Three times the bridesmaids, the Beths head up the aisle of this year’s Apra Silver Scrolls hoping to finally snare the songwriting award after becoming one of the prize’s most nominated groups with no wins to show for it.
The band was nominated as a Scroll finalist in 2018, 2019 and 2021 and is in this year’s final five for a fourth time. The Beths’ nominated song, the title track of the 2022 album Expert in a Dying Field, is up against tracks by two past winners and two previous nominees.
This year’s contenders for song of the year have been whittled down by the organisation’s songwriting membership, then chosen by a panel of Apra-appointed judges.
The other finalist songs include Don’t Go Back by Marlon Williams, who is a past winner for Nobody Gets What They Want Any More, having been nominated three previous times.
Other previous Scroll winners in contention are brothers Ruban and Kody Nielson for Layla, a song on the former’s 2023 album V by his US-based band Unknown Mortal Orchestra. It’s the fourth UMO nomination and the siblings are also past nominees for songs with the Mint Chicks, Opossom and Bic Runga.
As they were in 2019, the Beths are up against Avantdale Bowling Club and Tiny Ruins – the track Friday Night @ The Liquor Store has given ABC’s Tom Scott and his jazz-fuelled hip-hop combo his second finalist nod. The Crab/Waterbaby is the third song of Hollie Fullbrook’s winsome art-folk to make the shortlist.]
If they don’t take away the trophy, the Beths would have equalled the Phoenix Foundation’s record for four nominations with no wins (though the Phoenix Foundation have a soundtrack award).
As well, spare a thought for Beths’ guitarist-producer Jonathan Pearce, who has also been nominated with his previous band, Artisan Guns, and as a co-writer with Anthonie Tonnon but has no silverware to show for it as yet.
The Beths, currently on an American tour, also made the annual summer playlist of former US President Barack Obama with Watching the Credits, a one-off single released in March.
The Apra Silver Scrolls, which also awards a prize for the best in te reo songwriting, screen soundtracks and contemporary classical composition (the nominations of which were announced last month) will be inducting Don McGlashan into the NZ Music Hall of Fame.
The event, which takes place in Auckland on October 4, traditionally features live performances of lateral-minded cover versions of the nominated songs, and will be streamed live via youtube.com/apranz.
