Music for the iGeneration: An Interview with Best Coast

By: Curtis Sindrey –

Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast

California rockers Best Coast have never been the most polished-sounding duo, but they make up for that with their work ethic. Upon the release of their second LP The Only Place, the surf rockers embarked on a grueling tour schedule, which will reach most of North America and many cities in Europe.

“We always intend to have fun and hopefully make some new fans,” says guitarist/singer Bethany Cosentino.

“Touring with a new record is really fun and exciting so we really want to get it out there and let people have fun with it.”

Cosentino notes that her songwriting has matured with age and has grown from being drowned in nostalgia to being on the verge of adulthood.

“Since I started writing songs when I was 22, I was writing more from a younger perspective and I was being more nostalgic with my writing and I was coming from a teenage point of view,” says Cosentino.

“Now that I’ve spanned a few years and I’m now 25, I was writing this record while going through a “mid-twenties what am I doing kind of hoax,” like a weird 20-year-old crisis. I think my writing has started to reflect upon my age and what maturity level I’m at now.”

The band’s success, which has been hindered on social media, as much as it has on their live performances, hasn’t been without its criticisms from Cosentino’s songwriting being too poppy or repetitive or that their sound being too low-fi, Cosentino makes a point to ignore any negative press and only focus on the positive.

I think my writing has started to reflect upon my age and what maturity level I’m at now.”

Best Coast’s second LP, The Only Place, which follows up 2010’s Crazy For You.

“I obviously want fans to like it, but if you let the negative seep in it’s going to take over and you know it exists but you don’t have to acknowledge it,” she says.

At 25, some young adults are thinking about graduate school or a future PHD, but Cosentino, who attended The New School’s Eugene Lang College, “isn’t interested in ever going back to school.”

Cosentino is comfortable with her musical limitations. She admits candidly that she isn’t “a virtuoso guitar player,” and that “it’s something that I’d like to improve upon throughout the length of this band and also the length of being a songwriter.”

“I took lessons as a teenager but I never really stuck with one instrument,” says Cosentino. “I tried to play a bunch of instruments but I never practiced everyday.”

Gaining new fans is important for Cosentino, and even if that means someone pirating her music, which she believes that “it still doesn’t mean that they may not go out and buy the record.”

“Music is music and I got introduced to music as a teenager by illegally downloading it as well so we’ve all done it and it’s not something that people are going to stop doing,” she says.

Having just arrived back home from a brief stint in Europe, Cosentino has observed that “in certain places they just stand there and they’re really enjoying the show but in America at our shows, people are dancing and it’s crazy,” she says.

“Regardless of whether or not people speak the language or not, people still get in to it and sing along.”

Nobody said touring was cheap. Food, hotels, booking fees and promotional costs are all expenses bands have to consider before heading out on the road. With competition becoming fiercer, especially during the summer touring cycle, bands continue to look for additional funding and some have utilized crowdfunding with websites like KicksStarter, IndieGoGo, where bands set a monetary goal and offer a variety of incentives to fans, from download cards to VIP concert experiences. It’s a move that Cosentino criticizes because “I think they should at least work for that money.”

Cosentino dutifully acknowledges the impact that social media has had on Best Coast. “We have the Internet to thank for a lot of our success,” says Cosentino.

“Regardless of whether or not people speak the language or not, people still get in to it and sing along.”

“I think a lot of [our success] is to thank for social media and with Twitter and things like that, it would be very difficult to talk to fans, so it’s a great tool.”

The band plans to tour until yearend, including a stop in Toronto at the Phoenix Concert Theatre on July 21.

“I hope that I can do a lot of writing this year and work on some other projects outside of Best Coast,” says Cosentino. “It’ll be a busy year but hopefully a very productive one.”