Beck Hansen

Childhood

Father - David Campbell - Canadian musician. He participated in Beck's albums as an arranger of stringed instruments. Mother - Bibbe Hansen - actress. After the separation of the parents, Beck remained with his mother and brother in the poor Latin American quarter of Los Angeles , permeated by the atmosphere of various musical styles, which influenced his wide style range. Maternal grandfather - Al Hansen - a member of the progressive movement " Fluxus ", whose origins were the composer John Cage , an artist and author of collages. His wife, Audrey Austlin Hansen, is a model, poet, and actress. On the maternal side, he is Jewish-Orthodox, his paternal grandfather is a Presbyterian priest.

Career start

After Beck left the last classes of the school in the mid-1980s, he was engaged in self-education, traveled a lot, in Germany he was helped by his grandfather, El Hansen, who was known for his involvement in modern art movements.

He returned to New York under the influence of punk music . Moved to Los Angeles in poverty but full of energy ^{[ ambiguous ]} . In order to feed himself, he was hired for various dead ends, low-paid and day jobs, for example, a garment factory; played in various bands and on what will have to, constantly continuing to improve their own music. He performed in various clubs and coffee shops, even then Beck's task was to create a bright artistic show that would delight and captivate the audience, sometimes humorous and eccentric .

Beck's first recordings were made by Tom Grimley on Poop Alleý and Win Records . The vinyl single Loser (1993) was released in an atmosphere of progressive creativeness at Bong Load Custom Records . The initial print run was 500 copies. The recording unexpectedly caused a sensation on the alternative radio, which immediately attracted the main record labels to it.

After hesitation, Beck, by then already having a large volume of unpublished material, signed a contract with David Geffen Records , which allowed the possibility of simultaneously publishing music on other labels. At the same time, he released One Foot in the Grave on K , and Stereopathetic Soul Manure on Flipside Records , composed of his early songs, almost acoustic, combining alternative folk music and noise elements. After completing the recording, Beck went on a 1995 joint tour with Lollapalooza . Some critics called him at that time a singer with one song, a miracle of one hit. In addition, part of the audience (especially the Lollapalooza audience) was familiar only with Loser and completely did not perceive the other.

Odelay (1996)

In 1996, the Odelay album was released in collaboration with The Dust Brothers , whose members also produced Paul's Boutique , Beastie Boys . The album was liked by critics, became double platinum, received two Grammy Awards .

Odelay was followed by the Mutations album in 1998, produced by Nigel Godrich , known for collaborating with Radiohead . The album was recorded in two weeks. Beck recorded one song a day, so the session turned out to be 14 songs. Mutations is a departure from the electronic saturation of Odelay , more imbued with folk and blues tradition. The album is made up of Beck's early songs, some written in 1994.

The song Sing It Again was written specifically for Johnny Cash , but he never performed it, and Beck considered the text "nonsense, nonsense." . In the end, Cash performed the song Rowboat from the album Stereopathetic Soulmanure .

Late 1990s

In 1998, Beck, in collaboration with his grandfather Al Hansen, presented an exhibition entitled Beck & Al Hansen: Playing With Matches ( Beck & Al Hansen: Playing With Matches ). It was a collection of personal and collaborative collages, paintings and poetic works. This show was presented by the Santa Monica Museum for art galleries in New York and Winnipeg ( Canada ). The catalog of this exhibition was published by Smart art press .

In 1999, the expected Midnite Vultures album, and Beck went on a world tour. This was a return to the energetic show, as during the tour with Lollapalooza . For example, a red bed descended from the ceiling while a Debra song was being performed, and a wind section was added to the usual accompaniment instruments.

2000s

After that, in 2002, again in collaboration with Godrich, the album Sea Change , airy and emotional, was released, which was included in the list of the best albums in the USA under number 8. The concept of this album is approximately as follows: it describes the stages through which a person passes after a breakup . Father Beck, who wrote the string arrangements for two songs, took part in the creation of the album. In the next round, Beck was accompanied by The Flaming Lips .

