Up next in 10
The Beths' Liz Stokes on their new album, songwriting inspo and getting props from Phoebe Bridgers
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Feb 9, 2025
As New Zealand's The Beths release their third album, the stunning 'Expert In A Dying Field', we catch up with frontwoman Liz Stokes to hear more about its creation.
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0:00
foreign
0:04
outside
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a restaurant that we're gonna eat some
0:13
dinner
0:15
brilliant so you're about to release
0:18
your third album experts in a dying
0:20
field which is the follow-up to 2020's
0:22
jump rope gazers
0:24
this time you've been able to release an
0:27
album and you know immediately get on
0:29
with promoting it and touring it
0:31
unencumbered by a pandemic
0:34
um how does it feel to have that freedom
0:35
again
0:37
it's pretty great
0:39
um yeah the the last album I released
0:42
was like that it came out in July of
0:45
2020 so it was a very
0:47
unique uh and peculiar way to I think
0:51
um release a record
0:53
um yeah so this time it's just been
0:55
great we've been really busy like
0:57
touring a lot since kind of February and
0:59
we started putting out uh singles from
1:02
the new record like a few months back
1:04
and it's been so great to be kind of on
1:08
the road and like put a song out and
1:10
then a couple of shows later people
1:11
already know the words like people
1:13
singing along and yeah it's it feels it
1:17
feels like it gives you a real sense of
1:18
purpose in a real tangible way which is
1:20
not to say that like people listening to
1:22
music
1:24
um you know very far away from you is
1:26
not also real but it just uh it just
1:28
feels it feels nice
1:31
approach that this writing for experts
1:34
in a dying field differently uh you know
1:36
knowing that the world was opening up
1:38
more so you know did you write some
1:40
songs with more of a live audience in
1:42
mind for instance
1:45
I'm
1:47
um it's good it's the back of my mind
1:49
and that was something that when we
1:50
actually got to the recording process
1:51
was was more front of Mind rather than
1:53
like when
1:54
when I'm writing I feel like yeah there
1:57
are things that I'm trying like trying
1:59
to aim for but mainly they're just like
2:01
to do with writing a good quality song
2:04
or like writing
2:05
fulfilling what I think are like
2:08
my objectives for songwriting or
2:10
something
2:11
um in terms of writing something that
2:13
that I really that I really like and
2:15
would want to listen to but yeah
2:17
definitely when we were like making
2:18
mission statements for like the album
2:20
that we were going to record and make
2:21
all together as a group that was one of
2:23
them is like make something that is fun
2:25
to to tour and not um
2:28
you know and not too miserable
2:32
well I think it definitely achieves that
2:35
um I mean you've got some of your most
2:37
you know ferociously paced music ever on
2:40
this record particularly in you know
2:42
silence is gold and for instance
2:44
um you know it's absolutely full of
2:46
energy uh tell me about the inspiration
2:48
for that song uh you know it's basically
2:51
from what I can tell from the lyrics You
2:53
lament in the kind of restless noise and
2:56
energy of a city but perhaps it's more
2:59
of a extended metaphor on on life
3:03
yeah it's like I think
3:08
It's tricky because like people have
3:10
yeah people have different
3:11
interpretations and I'm not like your
3:13
interpretation is wrong I think I prefer
3:14
that that people kind of like find their
3:16
own meaning in the song but I think for
3:18
me it kind of came from a place of um I
3:21
don't know I just kind of for me like
3:23
Stress and Anxiety can kind of manifest
3:24
sometimes as
3:27
um wanting like quiet and just like
3:31
more noise just making me more stressed
3:34
um and which is kind of an interesting
3:36
position to be in as a musician I feel
3:38
like because your life is nice
3:40
um yeah so I think it was just kind of
3:43
it just means that I think often when
3:45
I'm really stressed I think sometimes
3:46
also a thing is that I don't necessarily
3:49
gravitate to music to make me feel
3:53
um better when I'm in when I'm that kind
3:54
of like out of it or something if I find
3:58
sometimes it's I just need kind of quiet
4:01
do you think that's uh you know a case
4:04
of just getting older as well kind of
4:06
you know just appreciating the the peace
4:07
and quiet
4:09
maybe yeah it's a very unrock and roll
4:12
thing but then it was fun to make a song
4:15
that was kind of like about that and uh
4:18
but kind of more manifesting just the um
4:20
the chaos and the the kind of stress
4:24
part rather than the
4:26
quiet part
4:28
so 2 A.M is a really poignant closer to
4:31
the album uh lyrics such as 2 A.M we
4:35
were pounding the pavement and I wonder
4:37
could we be that way again still awake
4:39
talking late in the kitchen I find that
4:41
those lyrics are really Vivid
4:42
uh it's one of the many moments where it
4:46
sounds like you're combing over a failed
4:48
relationship
4:50
um is this one of romantic love or a
4:52
friendship breakdown I just was
4:54
wondering if you could expand on that
4:57
um
4:58
such a good very specific because uh you
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know
5:02
it's that's just
5:04
um retelling true stories about about
5:06
your life that you're not the only uh
5:08
character and
5:10
but um yeah I feel like it was it was
5:12
like a particular time uh where like I
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was
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I don't know um
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just like close with with people and
5:20
like it's maybe the the like
5:24
