interview by JANA LETONJA
York-born singer-songwriter Beth McCarthy is embracing her darker side with the introduction of her bold new alter ego, Pretty Villain. Known for her infectious pop melodies, brutally honest lyrics and unapologetic personality, Beth has been steadily making her mark on the UK music scene. From performing on the main stage at Reading & Leeds Festival and appearing at Glastonbury to selling out London’s Kentish Town Forum, she’s been reaching impressive new heights. Her September single Pretty Villain marked the beginning of a striking new chapter, bringing gritty guitars, theatrical visuals and a seductive, rock-driven edge to her sound. Exploring the idea of being cast as the villain in someone else’s story, the track introduces a more provocative and fearless side of Beth’s artistry. This new era continues with her highly anticipated four-track EP, The Origin Story of a Pretty Villain, set for release on November 20, which explores how a relationship can transform someone into the villain. Ahead of the release, Beth will bring her alter ego to life at an intimate show at The Black Heart in London on November 19. The show sold out in less than an hour and will give fans an exclusive first taste of the new material and a chance to step into the world of Pretty Villain.
photography by NAT TRAXLER
What first sparked your passion for music, and when did you realize that songwriting was something you wanted to pursue as a career?
I guess my passion for music is probably down to my dad. He was always into music. He's a really big music lover. He got me into my favorite bands, Queen and AC/DC. My first gig was Deep Purple, which is mental for an 11-year-old, or however old I was when I went. But yeah, I think because he was so into music, it kind of meant that I was as well, and so I started playing piano. I didn't stick with it, which is my biggest regret. I would love to be amazing at piano now, but I kind of always had an interest in it from that side, and I also loved performing.
Funnily enough, I started more on an amateur theater stage and progressed through the different formats of performing until I found the one that I liked the best, which happened to be singing my own songs. I always liked rewriting songs. I remember the first time I ever dipped my toe into songwriting. I kind of rewrote the lyrics of a Hannah Montana song to match my own life instead of just Hannah Montana's, using her melody. I kind of just went from there. I got a guitar, learned how to play it really basically, and then immediately started writing my own songs on it.
I think it just kind of grew from there, and it's funny when you look back. I just don't really remember a time when I didn't want to do that, and there was also never a time when the option wasn't that. That was just what I was going to do as a career. I think the minute I got a guitar was the minute I started writing songs, and also the minute I started playing gigs and busking. There was never a time when I wasn't looking at it as being my career.
Your music has always been known for its honesty and relatability. How would you say you've evolved, both as a songwriter and as a person, since you first started releasing music?
I think I've just got a lot braver and a lot more confident. It probably happens with a lot of artists, where you kind of start by trying to be like the people you admire. I guess I've just found myself in it, and that was the biggest growth for me, as a person and as an artist. They kind of came hand in hand: understanding who I am, what I stand for, and what I want my voice to say.
There was a big moment for me when I decided to be openly queer in my music because it's something that I actually distinctly remember not wanting to be. I didn't want to be pinned as a queer artist. I was like, "I just want to be an artist." Then I realized how important it was for people to have that representation. I was sitting and writing a song and deliberately trying to avoid pronouns that made it obvious it was about a girl, but I wasn't doing that for songs about boys. It kind of just got to a point where I was like, "That doesn't make any sense to me."
I think I should be able to do this, and it should be normalized. The only way we can make it normalized, and the only way we can move away from queer artists being queer artists and just let them be artists, is by there being more queer artists. It's kind of like being a woman in music, like female producers. You almost have to go one way in order to bring it back to the middle.
I felt like that was important to me, and so I guess that's kind of come through in my music, along with owning the good, the bad and the ugly of my own self and my own experiences. Telling those experiences through my songs and being unapologetically myself has been the journey.
You've never been afraid to explore personal experiences through your lyrics. Has songwriting always been a way of processing your emotions, or has your relationship with it changed over time?It's actually not a way for me to process emotions at all. I have to process the emotions, and then I write the song. It's rare for me to write a song about something that I'm in. I write retrospectively, so a lot of my music is two years behind what I'm going through right now, which is interesting because a lot of people journal through their music, and I don't.
I have the experience, and I have the feeling, and then I kind of take what I felt. For me, I feel like I get a better song out of understanding that situation and all of the feelings from each part, each stage of it. Being able to empathize with each part of the journey, and not just that one singular emotion that I'm feeling at the time, means I can write more widely about it. I can maybe write 10 songs about that one situation instead of just one about that one feeling.
