“I think just being so busy and travelling so much and waking up in different timezones – I can’t believe it’s the end of the year already – I have a difficult time keeping track of what day it is,” she says, in her pitch perfect Southern California drawl. “I have a difficult time deciphering whether I should be in tour zone or home zone. I would say I still experience a bit of a hangover from that, for sure.”
With Cosentino’s 2012 highlights including a collaboration with Iggy Pop for the True Blood soundtrack and an appearance on Conan, it’s hard to begrudge her a bit of time off.
“We finally have sort of slowed down and started to take a bit of a break,” she continues. “It’s been a great year and I’m sad to see it end. We feel really lucky we’ve been this successful.”
The Falls Festival and an east coast tour in the New Year will mark the band’s third trip to Australia in less than two years, following recent billings at Golden Plains and Big Day Out, and comes ahead of a US stadium jaunt with Green Day in February. While Cosentino is enthusiastic about the months ahead, her constant absence from LA has definitely made itself felt on the band’s latest record.
“When you’re gone all the time, it’s definitely difficult to keep any relationship above water,” she says. “I have a lot of friends and it’s hard to keep any of my relationships perfect. Travelling city to city you’ve got a lot on your mind and it’s hard to focus. I wanted to make a record that was more centred on that kind of personal stuff.”
Cosentino’s former relationship with Nathan Williams of fellow Californian band Wavves certainly brings itself to bear on The Only Place, in a much less saccharine than the jangly love songs on Best Coast’s debut. The much-hyped romance did a great deal to lift the profile of both bands and was publicly flaunted enough to earn the pair both the moniker of “hipster power couple” and the dubious honour of an Urban Outfitters fashion spread.
Mindful of the criticism she copped for flaunting her private life, Cosetino says the new album came about as a result of a newfound emotional maturity and decision to be a little more circumspect.
“I think making this record – making a bit more of a grown up record – was a step in the right direction,” she states. “I was going through a lot of emotional stuff. I turned 26. I wrote lot of songs when I was feeling down and out, and I feel a lot more grown up and a lot more stable and more together than I did before.
“A lot of it’s about growing up while you’re trying to change and grow in the public eye. Stuff on the internet is so easy to access and makes it a lot more difficult to live a private life. I wanted to pull back a bit, figure out what to say and what not to say, what to share and what not to share. I don’t know if I necessarily regret sharing anything, but at the beginning of my career I was talking very freely in interviews and now I try to be more guarded.”
That guardedness is on display when discussing the critical reaction to The Only Place, not all of which has been as gushing as the band’s fans. The consensus on the album seems to be that a worthy improvement in production values doesn’t make up for the rehashing of song structures and endless California worship in 2010’s Crazy For You. With plans to record another EP sometime in the new year, Cosentino says she doesn’t feel any need to placate the expectations of critics.
“I just kind of feel whatever naturally comes out of us is what meant to be. We don’t try to make things too specific. What naturally comes out of you is what you’re meant to be doing. I just kind of write and let what happens happen. We make music that we’re proud of and happy with, and that’s what’s important to us. Whatever we do next will be a natural progression of growth from this year.”
BY SEAN SANDY DEVOTIONAL