the bright line between like romantic
5:26
and friendship or something didn't seem
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so bright and um I don't know there was
5:32
just like I feel the real closeness to
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just like
5:36
uh people around me and yeah I think I I
5:40
I think I wrote that song like in the
5:42
middle of the night and just I think it
5:43
was just like thinking about
5:45
thinking about that and
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um
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it just kind of like drew me back to a
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particular kind of time in my life when
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I was I think I was on my on my own for
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the first time it was like
5:57
um living
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I don't know just like I was single for
6:00
this time a long time and having to
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figure out like what kind of person I
6:05
was uh on my own and I'm just rambling
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now
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especially like people have probably
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gotten a similar
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um timeline
6:17
in their lives maybe and uh
6:21
yeah I was just kind of like ruminating
6:23
on that time
6:25
would you say
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all or most of your lyrics are
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autobiographical in in some respect
6:33
they seem that they're very often
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biographical to me anyway
6:37
yeah they are I kind of wish that they
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weren't
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um because I feel like it really opens
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up with uh your songwriting capabilities
6:44
when you can write about uh anything you
6:47
want but um
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yeah they definitely all start
6:50
autobiographical but you know they blend
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it's like it's like a saying of like
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they've let the truth get in the way of
6:56
a good story I feel like more the song
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it's kind of similar like they all start
6:59
with the kernel of
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oh kernel of Bio
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um would you call it biographic a
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biographic kernel but then sometimes
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you like blend stories or like sometimes
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I'll you know I'll break from the
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perspective of
7:14
like a good friend of mine or
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um of the person that I'm addressing or
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something and you know because at the
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end of the day you also want to be
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making it you're making you're crafting
7:24
a song and um
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you know it doesn't feel like it feels
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more like a film than a documentary
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um and how does it feel to be known as
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one of auckland's and I mean I suppose
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New Zealand's most sort of exciting
7:39
loved exports you know anecdotally the
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reception you get here in the UK is
7:45
great and I've got lots of friends who
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you know hugely dig your music
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do you feel a certain pressure to kind
7:51
of you know represent New Zealand and
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keep that momentum going because
7:55
I feel like it can be a country that
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people perhaps can't name as many
8:00
musical acts from
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um just again anecdotally speaking to
8:04
friends you know they don't have loads
8:06
of kiwi bands on their radar
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yeah sure it's a small country it's like
8:12
five million people
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um
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uh maybe five and a half
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so yeah it's I feel like and that in
8:20
those terms I feel like we we bet above
8:22
our weight considering how few of us
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there are but um
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it feels good like I we like being from
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there like we're touring is fun for us I
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feel like people don't have a lot of
8:33
baggage about new zealanders or
8:36
something and they're just like oh Lord
8:38
of the Rings they're like ah Flight of
8:40
the Concords and you're like I like both
8:41
of those things so I'm I'm fine with
8:43
that
8:45
oh I was reading your album credits and
8:47
