The CHEEKY Issue: The Beths
words by elizabeth walsh, photos by amany khreis
The Beths aren’t taking themselves too seriously. On their latest album, Expert in a Dying Field, they explore the hope and agony of heartbreak and ask, “How does it feel to be an expert in a dying field / And how do you know it's over when you can't let go?” While grappling with forgetting a painful history, they manage to maintain an overwhelming air of optimism for the future.
The Beths had just completed a 13-day run and were finally enjoying a day off. Stokes said even on the days where they aren’t playing shows, they are still booked up doing radio and TV sessions throughout the day. The band just performed a Tiny Desk Concert with NPR and a Saturday Session at CBS.
Currently, Stokes isn’t writing much and, at times, is finding creativity hard to come by. “I wonder if I enjoy songwriting. I think I enjoy having written a song, if that makes sense,” she says. Writing has been something that has caused a lot of stress in the past, but she is looking forward to writing again and healing her relationship with music.
“Music has gotten really weird for me. It's because it's now my job and so my relationship with it is kind of warped in a strange way. I would like to find my way back to having an uncomplicated, loving relationship with it,” she says.
Right now she is happy to be on the road and is looking forward to touring for most of the upcoming year. “We really do feel like a touring band,” Stokes says. “I feel like we feel most like The Beths when we’re playing on stage.”
As well as performing, another field The Beths are experts in is telling jokes. They range from new jokes Stokes tests out on stage to longer running, almost performance-art-like bits.
One of The Beths’ greatest strengths is their ability to commit to the bit. “We don't travel with guitar techs, just a sound engineer and that's it, so we wear hoodies that say ‘guitar tech’ on them and we set up our own equipment, which I think is quite funny,” Stokes says. “And though we've been doing it for like over a year, I still think it's funny because people usually know, but they pretend with you.” Her favorite part of the joke is complaining about how she has a terrible guitar tech when her cables end up tangled at the end of the night.
Stokes isn’t the only one cracking jokes on stage — bassist Benjamin Sinclair is also working the crowd. “He's got quite a segment that's just gotten longer and longer, but he just talks and makes an ad for the blog, just like in a very unhurried way. It's extremely dense. It's great,” Stokes says.
”The blog” refers to Sinclair’s travel diary, “Breakfast and Travel Updates.” He makes a new post every day on tour sharing what he had for breakfast and shares details and secrets from the rest of his day. Sinclair recently posted about a fun day they spent rock-climbing with friends from Chicago-based band Ratboys. He also had some wonderful looking Chilaquiles and a glass of orange juice for breakfast that day.
It will come as a shock to no one that the blog started off as a joke. Sinclair kept mentioning he should start a blog so that his mom would stop texting him every day asking for updates. As the tour went on, he kept mentioning his blog, and Stokes laughed along thinking he was teasing, but it turned out he had actually done it, and that he takes it quite seriously, “He writes it diligently every day. It's a lot of work,” Stokes says.
Accompanying The Beths on tour is their giant inflatable fish, which has become a mascot of sorts, and has of course been the genesis of a new bit. The fish, first seen on the cover of Expert In A Dying Field, became so emblematic of the album it made sense to bring it on tour. Immediately upon seeing the visuals from Lily Paris West, friend and collaborator who designed the artwork, Stokes knew it was the album cover. “What's a bigger dying field than the ocean?” she says.
“It's just funny to me during a quite earnest or serious song and then you look in the background and it's just this giant inflatable fish,” Stokes says. And it was silly, making the audience laugh as they sang about heartbreak with a huge blow-up king fish bobbing in the background, mouth open, taking up a third of the stage.
The band also asks the audience to name the fish each night. (Our favorite answer they’ve come up with so far is Sidney Fish, named after Sidney Gish, the opening act for The Beths).
The Beths are shaping up to have a very exciting year. After finishing their North American tour, they are heading to Europe later this spring and have some festival dates lined up in South America. They will also be joining The Postal Service and The National as support for their upcoming tours. Even though they will be traveling the world, it's safe to say Stokes is excited to come back to the Midwest — “we just seem to get along with people there” — and we know we are excited to have them back and hear some new jokes.