Auckland, NZ · indie rock · power pop

The Beths

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Auckland's harmony-stacked power-pop treasures — jazz-school chops, huge hearts, and 'Expert in a Dying Field' proof of mastery.

The Beths formed in Auckland in 2015 around Elizabeth Stokes and Jonathan Pearce, who had known each other since high school before meeting bassist Benjamin Sinclair while all three studied jazz at the University of Auckland. An earlier drummer, Ivan Luketina-Johnston, left the band in 2018 to pursue academic work, and Tristan Deck settled into the role from 2019 onward.

The band's jazz training shows up less in the arrangements than in the precision of the playing and the stacked group harmonies that back nearly every chorus. Their songs pair bright, fast power-pop structures with lyrics about anxiety, self-doubt and the awkward mechanics of relationships, a contrast established as early as their 2016 debut EP Warm Blood and its single "Whatever".

Signing to Carpark Records ahead of their 2018 debut album Future Me Hates Me, the band saw the track "Happy Unhappy" named song of the summer by Rolling Stone. Jump Rope Gazers followed in 2020 and Expert in a Dying Field in 2022, records that established the group well beyond New Zealand, with a further album, Straight Line Was a Lie, released in 2025.

The Beths tour heavily, including international dates alongside Death Cab for Cutie, the National and Spoon, with Pearce also engineering and producing the band's records.

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indie rockpower pop