专访 The Beths | 让真实的表达引起共鸣
2026-7-10
新西兰独立摇滚乐队 The Beths 在去年以《Straight Line Was A Line》持续收获乐迷们的喜爱。出色的双吉他编排以及情绪细腻的写作一直以来都让她们的音乐拥有一份只属于她们的风采，而在 7 月 22 日，她们将在香港 Portal 带来专场演出。UPEE 有幸邀请 The Beths 展开专访，聊聊关于专辑的创作以及与香港演出期待。主唱 Elizabeth Stokes 与吉他手 Jon Pearce 回答了我们的问题。
UPEE：你们去年发布的专辑《Straight Line Was A Line》延续了你们以往具有深意、启发性的文本，与听众分享了你们的生活体验和情绪感受。相较于“Indie Rock”“Power Pop”声音上的流派语汇，我们好奇你们会如何形容 The Beths 的歌词文本？以及你们认为对于你们来说，歌词文本在音乐中居于什么位置？
Stokes：歌词对我而言特别重要，一直以来都是。我也喜欢纯器乐的音乐，但歌曲里一加入文字，就会给我带来不一样的感受。词曲结合在一起，感染力会比单独的文字或者纯音乐更强。对我来说，配上旋律的文字才是歌曲最出彩的地方，所以我会花很多心思在歌词上。我经常随心乱写、反复修改，一方面理顺想表达的内容，另一方面调整句式节奏，让唱出来顺口自然。我希望歌词唱出口的时候不别扭。
Lyrics are very important to me, they always have been. I like instrumental music too, but when words are in the mix something happens in my brain. A song can feel more powerful than the words or music on their own. For me, combining words with melody is where the magic is, and I spend a lot of effort on the lyrics. I do a lot of free-writing and iterating, both to find a meaning that makes sense, and to find rhythmic phrases that feel comfortable for me to say/sing. I want the words to feel natural coming out of my mouth.
UPEE：可以分享你们创作一首曲目的过程吗？以及对于《Straight Line Was A Line》而言，专辑的制作过程与以往有什么不同？
Stokes：我们创作几乎没有固定的流程。有时候先写词，词句会带出旋律。这种情况我会先在脑子里把整首歌构思好，觉得合适了再拿乐器编和声、定整体的感觉；也有时候先有吉他 riff、和弦走向或者鼓点，我会随便哼旋律，直到找到好听的段落，再随口填词，打磨到句子合适。这种创作方式，相当于一边写一边慢慢弄懂这首歌想表达什么。等整体感觉定下来，如果还缺歌词，我就自由发散地写作，比较深地探索这首歌想传递的情绪。
It’s never exactly the same. Sometimes the words come first, and they indicate melodies. In that case, I’ll write the song mostly in my head until it feels right, then I’ll pick up an instrument and find the right harmony and feel. But sometimes it’s a guitar riff, or a chord progression or a drum beat that comes first, and I’ll improvise melodies until something sticks, and then improvise words until a phrase feels right. When that happens it feels like you discovering what the song is about as you go. But once I have a feeling, when I need more lyrics, I’ll use my free-writing practises to dive deeper into what i think the song is trying to say.
UPEE：你们的前一张作品《Expert In A Dying Field》在乐迷和评论界之间收获了非常好的反响，而此前你们的作品也收到了不少喜爱，我们好奇这些前作收获的口碑和成功，会给你们的创作带来压力吗？作为一支距离首作发布已经快要10年的乐队，你们会怎么处理压力？
Stokes：是会有压力的，我总会担心运气不会一直持续。我能感受到压力，但压力并不能帮我写出更好的歌。我唯一能把控的，就是写自己真心喜欢、自己认可的歌，再和乐队一起把这些歌打磨好，让听众可以共鸣。
每张专辑我都会写很多首歌，再一起挑出最好的几首。筛选这个步骤能让我不用过分纠结创作好坏。我能接受写出不理想的作品，不是每首歌都要完美出彩。只要写得足够多，总能挑出一批质量不错的作品。而且我本身喜欢写歌，所以我不排斥这种创作方式。
Yeah, sometimes it feels like I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. I feel the pressure, but it doesn’t make me write music better. The only thing I have control over is to write songs I genuinely like and am proud of, and then to make sure the band realises them in a way that they find connection with listeners. I write a lot of songs for each album, and then we choose which ones we think are the best. That step makes me feel less at the mercy of my own creativity. I’m allowed to write ‘bad songs’. Not every song has to be great or perfect. But if I write enough songs, there will be a good body of work in there somewhere. And I like writing songs, so I’m ok with that process.
UPEE：许多乐迷也被 The Beths 音乐里的“女子力”所吸引，我们好奇对于一支由女性非常深入参与创作的乐队而言，你们会认为女性视角有给你们带来什么独特的感受吗？无论是写作的方式，又或是“参与一支乐队”这件事本身？
Stokes：我小时候，玩吉他摇滚的女性远少于男性。但近十年，情况有了明显变化。吉他摇滚圈子向来会互相借鉴模仿，现在多了很多全新的视角，听上去新鲜有趣。不只是女性创作者，还有各种不同背景的音乐人带来新想法。我写歌都是从自身真实感受出发，音乐里自然满是我的个人表达，但我希望这些内容也能让各类听众都可以产生共鸣。
When I was a kid there were so few women compared to men in guitar music. But in the last 10 years it feels like there’s been a real change. Guitar music is always referencing itself, but now there are new perspectives and that feels fresh and interesting. Not only from women, but people with many different backgrounds. I write from such a personal place that of course there’s so much of me in the music, but I hope it is relatable to many kinds of people.
