The Beths Takes Us Through New Album 'Expert In A Dying Field' Track By Track

Expert In A Dying Field

I really do believe that love is learned over time. In the course of knowing a person you accumulate so much information: their favourite movies, how they take their tea, how to make them laugh, how that makes you feel. And when relationships between people change, or end, all that knowledge doesn’t just disappear. The phrase ‘Expert in a Dying Field’ had been floating around my head for a few years, I was glad to finally capture it when writing this tune.

This song was difficult to arrange and record, and was re-worked several times before we settled on its final form. It came out similar to the demo, but with a quiet chorus, which is unusual for a Beths song.

Knees Deep

I'm the kind of person who wants to go swimming, but takes like ten minutes to get all the way into the cold water, slowly and painfully. I hate this about myself, and am kind of envious of people who can just jump straight in the deep end. In a shocking twist, this is also a metaphor?! For how I wish I was the kind of person who was brave and decisive instead of cautious and scared.

Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter

Knees Deep was a late addition to the album, I wrote it in the long lockdown of late 2021. It’s basically a reboot of a song I wrote in 2019 that turned out pretty boring. I liked the concept though so I kept the idea around and then wrote a completely new song with it that was much more fun and upbeat.

Silence Is Golden

This song is about stress and anxiety manifesting as an intolerance to noise. Where each new sound makes you more and more stressed.

It came out guitar-riff first, and then the verse came flooding out. Then, in the aim of imbuing the song with the feeling of stress and tension, I overlaid some chords that clashed with the riff for the pre-chorus, then tried to suck all that noise and tension out for the chorus. I was a bit sheepish showing the first demo to the band, as it was unfinished and pretty left field for us. But they were so enthusiastic about playing it that it became a sure-thing for inclusion on the record.

Your Side

This song is about missing someone so much that you become irrationally upset with them simply for committing the crime of not being there with you. Distance can do funny things to your head, and the last couple of years have been especially coloured by distance. I think it can also be read as a break-up song though. Yeah, it’s a pining song, but I think they are a staple of pop music and I really enjoy them.

This song came together so quickly after I shared the demo around, and is a favourite in the band. It feels simple but I guess it’s a headspace we all relate to as touring musicians, being away from people we love.

I Want To Listen

At times over the past few years, love has felt like a cycle where you take turns holding each other above the water. This song explores that give and take, and I think it ends with a reminder to myself to try not to get so swallowed in my own emotions that I don’t notice when people close to me are struggling too.

We tracked the band live together on this one, then added more acoustic guitar, percussion and the vocals. We wanted it to feel like a fun interlude, with a messy, lighthearted vibe.

Head In The Clouds

Exactly what this song is about isn’t 100% clear to me, but I think when I started writing it I was exploring the idea of losing faith, in a couple different ways. The first being literal, in that I was raised catholic. I remember believing less and less when I was a kid, but still trying hard to do a good job, praying before bed and everything. Even when I didn’t really believe anymore.

I think this kind of merged with the idea of losing faith in somebody. The process doesn’t seem too different, either way you deal with a bit of grief.

So maybe this song ended up being about grief, about loss. Of somebody you loved or something you believed in.

This was the first song we tracked, back in June 2021, and it pretty much stayed as is until the late stages of recording, when Jonathan played the guitar solo in.

Best Left

Sometimes you get into a place where you are either dredging up old pain, or going digging for new pain. Not in a productive way, but in a way that makes you spiral and bury yourself deeper and deeper. I guess this song is arguing that at those times, it is better to leave things as they lie. I don’t know if it’s healthy, but that is what the song is about.

A troublesome song! We knew we liked the verses, but this song has had multiple choruses written and deleted, the original verse riff was thrown out along with many replacements. Then the whole song was thrown out. We gave it one more shot in the late lockdown of 2021, and managed to revive it with tremolo guitar in the verses, instrumental ‘choruses’ and a sixteenth note feel. It’s a ‘big’ sounding song, which was a fun palette to explore.

Change In The Weather

I’m generally a pessimist, and I think that is usually the right call. But in the darkest parts of 2020, when I started writing this song, there was nowhere to look but up, and I dared to believe that things could get slightly better. I was wrong. But then in late 2021 I felt again that cautious optimism and decided to just go with it. Again, this was a mistake. But we had re-written the song, and we like it so it lives on.

Jon helped to revive this song by writing a new chorus, chords and melody, that I then tweaked and wrote words to. We then arranged it during the latter part of the lockdown, when outdoor sessions in the backyard were in play. Tristan played this really great part over the intro riff that we just fell in love with.

When You Know You Know

I'd call this a love song, I think. It’s about looking towards the future with somebody, and knowing it's scary and you kind of have to give a piece of yourself to each-other, but I guess when it feels right you’re happy to give that piece away.

This was an early addition to the record, and one of the few songs I wrote in 2020 that didn’t change much. I’m proud of the melody and the words, and it was great fun to record and play, though it is quite a mouthful to sing.

A Passing Rain

When you are at your lowest points, where no amount of reasoning can make you believe you are worth anything at all, sometimes, somehow, someone will be there making sure that you’re not alone and weathering the storm with you.

This song was the very last song added to the record. It was written after the darkest part of the lockdown, when I was conscious of how bad I was feeling and how stupid and annoying that must be for the people around me, who were also feeling bad.

I Told You That I Was Afraid

It’s a list of things I was/am afraid of, but in song form. Also touches on low self worth and wanting to give up. But… in a fun way?

2am

I wrote this song in the middle of the night, deep in the tedium of Auckland’s four month lockdown in late 2021. I think I was lying awake sifting through memories, and kept landing on this period of turmoil from a few years back, I guess it was a quarter life crisis. I think I was remembering the emotional extremes, euphoric highs and crashing lows, and it was nice to kind of bask in those memories. To imagine conversations with the people I loved back then. So much has changed.