I was curious there's quite a lot of use
8:50
of the the Maori names like I can never
8:53
pronounce this sorry yeah
8:57
are you trying to be respectful or is
9:00
that kind of normal practice among kiwis
9:02
to use the the Maori equivalent when you
9:04
when you're talking about countries and
9:06
the country
9:07
Altera and New Zealand yeah it's um it's
9:10
it's I guess it's tricky to explain I
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guess because because we're a colonized
9:14
country
9:15
um so there's
9:17
an attempt even in the mainstream which
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I think is something that like maybe
9:21
isn't
9:23
um the case elsewhere
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um even in the mainstream of New Zealand
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there is a uh
9:28
a solid like uh push and to
9:32
um
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to make like use of the Maori language
9:34
which is that Maori people are the
9:36
indigenous people in New Zealand um and
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I have to be careful because like I'm
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I'm talking for for for a culture that I
9:43
don't belong to but like um and there's
9:45
still obviously a long way to go but
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I've um but yeah it's it's part of that
9:49
in New Zealand it manifests as like um
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using the language it's like right now
9:53
it's tiwiki or Mori it's the it's Maori
9:55
language week in New Zealand and there's
9:57
a real question maybe it's similar to
10:00
like I guess you're in the UK like
10:01
similar to like in Wales where like
10:03
there's a there's a real push culturally
10:04
to be using the language and especially
10:06
to
10:08
um make sure that the uh that that the
10:12
people like the more people who you know
10:14
only a couple Generations ago would have
10:16
had literally the language beaten out of
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them um
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uh are kind of like able to access it
10:21
again and
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um because this is such a huge part of
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the culture again
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um where am I talking here but I just um
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yeah it's it's but part of the culture
10:31
of is it honors to um
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you know be incorporating the language
10:36
more into everyday life no not that's
10:39
that's interesting and it's good it's
10:40
good to hear definitely
10:43
um Phoebe Bridges has described your
10:45
music as bringing her unbridled Joy
10:48
um how does it feel to have an artist as
10:50
big as that you know giving you shout
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outs like that
10:54
uh it's nice I I think she's such a
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great song really it feels like a great
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compliment and uh
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uh yeah I I don't I don't know what else
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to say it's pretty it feels pretty good
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you've met her before
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uh no no
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wow um maybe one day maybe one day
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she'll come to New Zealand we can we can
11:17
uh climb a volcano together or something
11:22
so how do you want um experts in a dying
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field to make people feel when they
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press play
11:31
I want
11:33
um I don't know I guess I want it to
11:35
feel like a
11:37
like a book that you enjoy and can read
11:40
uh read again and
11:43
um kind of keep leafing through
11:45
and the Highlight bits that you like
11:48
from or something
11:49
I yeah I wanted to feel like a
11:54
a comfortable friend
11:56
brilliant and what kind of Acts were you
12:00
listening to while writing this record
12:02
was there any particular
12:04
big Inspirations for it
12:07
yeah I guess it's like
12:09
it's hard to like narrow things down
12:12
that way but I guess
12:14
compared to like the first two records
12:16
there's more like influence of uh
12:20
there's a band called uh Brisa creating
12:23
cake that I really like this has been
12:26
um I like there's a song that's like a
12:28
bit folk Punk like we're a big Jeffrey
12:30
Lewis fans they're really like
12:32
um that kind of like
12:34
style and I love the songwriting it's so
12:36
great and
12:38
um
12:39
what else because
12:41
there's like a bit of like Radio rock
12:43
kind of um Vibes like uh when you know
12:46
your nose but that kind of Kemper like
12:49
Teenage Dirtbag or something but also we
12:51
listen to a lot of like crowded house
12:52
because we played those shows with him
12:54
earlier last year and it's just the
12:57
songwriting is just so beautiful
12:59
um
12:59
yeah like so it's always a lot of
13:01
different things but um
13:03
those are some that kind of stick out a
13:05
little
13:06
wait when you think Back to Future me
13:08
hates me and and jump right gaze as your
13:10
first two albums you know when you're
13:13
thinking about those
13:14
do you feel like this is your strongest
13:16
record where where do you stand with it
13:21
um because I think it is you know like I
13:25
feel like rank rank your albums okay
13:27
I'll do it um I just think it's great I
13:30