UPEE：你们的音乐里也有非常多抓耳的、令乐迷印象深刻的吉他riff，可以分享你们心目中对 The Beths 带来比较多影响的“吉他英雄”吗？
Pearce：说实话，最先想到的还是披头士，不过我再多说几位给我灵感的音乐人。The Beths 很多双吉他编排，我和 Liz（主唱）各自的吉他声部需要配合协调。
我很喜欢《Exile On Main Street》里 Keith Richards 和 Mick Taylor 的双吉他配合；还有《Daydream Nation》里 Lee Ranaldo 和 Thurston Moore。
我也欣赏 The Strokes (Nick Valensi, Albert Hammond Jr)里简洁利落的吉他风格，还有 Buzzcocks 的 Steve Diggle。我刚学吉他的时候特别迷恋 The White Stripes，Jack White 大概是对我影响最大的吉他音乐人。
I’m not sure I have a better answer than “The Beatles”, to be honest, but I will try to name some other inspirational figures! The Beths have many twin-guitar arrangements, where Liz and I both have parts that need to work well together. I love Keith Richards and Mick Taylor playing together on ‘Exile On Main Street’. Also, Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore on Daydream Nation. I also love the ‘streamlined’ precision of The Strokes guitarists, and Steve Diggle (Buzzcocks). When I was first learning to play guitar I loved The White Stripes, and I think Jack White is probably my biggest guitar inspiration.
UPEE：《Straight Line Was A Lie》的封面同样有趣，它是一个由各种自然意象以及眼睛等元素组成的色彩丰富的时钟，你们是如何想到这个画面的，以及期待通过它向乐迷传递什么信息呢？
Stokes：我们的朋友 Lily West 负责设计这张封面，乐队近年所有视觉设计都是她做的，她特别厉害。我们先把专辑发给她完整试听，她反复听了很多遍。之后我们通电话聊专辑里每首歌的内容、核心主题。
接着她开始创作，做了多版灵感参考图和插画方案供我们挑选。做的过程里“前路未必是笔直的直线”这个主题也愈发明显，所以我们都很喜欢 “走时不准的时钟” 这个创意。
乐队以往的视觉风格都色彩丰富，这次我们想加入一些黑色元素做反差。另外我们也想突出 “亲手打磨” 的感觉：封面文字是手工点绘，需要耗费大量时间；时钟上所有装饰都是纸浆手工制作。整套创意都是 Lily 主导构思的，她很有才华，我们特别乐意和她合作。
Our friend Lily West designed the album cover for us, she does all our design these days and she’s amazing. When we first sent her the album to listen to, she listened to it a lot. Then we had a chat on the phone talking about the songs and the meanings and themes in the album. And she started working away and made some mood boards and illustrations with potential directions to go in. We were drawn to the idea of the ‘wonky clock’ because of the emerging theme of progress not being linear. We’ve always been a ‘colourful’ band, but we liked the idea of introducing some black in the the artwork. We were also drawn to the idea of ‘seeing the work’, so the text is hand-dotted, something that takes a while, and the items on the clock are hand-made with paper mache. Lily was the one driving all this, she is so brilliant and we love working with her.
UPEE：一支曲目的录音室和现场演绎可能会有很多区别，你们会如何形容 The Beths 的现场能量？你们在现场表演时会有什么与录音室录制不同的状态吗？
Stokes：差别确实很大。我觉得录音室创作更煎熬，编曲没完全定稿前一切都不确定。我们全队一起编曲，创作中途经常会觉得成品没感觉，就像盖房子盖到一半，乱糟糟看不出效果。只能相信创作流程，坚持做完，要是最后不满意还能修改甚至推翻重来。
现场演出不一样，我们四个人配合默契，每晚都一起尽力完成好演出，有点像团队运动。现场表演很有乐趣，我们演出经验也更充足，站在台上会很放松自在。
Absolutely. The studio is harder, I find, because everything is undecided and unfinished until it isn’t. We arrange as a group, and when you’re in the middle of the process often it just... doesn’t sound very good! Like being halfway through constructing a building, it’s messy. You have to trust the process and finish building it. Then if you don’t like it, you can change something or start again. When we play live, we are a team and trying to lock in together and play a great show night after night. It’s almost like a sport. It’s fun and we now have a lot of experience doing it, so we feel comfortable up onstage.
UPEE：对于即将到来的香港专场演出有什么期待？
Stokes：我们很期待再次去到香港。2023 年我们去香港参加过 Clockenflap，城市很美，当时我们逛了市区，还去了南丫岛，体验很好。这次行程时间会更紧张，但我们很期待专场演出。专场氛围更近距离，能和到场的听众产生更深的互动，我们已经迫不及待了！
We are looking forward to seeing Hong Kong again. We were there in 2023 for a festival and it was so beautiful, we loved getting around the city and even out to Lamma Island. I think we’ll have less time this time, but we’re looking forward to the headline show experience. It’s more intimate and it will be nice to connect more strongly to the people who come. We can’t wait!
