FEATURE:
Spotlight: Revisited
Beth McCarthy
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FOR this Pride Month…
not only am I focusing on terrific L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ albums and songs from today and the past. I am also celebrating modern artists from that community. Someone who I spotlighted back in 2022. I am going to come to some interviews with the incredible Beth McCarthy soon. Her E.P., Hot and Stupid, was released in April. It is among the best E.P.s of this year. An artist I have known about for a very long time, it is great to see her grow and amass this loyal and loving fanbase. McCarthy has some big gigs coming up later in the year. She will also play Glastonbury (and told her parents at a recent gig and got this reaction). Before getting to some interviews, I am starting with some biography:
“York-born Beth McCarthy combines pop melody with a rock edge to tell the stories of a twenty-something trying to understand love, friendship, and the feelings that come with it. Beth has one of the loudest voices and influence in the UK LGBTQ+ community and uses her music and art to get it heard. In that respect she takes influence from the likes of Avril Lavigne, Miley Cyrus, P!nk and she shares a lot of the same fan audiences as Fletcher & Reneé Rapp in the UK and across the world.
Beth exploded on the internet in 2021 with hit single "She Gets The Flowers", which gained over 30M streams. Two of her recent singles "What Do You Call It" and "She's Pretty" captured the attention of millions on social media, with over 1M followers and over 80M views, both part of her new EP "IDK How To Talk To Girls"
Her most recent release is her EP "IDK How To Talk To Girls", is a 5-track guitar-driven pop EP about a journey of self discovery in relationships and sexuality. The title song has accumulated over 25M views across social media, has been added to over 40k personal playlists, as well as 30+ editorial playlists and has had BBC Radio 1 support. The entire EP has amassed over 100M views already with the title single being her best performing song to date and has the internet and pop-rock music lovers on edge for what’s next!
After a sold out UK tour in June, Beth is touring the UK and EU in her “IDK How To Talk To Girls” tour in May, in a run that is 4x larger than her last tour and that sold out in a matter of days, headlining at Heaven in London. Followed by a summer of festivals including BBC R1’s Big Weekend in Luton, Mighty Hoopla and iconic EU festivals like Pinkpop in the Netherlands and Prides in major European cities.
2024 proves to be an exciting year for Beth, after her 170,000 DSP followers, her 9k broadcast channel and millions of social media followers are eagerly anticipating the year this ´bi-con´ has ahead”.
I interviewed Beth McCarthy back in 2018. Since then, she has really developed her music and is being talked in the highest terms. An artist being tipped as a Pop icon of the future. I can see that happening. I am starting out with an interview from last year. PinkNews spoke with McCarthy at one of her gigs. She talked about bisexual romance, and why she’ll never date a fan:
“PinkNews: What is the best pick-up line you’ve used on someone?
Beth McCarthy: Are you an appendix? Because I don’t know how you work, or what you do, but I really want to take you out.
PN: Describe your type in three words.
BM: Energy, confident, vibes. Which are all the same word, basically.
PN: On your series, What Do You Call It?, who is the best flirter?
BM: Probably Mikayla.
PN: Would you ever date a fan?
BM: No. Actually, you know what, I always say no because there’s a weird power dynamic or something, but, ideally, you get to a point in life where you’re so well-known that everyone’s your fan, right? So, you don’t really have a choice. Maybe, eventually, if I get that famous. A girl can dream.
PN: What’s the wildest thing that’s happened on your tour so far?
BM: A lot of people want me to draw a tattoo, that’s really crazy. There was a girl who wanted me to draw a form of lesbian symbol, one wanted me to draw a frog, tattoos everywhere.
PN: In the sapphic world, friendliness and flirting can be conflated. How do you let the sapphics know you’re flirting with them?
BM: This is my journey of learning. I think it’s all about the conviction of the way you speak. But I don’t know, don’t ask me!
PN: Have you found the best way to talk to girls?
BM: I mean, [being a sapphic legend] has definitely helped. I just have to scream at people and now it kind of works. They’ll just talk to me now. Which is great because I still don’t know”.