I guess I've kind of always been like that. I love songwriting as a craft, and I like crafting. I love finding the right words to say things, and I love writing songs that satisfy me rhythmically, melodically and lyrically. I feel like there's a little part of that that takes some of the emotion out of it. I think that if I'm too deep in the emotion of the concept I'm talking about, and I'm experiencing it at that time and don't fully understand it yet, I really struggle to know how to make a good song out of it. It comes later.
You have introduced a bold new alter ego with Pretty Villain. Where did the initial idea for this character come from, and what made you feel that now was the right time to explore this side of yourself?
I guess she came from this fascination with bad guys, and the idea that everybody has a bad guy, and everybody is a bad guy. I really think that, in whatever way, in whatever capacity that is, whether it's in a tiny way or a huge way, we've all made mistakes in our lives and done things that we regret, or had big emotions that maybe a villain would hold.
I think I was finding myself writing from my own experiences of complex situations and emotions, making mistakes and stuff, and I've always loved doing that. I've always loved writing from the perspective of the other side of the story. I think that combined with really craving being a bit more creative in my music and in the visuals, and leaning into a bit more of a theatrical side of myself.
I've always been so "girl next door, heart on my sleeve." What you're hearing is exactly what I'm saying, and it's super literal. I love doing that, but it does kind of stunt your ability to have fun with it because it's so tied to who you specifically are and what your personality is. That makes it a lot harder to tell a story and to sell it as well.
I guess in this world where social media is such a huge part of music, going online and being like, "Here's a song that's about this experience, this exact experience I had in my life," can sometimes be a bit jarring because you're not only putting your heart and soul into a song, but then you're having to over-explain it, which hasn't always been a thing. Whereas with this alter ego character, she's inspired by my own experiences, but in a more exaggerated and fun way. I can give her parts of a personality that I don't have myself, or that aren't necessarily me down to the core, but there's something about that which excites me, interests me and inspires me.
I think that's why right now felt like the right time, because I was so ready to do something a bit different and a bit more fun. I feel like we're in such a literal time with artists. There was a period around the 2010s when we were getting Lady Gaga in a meat dress, and we were getting Britney, and they were just so unafraid to make these huge statements and be these caricatures of themselves. I find that really exciting and really inspiring, and so I wanted to bring a bit of that into my own music.
There's something quite empowering about taking ownership of the way someone else perceives you, rather than trying to change their mind. Is that a message you hope listeners take away from the track?
Yes, it is. That's a great message that someone else just took from my song. No, it really is, because it's something that I struggle with myself, the idea of people not liking me. I am a people pleaser to my core, and I truly never intend to hurt people, but that doesn't mean that you don't. We're all human, and we all do things that we maybe didn't mean to do, or didn't want to do, or didn't intend to be taken the way they were. I think people are so scared to admit that because we don't want people to think we're bad.
I think it's a real learning experience, and a real part of growing up, to realize that sometimes it doesn't matter what you do. There are going to be people who just don't like you or who just don't get you. Learning to be okay with that is something I'm still working on, but I think this character, this alter ego and this music are part of my journey towards accepting that. I guess that's why it's an alter ego, because I'm not quite there yet, but Pretty Villain doesn't really care what anyone thinks of her.
Musically, Pretty Villain has a darker, grittier and more rock-driven sound than some of your previous releases. What inspired this change in direction, and which artists or sounds influenced the new era?
Pretty Villain is inspired by this villainous, dark, bad-guy energy, and it felt like that needed to be reflected in the music. I think the concept and the character have sort of led what the sound should be for this.
I think I've always played it quite safe, especially in recent years. My safe sound is guitars and stuff that works on a stage, and it's sort of pop-rock. It's like pop lyricism with a rock edge in some of the production, but I love being a bit more out there with some of the sonic choices and the delivery of things, and being able to use sounds that maybe don't necessarily belong in pop music, but shoving them into my songs and making them work.
I just really wanted to do that with this project, and part of that is this kind of rockier, darker side. But when the EP releases, we'll find out that there are a few other little sonics, sounds and influences in there from all sorts of places, not just artists.
Obviously, I've mentioned Lady Gaga, but she's a big inspiration for this particular project. There are musical theater influences, there are really old songs in there, and Queen, who I've always loved and will always say are my favorite band. Freddie Mercury is my biggest hero. I think they were just constantly pushing the boundaries of music, and Bohemian Rhapsody is mental. Sometimes I just sit there and think, "Well, maybe I should just be a bit more Bohemian Rhapsody," and I guess maybe that's where it's coming from.
