Bethany Cosentino has penned tunes about romance, loving someone who doesn’t love her back, her cat, the ocean and smoking weed. And subsequently, she’s occasionally panned as being an overly simple lyricist.
But the criticism doesn’t bother the Best Coast frontwoman. She believes lyrics don’t always have to be deep.
“Something I want people to know about Best Coast and my songwriting is it will always be real,” Cosentino says. “You will feel like you’re looking directly into my life because I will always write with honesty. I want our music to be therapeutic to others, like it is for me.”
The Los Angeles duo, which also features drummer Bobb Bruno, has been delivering infectiously accessible, bright California folk rock for about four years. The pair has churned out two full-length records – both charted on Billboard’s Top 50 – and have substantial notoriety in the indie rock world.
“I want people to remember us as the band that did what they loved and never gave a shit what everyone told them they should be,” Cosentino says. “We have always, first and foremost, done what makes us happy as writers/musicians and the music is relatable.”
Since Best Coast’s 2010 full-length debut Crazy for You, Cosentino believes she’s grown as a person and a songwriter.
“I was 22 when I wrote Crazy For You and I’m 26 [now] so a lot has changed,” she says. “The pressure is a bit higher now that we’ve been established but sometimes that can be good, and lately it’s been forcing me to try new things and take different risks.”
“Last Year,” off Best Coast’s 2012 follow-up, The Only Place, is a sludgy, pop-rock throwback with “Earth Angel” pleasantry circulating throughout it. Ironically, the tune is about how frantic and chaotic Cosentino’s life has been.
“I can remember how crazy I felt all the time, and I don’t feel like that anymore but when I sing those songs I totally remember that anxiety and it just feels really real to me,” she explains.
The album’s melancholy bookend, “Up All Night,” anthropomorphizes the bleariness of sleeplessness through vocals that radiate a Liz Phair-style pairing of angsty and sweet. The Only Place ultimately becomes a chance for Cosentino to bare her soul.
“It was totally like a long therapy session for me,” Cosentino says. “I was going through a lot of heavy emotional stuff during the writing and recording of that record, so once I got it off my chest, things got a lot better. I’m not a very talkative person when it comes to emotions, so I write about them, and tell the whole world about my problems.”
In September, Best Coast, who perform Friday at the Henry Miller Library, will release a seven-track EP and they’re set to begin recording their third LP sometime near the end of the year.
“We can’t wait for people to hear how the sound has evolved since The Only Place,” Cosentino says.
BEST COAST and BLEACHED perform 7:30pm (doors at 6pm) Friday, Aug. 16, at Henry Miller Library, a quarter mile south of Nepenthe Restaurant on Highway 1, Big Sur. $59. 667-2574.
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