Interviewed around the release of IDK How to Talk to Girls last year, Celeb Mix spent some time with Beth McCarthy. She discussed new music, touring, and the importance of nurturing aspiring artists. One of my favourite artists I have been following over the past few years or so, I can see very big things from Beth McCarthy:
“Hey Beth! HIUGE congrats on the recent release of ‘IDK How To Talk To Girls’ – how are you feeling now the project is out there for people to listen to and enjoy?
Honestly it feels great to have this project out in the world! I wrote ‘IDK How To Talk To Girls’ (the song) almost 3 years ago and built the rest of the EP around it so finally having it all finished and out in its full form so people can listen to the entire ‘journey’ from start to finish is amazing.
How have your audience responded to these songs?
I feel like I’ve really found my ‘people’ in releasing this EP. I wrote these tracks to be completely unapologetic in who I am and to represent feelings and experiences that I never had in music while I was figuring it all out, so now having the opportunity to be that for my audience is honestly a dream come true. There’s a real sense of community in the people who are listening to my music and I feel super proud to be a part of that.
Musically who, or what, inspired you most during the creation of this project?
My inspiration comes from a lot of different spaces and this EP definitely doesn’t have a direct influence – more so little bits and pieces from everywhere! ‘What Do You Call It?’ definitely has a lot of 90’s/early 2000’s nostalgia pumped into it with Avril Lavigne and Michelle Branch in mind! Then ‘She’s Pretty’ and ‘IDK How To Talk To Girls’ we took a lot of influence from P!nk and Carly Rae Jepson. Basically whatever energy the song felt like it needed directed where we found inspiration which is a bit of a round about way of doing it but worked well for this project!
How do you think your sound has evolved since your early releases?
Honestly my sound has been all over the place since I started but weirdly it seems to have come back round to be closer to the music I wanted to make as a teenager when I was in bands! I needed to go through various different ‘fonts’ of my sound to find something that feels really authentic to me. Now, what I write and the way its produced is hugely influenced by my live shows and what I feel the set needs as touring and performing live is where my love for music really comes to life.
What was your proudest moment whilst making this EP?
My proudest moment was probably when the EP released and I had so many people get in touch from all around the world to say how represented they felt by the songs and how much the music had helped them to feel more confident in who they are. It’s moments like these where you realise there are actually people behind the numbers you see on Spotify and social media and the songs that meant so much for me to write also mean something to other people.
How was touring with Caity Baser, and what can fans expect from your own headline tour?
I had such a BLAST touring with Caity! She is a superstar and being able to open for her, and experience her lovely and welcoming fans was the absolute best! It definitely gave me the bug for touring ahead of my headline tour in May and I’m so excited to get out and perform again! I won’t give too much away of what to expect, but the main thing I want is for people to come to the show and have a really bloody good time! The set will be super high energy with loads of fun and I hope people can come and sing their hearts out and be totally themselves with no judgement!
What’s your favourite thing about life on the road?
My favourite thing is by far being on stage and just sharing the love with everyone in that room which is the CHEESIEST thing i’ve ever said but it’s THE TRUTH. I love people singing my songs with me and feeling all the emotions with me, it just feels like magic!
What advice would you give to any aspiring musicians, of any age, looking to break into the music industry?
I would say… don’t stop trying, the only way to guarantee you won’t make it is if you give up. Don’t give in to the ‘compare and despair’ mindset. There will be times you look at people around you and wonder why they’re doing better or getting opportunities that you’re not, but remember it’s not a competition. We’re all on our own journey at our own pace and it’s easy to get so focused on other peoples that we forget to celebrate and nurture our own! Sometimes stuff just doesn’t happen for a bit, and being comfortable with periods of inactivity is something I’ve found really useful to learn how to do. Just don’t stop during those periods, you can always be doing stuff to move your career forward even if it’s just writing new music, making content for social media, connecting with other creatives etc. Be kind to people and try to support other creatives whenever you can. It’s a tough industry made so much easier by nice people!”.
