California Nights

Album: California Nights (2015)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The title track of Best Coast's third album came to singer Bethany Cosentino after a phone call spent convincing a friend to move back to LA. "I said, 'Listen to "Going To California" by Led Zeppelin,'" she told NME. "After we hung up, I listened to the Zeppelin discography for the first time and was like, 'Dude, where have I been?'"
  • This has a different sound to anything that Best Coast has done before, something that initially concerned Cosentino. "I remember sending it to the guys and worrying they might not like it and would think it was too weird," she told Stereogum. "It didn't really sound like any of our other songs."

    "Once it was released, people started saying that maybe we'd made a shoegaze record," Cosentino continued. "But none of the other songs on the record really sound like it. We just wanted to do something a little different that drew from some of our influences that we don't usually get to explore."
  • The song and album is named for California's "magic hour," that time right before the sun sets for the day. "Where I live if you look in one direction it's palm trees and there's mountains and it's just like super beautiful and the colors are incredible," Cosentino told Radio.com. "That was something that I drew a lot of inspiration from."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Tommy James

Tommy JamesSongwriter Interviews

"Mony Mony," "Crimson and Clover," "Draggin' The Line"... the hits kept coming for Tommy James, and in a plot line fit for a movie, his record company was controlled by the mafia.

Steely Dan

Steely DanFact or Fiction

Did they really trade their guitarist to The Doobie Brothers? Are they named after something naughty? And what's up with the band name?

David Gray

David GraySongwriter Interviews

David Gray explains the significance of the word "Babylon," and talks about how songs are a form of active imagination, with lyrics that reveal what's inside us.

JJ Burnel of The Stranglers

JJ Burnel of The StranglersSongwriter Interviews

JJ talks about The Stranglers' signature sound - keyboard and bass - which isn't your typical strain of punk rock.

Tim McIlrath of Rise Against

Tim McIlrath of Rise AgainstSongwriter Interviews

Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath explains the meanings behind some of their biggest songs and names the sci-fi books that have influenced him.

George Clinton

George ClintonSongwriter Interviews

When you free your mind, your ass may follow, but you have to make sure someone else doesn't program it while it's wide open.