Creating an alter ego can offer a certain sense of freedom. Does stepping into the Pretty Villain character allow you to express things you might not necessarily feel comfortable exploring as Beth McCarthy?
Absolutely. This character is all the things that I maybe would feel if I let a darker side of myself out. Like I say, it's taking those little feelings that you have, but because you're a, I would like to think, decent person, you don't let yourself run away with them. But Pretty Villain does. She's crazy, and she's emotional and all over the place. Being able to lean into that and give that kind of theater and drama a voice and a character is super fun.
Having achieved so many exciting milestones, what ambitions are still at the top of your wish list? Are there any dream collaborations, venues or festivals you'd like to experience?
Literally every festival. First of all, I want to play a stadium. I'd love to play loads of stadiums, but to be honest, all of my aspirations are in performing live.
I'd love to say I have all of these collaboration dreams and dreams of being number one, but I don't. Honestly, if all of that happens, I'll obviously love it, and maybe one day a new dream will be born. But what's in my heart now, and has always been, is playing all the stages that I can, the biggest stages and the stages in different places. There are so many countries that I've never performed in, and I think that's really exciting, being able to go all over the world and experience how other people and other cultures experience music, in different ways and in the same ways.
I love that you can go to the other side of the world and all be singing the same songs. I think that's so silly. So when I went to Australia, I was like, I'm on the other side of the world, and there's a whole room of us all singing the same lyrics, and that's so fun. We're feeling the same feelings.
I want to be able to do that in as many different countries as possible. I've played Glastonbury, but the Pyramid Stage is still on my list. Obviously, I'd love a Coachella or a Lollapalooza, those kinds of festivals. Primavera, that's a big boy. So, yeah, every festival ever, and every country ever, and all the stadiums, and that'll do. And then I'll be fine.
Finally, now that fans have had some time to get to know Pretty Villain, what can you reveal about the next stage of this era? Is there more music on the horizon, and what should we be looking forward to?
On the horizon is The Origin Story of a Pretty Villain, which kind of does what it says on the tin. It's the origin story of a pretty villain and how Pretty Villain became the way she did. This whole concept came from the fact that I obviously have this fascination with bad guys and villains and whatever, and then taking it into a more kind of media-driven space.
When they take a villain from a story or a Disney film, a villain who was kind of a really small part of a bigger story, and then make a whole movie about that villain, exploring why they became that and why they are how they are, I've realized that so often, they became a villain because they cracked due to betrayal or heartbreak or something in that world where they felt hurt, and then they became this evil character. I sort of wanted to mimic that, I guess, with my pop songs, with pop-rock music, where this sort of alter ego character had to come from somewhere. There had to be a reason that she was born. She didn't just arrive. She was created by all of her complex and giant emotions, and so The Origin Story of a Pretty Villain kind of tells the narrative of that. I'm sure there'll be more to come from her that goes beyond that and her villainous ways.
We just learned that your first headline performance of 2026 sold out in under an hour.
My first and only. How crazy is that? It's funny, you step away from the stage for a bit, and then you think no one will ever come and see you again.
I had such an amazing time touring last year. I did the Hot & Stupid tour in Europe and in the UK, and they were the biggest shows I've ever played. That was the back end of 2025, and then my only real appearances were at a couple of festivals. Obviously, Reading and Leeds was incredible, but I haven't been back on a headline stage for a minute. It's so funny how your brain can just decide that, "Okay, well, that was it then, and nobody cares anymore. Nobody thinks about me anymore." And then this happens, and you're like, "Oh, they do," because the show sold out immediately.
I'm so excited because this is such a special show. I've not done a show in such an intimate venue for a really long time. It feels super exclusive, and just the ride-or-dies who understand me, and who I understand, are going to be there. They get to see Pretty Villain for the first time. It's the first time that she performs any of these songs, and that's something I've never done. I don't think I've ever done a show like this that's so major in a new era.
Usually, you go into a new era, I release all the music, and then I go on tour. People have lived with that music for a while, and they understand it, they know it. Whereas this show is happening the day before the EP comes out, and so it's going to be a first look at a few of the songs. I get to properly delve into the story and what it's about. I'm really excited for it, and I just can't believe it sold out immediately.
