The L.A. Weekly Interview: Best Coast

Are you playing just the stuff from the first album live?

We play all the songs from the first album and all of the old songs. We're not a band that sits together in a room and jams out. We can't play new songs together because we don't write like that: I write, and then Bobb fills in gaps, and Ali just plays drums live. It's kind of difficult to add stuff to the show. But we'd probably throw in a weird cover, you know. We still do the Lesley Gore "That's the Way Boys Are" — people think I wrote that song! And we occasionally do the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend." It's my favorite Ramones song.

PHOTO BY SEAN TEEGARDEN

MUA/HAIR BY CHASTITY CRUZ FOR BEAUTIFUL BASTARD ARTISTRY

Miss Indie California 2010: Bethany Cosentino

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The Smell

247 S. Main St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Downtown

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• Bethany Cosentino
• Best Coast
• Weezer
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Our live show is very different than the way our record sounds. It's a lot more punky and stripped-down live.

What's going on with Weezer?

I co-wrote a song with Rivers. I don't know exactly what it's gonna be used for. I did co-write a song with him for Weezer, but I don't know if it's gonna be on their record or ... It's really something that he asked me to do — we were on our last tour and my manager Adam called me and said, "Rivers wants you to come into a studio when you get back to L.A. and write a song with him." And I was like, "Oh, my god, OK — it's Rivers from Weezer, which is obviously a band I grew up listening to and a band that's influenced me." Honestly, I went in, recorded a song with him in one day and it was one of the most ... for something that I got so stressed out and anxious about, it ended up being so natural, and it happened, and the song is really great.

What is it called?

"Go Away." It's cool. We wrote it together and he recently sent me a version he's been working on, and I'm really happy with it and to be able to hear it. It's a duet, it's him and I singing together, and to hear his voice and my voice on the same song makes my inner 13-year-old so excited [laughs].

What's your fascination with Courtney Love? Is that a new thing?

No, I've always liked Courtney Love. I grew up and I loved Nirvana, and I really liked Hole, I remember when the Celebrity Skin record came out, I was really, really into that record, but I also loved the early, very grungy Hole stuff. But I really hate it when people talk shit about Courtney Love and tell me, "That's not someone you should admit to liking." I really think that Courtney Love is an extreme individual and she's not afraid to be who she is, and I really appreciate that about her.

Do you see a parallel between yourself and Lady Gaga and even Katy Perry? You're all of the same generation and age, and you all started off very young as performers and went through all the industry motions, even if you're all being targeted to different audiences.

Yeah, I do think it's interesting. ... I do pay a lot of attention to pop music. I pay attention to all kinds of music because I'm a huge music fan. I think Lady Gaga's story is interesting that she was a songwriter and she was kind of behind the scenes, and I think she has a fucking hell of a voice really, she has an amazing voice. I think Katy Perry also has a very good voice, and her songs are catchy, but Katy Perry doesn't write a lot of her songs, and there's something about an artist that doesn't do the bulk of the work as a musician and then gets to that level, it seems kind of unfair that someone else is doing the work for you.

That's something that I love about being an indie artist and being on a record label that lets us do whatever we want. I would never want to be in a position where people tell me, "This is what your music has to sound like" or "This is what your image has to be." Nobody tells me what to do.

I'm known now as the girl on Twitter that says whatever the fuck I wanna say and I talk about really inane things that nobody really cares about, but I'm just about being myself, and I don't ever wanna be in the position where they say, "Oh, actually, we're gonna make you this kind of star," because that's not something that I'm ever interested in doing. Even if later on down the line I do become someone who, you know, signs to a major label or does something that's unexpected of me to do ... I never, ever, ever want to put myself in a position where somebody is trying to make me into a product, or make me into someone I don't wanna be.

People say, "She acts like a ditz" and "She's a Valley girl." Well, to be honest with you, I grew up in the Valley, and I am sort of like a Valley girl. I can be kind of ditzy. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's just sort of the person that I am. And the other thing is that I think that because I am so real and because I talk about dumb things like my cats all the time or what I'm watching on television, it's relatable to people. People are like, "Oh, I like cats and I watch TV too — I can relate to that." It's important to be able to allow your audience to feel like they can connect to you.