In an era of Internet-spawned musical success stories, Nathan Williams and Bethany Cosentino are king and queen. He fronts the psych-punk outfit Wavves, she leads surf-rockers Best Coast, and yeah, they totally date. The pair habitually stirs the indie blogosphere, and now they're together on a joint tour that visits the Varsity Theater on Feb. 11. How have Williams and Cosentino, both 24, ascended the indie ranks so swiftly? The answer is uniquely Web 2.0.
With these bands, we've got a pair of kids who peddle cool music, but really peddle themselves. There's Cosentino, the boy- and cat-crazy Everygirl; and Williams, the loose-cannon stoner. There's even a mascot, in Cosentino's Twitter-famous pet Snacks the Cat. In the era of TMZ and tweets, is there a better approach? Moments like Williams' 2009 Primavera Sound Festival drug freakout have been highly bloggable, notably by the popular satirical music blog Hipster Runoff.
But if these personalities are ripe for blog fodder, they also risk eclipsing the music. Hell, you've gotten this far and there's been no mention of Best Coast's fuzzy '60s pop or Wavves' muddy noise-punk. Each band released a well-received record in 2010 (Best Coast's debut "Crazy for You" and Wavves' "King of the Beach"). Williams and Cosentino have an intrinsic knack for pop, but they also keenly project a mirror onto Gen Y listeners. You, too, can be a lazy, over-sharing stoner, and a rock star ... except you can't. Wavves and Best Coast are the premier millennial bands: obliviously postmodern, self-involved and blazing a trail. Here's what Williams and Cosentino had to say about songwriting, dating and blowing up fast during a rare break at home in California.
Q: You both get a lot of press. What would you say has been written about too much, and what would you prefer would be written about more?
Bethany: I wish people wouldn't talk about cats so much, and I wish people would talk about how, um ... well, I guess for me, I understand I made a record about boys. But I'm really annoyed of talking about boys so much. Or like being asked "Who are these songs about, why are you so sad?" because I'm not.
Q: What do you wish they'd write about more?
Bethany: I've heard Nathan do interviews, too. People ask him all the time, "Do you hate yourself 'cause you wrote a bunch of songs about how you think you're an idiot or something?" I think people need to maybe not take things so literally. Sometimes you write a song where you don't even realize what it's about.
Q: What do you guys appreciate about each other's music?
Nathan: I like the cat they have on the cover of their record.
Q: OK. Sonically what do you like, in terms of style?
Bethany: I like that his music sounds like Blink-182, because they were my favorite band.
Q: More the last record than the first two, if you're halfway serious about that.
Bethany: I don't even have the first two records.
Nathan: That's fucking bullshit, because they're both on your computer. Nice try. I've never heard Beast Coast [sic] before, but I've heard a lot of good things.
Q: You've both traded in headier sounds in the past. What made you shift to cleaner, poppier sounds on the new LPs?
Nathan: Half to see that I could do it, and then half because I had already done the really distorted thing and I didn't want to make the same record again.
Bethany: I think when someone says you have an opportunity to go into this ridiculous studio and have someone do this for you, you're like OK. It's a lot easier to have somebody else give you their opinion. Because when you record on your own you're obviously like, "Oh, that sounds great!" Because you did it yourself.
Nathan: I was sleeping with my producer, so he didn't say anything like that to me.
Q: Both of your lyrics remind me of early Replacements -- songs about boredom, getting high, etc. Where do you anticipate your lyrics going?
Bethany: I'm a fan of simple lyrics. I don't think that you have to sugarcoat everything. If you just write a song that's about something super-relatable, people can just listen to it and be like "I know exactly what that person's thinking about." To be honest with you, I'm really sick of writing about love. It's just something that I write about, I don't really know why.
Nathan: I wrote a song about a TV.
Q: Nathan, are you going to hate yourself less on your next record?
Nathan: Probably. Probably not.
Q: Relationship-wise, how has touring separately for the past year affected the relationship?
Nathan: Do you have a girlfriend?
Q: I do have a girlfriend. [Long pause.] But we don't tour separately, so I can't really flip that question around on myself. Are you looking forward to the upcoming joint tour?
Both: Yeah.
Q: You both write about being lazy, yet you're both very ambitious with your careers. Explain.
Bethany: We're not really that ambitious ... about anything.
Nathan: We are [ambitious]. I think that I used to be lazy. I mean, I'm really lazy half the time.
Bethany: If I wasn't making music I'd probably just be watching the Food Network all day, every day and working at a soap store. I'd probably just be doing that, getting drunk with my friends and doing absolutely nothing with my life. So it's good that music kind of forced me to grow up and do something.
Q: Looking back, is there a difference between pre-Primavera Sound festival [his Barcelona drug meltdown] Nathan and your current self?
Nathan: I mean, yeah, of course, every year or every couple of days people change. Ø
Q: So that day had no more importance than, say, last Tuesday?
Nathan: Last Tuesday was cool. Also, I don't really remember either of them. So no, I guess not.
Bethany: People don't understand the pressure and the stress -- when you go from, in Nathan's case, just living at your parents' house and recording a record and all of a sudden you're playing at 2 a.m. on an insane stage. I've played Primavera and that shit is crazy. It's hard to be there and not take a bunch of drugs and freak out. I experienced my own freakouts with the quick success of my band as well. I just didn't do it on a stage in front of a bunch of people; I did it while at home in front of him. Touring for a year straight is not something that any sane, stable person can handle. It takes a lot out of you. Anybody who disagrees or says we're complaining about our jobs, I dare you to go on tour for a year and tell me how you feel at the end of it.
Nathan: I've been touring for three straight years, basically. ...
Bethany: I know, I'm just saying at that point you hadn't been touring for very long ... and you were, like, doing this crazy thing. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. I don't really know what he thinks. I don't know how he feels. I don't even know him. This interview is really making me reevaluate my relationship with him.
Q: Bethany, how do you feel about the music blog Hipster Runoff's constant focus on you?
Bethany: I don't give a shit about talking about Hipster Runoff or Hipster Runoff.
Q: Why do you think they're so fascinated with you?
Bethany: I mean, something I've come to realize about this job is people are always gonna say something about you. I was bothered by that. Then I realized, like, what the fuck do I care what some dude on a blog says? The more you show, "Oh, this bothers me," and by saying "Hipster Runoff can suck a dick" ... and yeah, I meant it. I don't really care; I think that that blog is annoying.
Nathan: Honestly, I could understand how people could get their feelings hurt or something. ... I actually think the blog is pretty funny.
Q: I think it's more supportive of you, Bethany, than anything.
Nathan: That's what I'm saying. It's so obviously in jest that if it's got a heavy flow of people coming through, it's not hurting you; it really isn't.
Q: What do your fans tweet at you about?
Bethany: Our cat.
Nathan: People tweet stuff about weed at me; I think that's the most tweeted thing.
Bethany: I don't really get a lot of weed tweets. I don't really smoke weed anymore, to be honest with you.
Q: Nathan, it sounds like you've been smoking weed the entire interview. Is that accurate?
Bethany: I'm watching "iCarly." I'm a sober person right now. Nathan has definitely been smoking weed.
Q: What are the short-term plans for each of your bands?
Nathan: We're doing the U.S. tour, and then we go to Australia and Japan. Then we'll probably do a festival around the U.S.
Bethany: My main goal is to focus on writing and to record another record. I need to not force myself; I need to do it when I feel like it's a good time to do it.
