on live albums in general, the creative process, future plans for The Beths and their feelings around the outcome of the 2020 New Zealand Bird of the Year competition.
Previous Episodes of In Conversation:
- Hand Habits
- Deerhoof
- Bush Tetras
- Full of Hell
- Tropical Fuck Storm
- Caleb Landry Jones
- Chubby & the Gang
- Museum of Love
- Anika
- Cassandra Jenkins
- Steve Turner of Mudhoney
- Alexis Marshall of Daughters
- Current Joys
- Tom Scharpling
- Sarah Lund of Unwound
- Genghis Tron
- Ben Swank of Third Man Records
- The Men
- Rick Maguire of Pile
- Damien Jurado
- Slim Moon of Kill Rock Stars
- Caveh Zahedi