Bethany Cosentino

Bethany Sharayah Cosentino[1] was born on November 3, 1986,[2][3] in Los Angeles, California.[4] Her middle name was taken from the song of the same name by Amy Grant.[1] She is of half-Italian descent.[5] Her father was a musician who toured with bands including War and Ambrosia, and her mother was an actor in commercials.[6] Her father was also the worship leader at their church, and Cosentino started singing with the church's choir.[6] Seeing her mother's commercial work inspired her to do the same as a child actor.[6]

When asked about what music spoke to her in her youth, Cosentino mentioned Linda Ronstadt, Rilo Kiley, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell, Gwen Stefani, and No Doubt.[5] At age seventeen, she started posting original noise music to MySpace under the name Bethany Sharayah.[2][7][8] That music got significant attention online, with major record labels trying to sign her which she rejected.[6][8] She left high school early after passing the California High School Proficiency Exam[6][9] and attended a community college.[6]

In 2006, Cosentino and Amanda Brown cofounded Pocahaunted, a hypnagogic pop duo, in Los Angeles.[10] The two issued over 25 releases in three years,[10] and supported Sonic Youth for a concert in Berkeley, California, in 2007.[7] In 2010, Cosentino left Pocahaunted and moved to New York to study creative writing at The New School.[10][6] While in New York, she worked an internship for the music publication The Fader.[6]

On October 7, 2014, Weezer released their ninth studio album, Everything Will Be Alright in the End.[11] Cosentino featured on the album in a duet with Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo on the song "Go Away".[12] On July 24, 2015, the band released a music video for "Go Away", directed by Brendan Walter and Greg Yagolnitzer, in which Cuomo plays a man trying to win back the affection of his ex-girlfriend played by Cosentino.[13]

On November 3, 2017, Billboard published an op-ed written by Cosentino about sexual assault in the entertainment industry,[14][15] just a month after film producer Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual assault in an article in the New York Times,[16] launching the MeToo movement of sex crime and sexual harassment victims publicizing their experiences.[17] In the piece, Cosentino called Weinstein "The Man With Power Who Abuses It", and discussed how men like that are "in colleges, at Halloween parties, at car washes, in grocery stores — they're everywhere."[15] She described her own experiences with sexual assault, both from a family member as a child and from a man she employed as an adult.[15] She concluded the piece by saying "If 2016 was the year we elected a grabber-in-chief" – a reference to the allegations against then-President of the United States Donald Trump – "consider 2017 the year of male consequence."[15] The piece also made reference to allegations against fellow indie rock musician Matt Mondanile.[15] Cosentino had previously appeared on The Daily Show in 2016 to discuss sexual assault in the music industry after Dirty Projectors' Amber Coffman and other women publicly accused publicist Heathcliff Berru of sexual misconduct, which Cosentino had responded to supportively.[18]

On May 14, 2018, Cosentino released a single, "Jerry (Maybe We Should Get Married)" which was a collaboration with songwriter Nick Lutsko and parody Twitter account @Seinfeld2000.[19] The song, released by the company Super Deluxe, features Cosentino singing from the perspective of Seinfeld character Elaine Benes.[19]

On March 25, 2020, Cosentino debuted her weekly radio show Bethline, livestreamed on Best Coast's YouTube channel.[20] The first episode's featured guest was Mannequin Pussy's Marisa Dabice.[20] Subsequent guests of the show included Sleigh Bells' Alexis Krauss,[21] Paramore's Hayley Williams,[21] Vanessa Carlton,[21][22] Soccer Mommy,[22] and Fred Savage.[22] As of May 2020, the show was on hiatus.[22]

On February 11, 2021, Spotify launched the show Bandsplain with theme music composed by Cosentino and Jennifer Clavin of Bleached.[23] On August 20, Third Eye Blind released "Again", a single from their album Our Bande Apart, which featured Cosentino.[24]

On July 26, 2022, Cosentino sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Dodger Stadium to open a game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Washington Nationals.[25]

On May 3, 2023, the same day as announcing Best Coast's hiatus, Cosentino announced her debut solo album, Natural Disaster.[26] The album was primarily produced by Butch Walker and recorded in his Nashville studio;[27] Walker was chosen for his background in alternative country and Americana.[28] The album was released by Concord Records on July 28, 2023.[27] Turning away from Best Coast's sound, Cosentino instead made a pop rock, folk rock, and Americana record influenced by Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, and Jewel.[26] The album received a generally favorable response from critics.[29]

Cosentino started dating Nathan Williams, the founder and lead vocalist of Wavves, when both were 17 years old.[1] The two first met at a party in San Diego.[1] They later broke up, leading to Cosentino's decision to get sober in 2017.[30]

On June 23, 2023, Cosentino's boyfriend proposed to her in a parking lot of the Americana at Brand shopping mall in Glendale, California.[31][32] As of 2023, Cosentino lives in Glendale in a house built in the 1930s.[5]

Cosentino had an orange Maine Coon cat named Snacks who she adopted from her neighbors.[33] Snacks appeared on the covers of Best Coast's debut album Crazy for You and Wavves' King of the Beach,[33] featured in a PETA advertisement with Cosentino,[34] and had a dedicated Twitter account.[33] He was referred to as both the band's "official mascot" and "third member".[35] Snacks died on February 9, 2022, at age 14.[35] Cosentino also had another cat, a domestic shorthair named Chloe.[36]

Cosentino got her first tattoo, the words "all you need is love" and a small heart on her wrist, at age 16.[37] Other tattoos include the words "Trust no one" on one finger, and "Let it go" on another on the opposite hand.[4]

• Natural Disaster (Concord, 2023)