I am going to end with an interview from Ticketmaster from April. An artist who feels she has never been that clean-cut artist, there is honest and edge to Beth McCarthy’s music. Artists like Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and Charli xcx come to mind when I think of McCarthy. Maybe that seems random and not artists she would cite as influences, I can see links between them:
“Regarding your new EP, Hot and Stupid, you wrote that “the era of being unhinged has begun”. Tell me all about it! Did you try to build on the momentum of IDK How to Talk to Girls?
It’s sort of been a transition. The IDK How to Talk to Girls era was quite a funny one to move out of because it was so specifically queer and about my experiences figuring out my sexuality and what that looked like for me. Growing up, I’d not had music that accurately represented my experience. Ιt kind of felt like it was the one end of a spectrum or another. Either I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry or someone like Hayley Kiyoko, who’s just so confidently a lesbian in every way, and is amazing and unapologetic. And I loved that, and I love both of them but the middle bit, where you’re kind of figuring it out and you don’t really know what to call it, or you do know what to call it but you don’t really know how to do it. That hadn’t been represented in music for me and I felt like it was important that I did that –for me and, you know, there’s so many people in that bracket.
So it’s very deliberately queer and oriented around my experiences with women specifically. For five songs I could leave men out of it – just for five songs! Then obviously with it translating so much and being related to so much, it was hard to know how to break out of that. Because, when you become known for singing about girls and only girls, even though it was only for five songs, that’s what’s expected. And you go, well, how do I tell all the other stories, or how do I continue representing the audience and the community that I find so important and that have been amazing for me and I’ve loved being a part of? How do I continue representing them with my music without for evermore singing songs about girls –particularly being bisexual and not only dating girls! How do I do that and not make it feel like I’m leaving that community behind?
I kind of broke out of that with Good Bi and went unapologetically bisexual. Then I just thought, what was the bit around that? Maybe it’s just owning the messy and the chaos. Because that’s really what came with it. Being imperfect and unhinged and making the bad decisions and all of that. That’s relatable regardless of what gender you date –and everyone’s got friends as well. Everyone has a friend group that they’re a bit daft with sometimes and everybody has crushes on people regardless of gender.
And I was like, that feels like the right movement for me, regardless of the gender, regardless of the people it’s about. It feels a lot more encompassing of an energy and a feeling that was had. So I wanted to focus it a lot more on friendship and just being unapologetically a bit messy. Ιt also lent itself better with my sound. I wanna be a rock star wrapped in a little bit of pop packaging! Let’s be unhinged with the sound, with the concept, with everything. Sο Hot and Stupid was born.
Much like Good Bi, the EP looks like a party record, and it sounds like a party record butyou dig deeper, you won’t be put in a box. That’s a strong message.
I think it’s just being a bit more vulnerable as well. IDK How to Talk to Girls was almost like a story of my literal experiences, step by step. Whereas, with this record, I want it all to feel and sound really good and not be too sad. But if you actually dig deeper it has got meaning, it has got some more feelings-y experiences –and hopefully really relatable. There’s a song called Hurting My Own Feelings, which is the lead track of the EP and… I think everybody’s been through it where you know you’re doing something that is gonna hurt you but you do it anyway!
Whether you’re stalking someone a little bit too deeply or you go and text the person that you know is definitely not gonna text. But you’re like, I know this is a bad decision and I know I’m doing it and it’s gonna hurt my own feelings but I’m gonna do it anyway! Because that’s kinda part of life.
On top of going viral with ‘Flowers’ you’re often referred to as a “bi icon”. Have you had any memorable interactions with fans that made you think “my music’s out there, it touches people”?
To be honest I think Good Bi was the one that felt like it hit the hardest. I guess you always look at numbers as an artist, what’s streaming on Spotify and all that rubbish. I think Good Bi didn’t have the immediate pop of the streaming numbers that ‘She Gets the Flowers’ did, which did have such a wide impact but it was at the back end of lockdown when things were starting to get a little bit freer. Which is probably why it did so well, everyone was feeling really vulnerable so it just went hand in hand with a load of sad people.
Whereas Good Bi has made a deeper impact than that in the sense that, if you get it, and if you are bisexual and you’ve been through any of what is in that track it really resonates. And I think there isn’t a song about being bi. There’s songs that maybe can allude to it but they’re kind of a nod to it, or an artist who’s singing about an experience and is not that gendered. As opposed to Good Bi which is very much my experience of being bisexual and a lot of people’s experience and the difficulties that come with, but also celebrating it.