think it's really good like I'm really
13:31
proud of it like a
13:33
I think we've managed to make something
13:35
really good and and uh
13:37
I'll rank it number one go on yes let's
13:40
do it we're in agreement
13:43
so moving away from moving away from the
13:46
album chat um I'm just curious you know
13:49
a band of your size are you in a
13:51
position and perhaps you have been for a
13:53
while that you know this is your your
13:55
full-time job it's it's your full-time
13:57
Focus or you still have to
13:59
working with other teams elsewhere
14:03
yeah this is we've managed to make it
14:05
our full-time job but
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uh I said it's full-time it's not paying
14:10
a full-time salary but uh we yeah the
14:15
the four of us for the last
14:17
couple years have been like mainly
14:19
focusing on this with like some other
14:20
things like you know freelance work you
14:22
should check it out and during the
14:23
pandemic was you know you were home a
14:25
lot so
14:26
yeah
14:28
what would freelance work be like
14:30
songwriting for other people or
14:33
um
14:34
well for for me it's I wasn't doing
14:38
anything else I was just doing this
14:39
because but it's because uh in New
14:42
Zealand we had we were lucky in the
14:43
breaks um uh when we had like lockdowns
14:47
and stuff we had some government support
14:48
so like that was able to kind of keep
14:52
getting paid to do my job which is uh
14:55
which was this
14:57
um but yeah for John it's like John will
14:59
produce records for other people or um
15:01
things like that and recording and that
15:04
kind of um production stuff and Tristan
15:08
was doing a bit of piece of teacher so
15:10
he was doing some relief teaching and
15:13
Tristan uh would have been doing some
15:15
some filling and teaching as well and if
15:17
there was like lawn mowing for filling
15:19
in for his dad his dad's mom landscaper
15:24
so the interest of our viewers by the
15:26
way uh John is guitarist focus and
15:28
keyboardist and Tristan is your drummer
15:31
and vocalist he always was a bit
15:33
Overkill to ask this when you know
15:35
you're just about to release your new
15:36
album but have you started working on
15:38
your next record
15:40
I haven't uh I haven't yet I will as
15:46
soon as uh
15:48
as soon as I get the the time it's been
15:50
it's been pretty non-stop like since we
15:51
handed in this record we've basically
15:53
been touring
15:54
Non-Stop and so uh we have
15:57
yeah once this we have a bit of time
15:59
over the summer so I'll we'll I'll catch
16:01
my breath and then maybe um start
16:05
I don't know start writing I guess yeah
16:08
do you have any feelings right now I
16:10
mean again it's probably too early to
16:12
ask of of where thematically or or
16:16
sonically you might want to take the
16:17
next record will it be kind of
16:20
uh if it ain't broke don't fix it
16:23
approach you know you've got your lovely
16:25
four-part harmonies and your power pop
16:27
and you know your Indie Drive behind all
16:30
the all the songs you write but can you
16:32
see yourself doing any kind of
16:34
huge I don't know development curveball
16:37
with what's what's coming
16:40
I don't know what it's a good question
16:41
like I I we have to do some kind of
16:44
thinking and talking because we ask you
16:45
ask these questions before you make a
16:47
third record too you're like okay we've
16:48
made two records
16:50
the third one do you what do you want to
16:52
do something really different and we
16:54
kind of were like
16:56
no I think we wanted to make something
16:57
that was
16:58
you know like still exploring new things
17:00
and like still like as good as we could
17:03
possibly make it but we weren't like
17:04
let's make a synth record you know like
17:08
um it was it was still like let's make a
17:10
a best record but like as good as we can
17:12
make it but yeah like a fourth Freight
17:13
but it's like well now we've made three
17:15
albums
17:16
it does kind of feel like maybe you have
17:18
to start I don't know try something
17:20
different but I don't know maybe maybe
17:23
you fight that maybe you do something
17:25
really different that people don't like
17:27
on the fourth record and then you make a
17:28
really good just very good and it's like
17:30
yeah you get the journey
17:34
but I think you're very good at what you
17:36
do and I I would happily hear more of
17:41
um
17:42
yeah so what's next for the band could
17:44
you just briefly tell us what gigs
17:47
you've got coming up where you're headed
17:49
next
17:51
uh well we're in Australia at the moment
17:53
so you know any Australians
17:56
um come along it should be fun and uh
18:00
then we're we'll be heading home and
18:01
doing a big New Zealand tour which is
18:04
great always nice to do kind of a
18:05
homecoming one and then yeah we have a
18:08
bit of break over summer um it's our
18:09
summer winter for you
18:11
um but
18:13
yeah we're back into it from from kind
18:15
of early 2023 back touring well I
18:18
promise we'll be back in the UK uh in
18:20
2023
18:22
um and it will be really fun fantastic
18:35
um
18:37
I don't know thank you thank you for
18:39
having me and um
18:41
yeah it's it's been a pledge by our
18:44
album buy our album
18:47
yeah
18:49
follow us on socials for some reason we
18:52
have uh we we sell a decent amount of
18:55
Records which is great and uh but we for
18:58
some reason don't uh have as many likes
19:01
on socials which is often what people
19:02
use as a metric for the band doing well
19:04
so yeah give us a token like yes
19:08
brilliant okay well I think dinner is
19:11
calling for you so I'll let you go thank
19:13
you very much for uh for chatting to me
19:15
Liz and um yeah best of luck
19:20
cheers thank you bye bye
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