Locals Only: The Beths on their tour, songwriting, and inspiration

The Beths' year has been disrupted as any musician in 2020, but they're not letting it get them down.

Fresh from releasing their sophomore album Jump Rope Gazers, The Beths' Liz Stokes and Benjamin Sinclair spoke to Angelina Grey about their new music and their influences.

The title track from the album was vulnerable turn for Stokes, who says she was used to sneaking a few "gags" into any love songs. Instead, Jump Rope Gazers is a dreamy, sincere love song.

"It's maybe as dreamy as we get on one end of the spectrum of the album," Stokes says. "It's a special song to me. It's quite a sincere love song which was something that I had to be okay with doing.

"There's hardly any gags in it, you know, there's no jokes ... it was kind of scary to write but I'm really proud of it."

When asked if they were music geeks growing up, Stokes answers sarcastically. "We were extremely cool," she says, but then quickly corrects herself. "Yeah no that about sums it up," she laughs.

"I played trumpets and I was in all the orchestra and concert band stuff, then started playing guitar with my friend Chelsea," she says.

Anyone familiar with The Beths will know they blend catchy hooks with pop-rock, dabbling in nostalgia of the early 2000's rock bands. The band say they are inspired by their friends' bands too, like Tiny Ruins and Hans Pucket.

"I draw a lot of inspiration from my friends," Sinclair says.

Stokes agrees: "I almost think it might be my favourite genre of music, and I'm coming to realise it's just the people I love making music."

The Beths are currently on their New Zealand tour - and in-between entertaining crowds Sinclair updates fans on their meals and antics on his blog breakfastandtravelupdates.com.

The group's album Jump Rope Gazers is out now.

• The Beths play a show at Auckland Town Hall Friday, November 6 and are currently on a nationwide tour. Watch the full interview with Angelina Grey above, and listen to the series of Locals Only podcasts on iHeart Radio below, thanks to NZ On Air.