The Beths Sign with New Record Label, Release Single ‘Metal’
New Zealand indie favourites The Beths have signed with a new record label, ANTI-, and released a new single, the first taste of new music from the band since 2023.
“Metal” was born out of a time of rigorous touring, mental health struggles, and several diagnoses for frontwoman Elizabeth Stokes, and sees the band embrace a jungle rock sound.
“In some ways ‘Metal’ is a song about being alive and existing in a human body,” she explains. “That is something I have been acutely aware of in the last few years, where I have been on what one might call a ‘health journey’.
“For parts of the last few years, I kind of felt like my body was a vehicle that had carried me pretty well thus far but was breaking down, something I had little to no control over. I have a hunger and a curiosity for learning about the world around me, and for learning about myself. And despite all the ways that my body feels like a broken machine, I still marvel at the complexity of such a machine.”
Stokes said the track resembeled “an arrangement that embodies the frenetic intricacy of an engine in action” which brought out the best in her bandmates – guitarist Jonathan Pearce, bassist Benjamin Sinclair, and drummer Tristan Deck.
“There was a propulsion to the acoustic strumming pattern on the original demo. Tristan’s drums meet that feeling so perfectly, the feeling of a train pushing up the tracks.
“Jonathan got to play his Burns 12 string guitar as sparkly as he wanted, and Ben as usual can’t be contained to the lower register. I think we ended up with an arrangement that embodies the frenetic intricacy of an engine in action. There’s a lot going on, until there isn’t.”