Best Coast | Interview

Story by Dylan Bliss 

| Published Feb 1, 2011

There’s something about the summer. It has the capacity to be encompassed by an entire subculture, especially on the west coast. In fact, that is where Bethany Cosentino and friends have derived their band’s name, Best Coast. Touring the globe, rain or shine, Best Coast’s sunny super pop disposition has coastal hipsters of all ages longing for those magic summer months to return. Touring through most of America with Wavves, another beach-pop group fronted by Cosentino’s boyfriend Nathan Williams, Best Coast is more than ready to cultivate the title of their tour, “Summer is Forever”.

DerN: You’re in the midst of a pretty lengthy tour, starting in Europe, covering most of America, and then heading out to Austrailia. Describe your tour experience so far.

We’ve been touring a lot. We’re actually driving to San Diego right now to start our big U.S. tour. It’s been really fun, lots of work and time away from home, so it’s been really cool to get to go all over the world and play to a bunch of people. Every tour is always different in that this tour that we’re about to start will be great because the record has been out for a while now and people are becoming more and more familiar with the record and the songs. We’re super excited to go to Austrailia and Japan. We’ve never been there before. We’ll be doing a lot of touring this year, although it’s fun to spend some time at home we really have a lot of fun on the road.

DerN: Speaking of upcoming shows, you’ve got one at the Waiting Room in Omaha in a few weeks with Wavves. How do you expect headlining in tandem with Wavves changes the concert experience for you two?

I think people that like Wavves like Best Coast and vice-versa. It’s given us a chance to play bigger venues and play to more people. If they know one band and not the other they get a chance to experience some new music, but it should be fun because it’s a somewhat similar type of music and, like I said, we have a pretty similar fanbase. We’re doing a lot of all-ages and 18 and over shows, which you don’t always get to do. Lots of towns usually only have bars. I know teens love Best Coast, and they also love Wavves. We’ll start to see a lot younger kids at these shows. Young kids are the ones that get the most stoked about stuff. I remember when I was 17 or 18, going to shows, it was always something I was super excited about.

DerN: Do you expect it to be strange to play beach pop, sunshine-y kind of music in the Midwest during the middle of February?

I don’t think it will really be strange. If anything, it will be fun. We just did a tour in Europe, and it was freezing and gray and gloomy, and we have a very poppy, summery sort of sound. The tour is called “Summer is Forever”, I think we’re trying to get people excited in the midst of a dreary time. I know that when I lived in New York during winter I was super bummed. It’s sometimes hard to stay in a good mood when it’s freezing outside for like four months in a row. So, hopefully we can bring some memory of summer to people in other cities.

DerN: Many of your songs are love notes, apologies, and seemingly personal messages. Describe the process of crafting these songs.

When I write, I work off of instinct, really. I’m not so much sitting down and writing a song about one specific thing. I’ll just let whatever comes out of me come out. A lot of the songs are about heartache and love. The music that inspires the band is mostly 50’s and 60’s girl-group pop stuff. All stuff that is written about boys and love and heartache and shit like that. It’s probably borrowed from that genre, but I also draw from personal experience. My writing process is getting up and saying “Oh, I feel like writing a song today”, and then I do. I don’t overwork myself or rack my brain trying to come up with something to talk about, I just do what feels natural.

DerN: What are you listening to lately?

I’ve been listening to a lot of country music. A lot of Loretta Lynn, specifically, Hank Williams and Wanda Jackson. I don’t really know why. I’ve always liked old country, and it’s becoming really inspiring to me. I haven’t been trying to write full-fledged country songs. I’ve just been taking a little bit of influence from that stuff. Otherwise, I listen to a lot of rap.

DerN: The debut album, “Crazy For You”, has received an extremely positive reception. What can we expect from Best Coast in the future?

I don’t really know yet. We made the record and have been doing this tour cycle for the album. You can always expect straight-forward pop music from me as a songwriter. It’s what I feel like I’m the best at doing, and I obviously really like doing it. We just released a 7” for this tour with Wavves. It’s pretty poppy and short, which is what you can expect to hear from us. Like I said, some of the stuff I’ve been writing has been influenced by country, so you may hear some country in there, maybe a little bit.