So when it gradually reached the people that it was supposed to reach, that’s the one that feels like it’s made the most difference. And it’s really nice because I think, being bi, you can feel quite like an outsider because the community itself doesn’t always embrace you. And obviously the not-the-community doesn’t embrace you as well and you have people basically saying you don’t belong in either. So you can be stuck in this grey area and I think that is an overall reflection of the music that I make.
I feel like a person who’s in the grey area in always and everything. I feel not the one or the other. Representing those people and those stories just felt really special. If I’m out and about and somebody knows me or they come to shows and I speak to fans, it’s always Good Bi that’s like, “Thank you for writing that because I don’t think I’m allowed to be queer because I have a boyfriend. But you’ve made me feel like I can be”. That’s the stuff that matters for me cause I felt like that and I felt like I couldn’t completely be me. Being able to represent them in a way that makes them feel safer, to be themselves and not shameful whichever side they fall on, or the middle they fall on!…
It’s true that there hasn’t been much representation. And now Chappell Rowan has pushed LGBTQ+ causes right into the mainstream, at a time when politicians are throwing constant threats. Do you feel these are good or bad times for the community, from your point of view?
It’s a really funny time! I think overall it’s a good time, we’ve got some really strong people representing now. Chappell Roan is one who has really moved the needle. She’s amazing because she’s not only moving the needle for being queer or for being a lesbian but is moving the needle for trans rights, for being outwardly spoken politically, which artists don’t do. Not that that’s wrong, because at the end of the day you choose what you want to put out into the world but I think she particularly is making such a a stance which can only be a positive thing.
But it is a funny time because the minute things get brought into the mainstream people get a bit protective of it. This phrase “queerbaiting” has come up and that’s the whole thing now, right? I’m not on board with it as a term… People can’t really queerbait at the end of the day, because they’re people and who is anyone to say what their experiences are or what they’re feeling? You could literally feel like, for one single day, that you were attracted to X-Y-Z people and then you’re not. But then you could write a whole song or a whole album about it and who are you to say that that’s not real?
The word queerbating is quite a dangerous term because it becomes quite gatekeep-y around stuff that you just can’t be gatekeepy around. But I think it can be a difficult time because people are looking at being queer and being like, “Oh well, now that’s profitable and so are they being real about it”? You know, Chappell Roan has made such a huge career now and a big part of that is her being queer and a big part of her audience is the queer community and they are so incredibly loyal and so willing to accept you because they’re like “We need more representation. Please, another one!” But then, that can run into the fact that people go, “But you’re not fitting in this exact thing that we want you to be and therefore that means that you could be taking advantage of the queer community,” which is a dangerous place to be because at the end of the day artists are still people and what they write about is their own experiences. To be like, “Well, you can’t sing about that because this is what I think you should do,” is a dangerous place to be. That’s maybe where being queer and outward about it is the most on-the-surface difficult thing to talk about. Aside from being vulnerable to people and politicians and that side of things that don’t get it, it’s also the community being a little bit scared of it. But we’ll get there!
You’ve got to go completely to one side to then bring it all back again. Unfortunately, for queer people, it’s a bit like women embracing their sexuality. Not in terms of who they date but being sexual and able to talk about that in music. Like Sabrina Carpenter. She’s being so unapologetically feminine, like, “I love sex and I love being a woman”, right? Sex has been used as a way to sell music for as long as any of us can remember. It’s just now artists are actually choosing to do that and it’s not the label’s way of putting it forward. Whereas now artists go, “Oh no, actually I’m gonna write the music about this and put myself forward in this way”.
Someone I was very keen to return to for this Spotlight: Revisited, the next few years are going to be a whirlwind for Beth McCarthy. She is someone I have known for a very long time and have seen her career blossom. An inspiring for so many people out there, everyone needs to follow her. An L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artist who has this admiring and loyal group of fans behind her, it will not be long until she is…
A major name.
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Follow Beth McCarthy