At the end of 2004, he returned to the studio to work on the album, the recordings were produced by members of The Dust Brothers and Tony Hoffer, and Jack White of White Stripes also participated. The recording showed a slight return to the sound of the times of the Odelay album. The new album was released on March 29, 2005 under the name Guero , which on the slang of the inhabitants of cheap neighborhoods means: blond, light. Nine months later, a complete collection of remixes of Guerolito was released .

In November 2006, when producing Godrich, the album The Information was released , as was Guero , supplemented by a bonus disc with a peculiar video sequence, which is a home video for the songs .

These albums had very positive reviews and commercial success.

Song Reader (2012)

In December 2012, Beck released the experimental album Song Reader . The album contains notes and texts of 20 compositions printed on paper, but there are no carriers with recorded music performed by musicians. To listen to songs, they must be played and sung by the listeners themselves. A separate site was also created for this album, where everyone could post their own performance of songs from the album ^{[1] [2]} .

Morning Phase (2013)

In the summer of 2013, Beck released the twelfth studio album - Morning Phase , which is an acoustic disc in the style of Sea Change . Most of the musicians who previously participated in the recording of the Modern Guilt album, including Beck's longtime colleague Smokey Hormel, participated in the recording. In addition, he released three folk singles: Defriended , I Won't Be Long and Gimme ^[3] .

Beck participated in the filming of the video White Stripes The Hardest Button to Button and The Stone Roses Love Spreads . He raped and appeared in the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion music video for the song Flavor . Contributed to North American Halloween Prevention, Inc. song Do Do You Know It's Hallowe'en? . He performed the songs Don't Be Light and The Vagabond , and also played the harmonica for the third studio album, 10,000 Hz Legend of the French electronic duo Air . He participated in the recording of the album More Oar: A Tribute to Alexander “Skip” Spence , singing the song Halo of Gold . He performed the Velvet Underground song “I'm Set Free” at the Tiebetian freedom concert with Radiohead leader Tom York . Took part in Macy Gray's The Trouble With Being Myself gratis , performing It Ain't the Money. Released a remix on the Björk album Alarm Call and titled the song Bjeck Mix. He sang a duet with Emmylou Harris on the tribute album to Graham Parsons , introducing the classic song Sin City. He is the producer of the IRM album, Charlotte Gainsbourg ^[4] .

One version of Windows Media Player contains a 30 second sample from the song “Beautiful Way”.

The song of the group Grandaddy Jed's Other Poem ( Beautiful Ground ) contains the words "I try to sing it funny like Beck ..." ("I would like to sing it as inimitably as Beck ...").

Flaming Lips opened their tour with the song Thank You Jack White for the Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me .

Since 1991, Beck has been in close relationship with designer Lei Limon. They broke up in 2000, which, according to some words, served as a creative impetus to the writing of his album Sea Change (2002) ^[5] . Most of the songs for this album were written within one week of their breakup. ^[6] Beck married actress Marissa Ribisi , twin sister of actor Giovanni Ribisi , in April 2004, ^[7] shortly before the birth of their son, Cosimo Henry Hansen (born May 2004). ^[8] In July 2007, they had a daughter, Tewsday Hansen. ^[9]

His parents, David Campbell and Bibbe Hansen, were Scientologists. Therefore, Beck spent most of his life in Scientology . His wife, Marissa Ribisi, is also a second-generation Scientologist. The midwife who received Marissa and her brother at birth was Bibbe, Beck's mother. ^[10] Beck first publicly acknowledged his Scientology affiliation in an interview with the New York Times on March 6, 2005 . The following confirmation appeared in the Irish Sunday Tribune on June 11, 2005, where Beck claimed to be a Scientologist and that his father had been a member of the church for 35 years. ^[eleven]

• Population: 1 (1986), short appearance with an accordion in a band.
• Kill the Moonlight (1994), Leave Me on the Moon, Last Night I Traded My Souls Innermost for Some Pickled Fish, and Underwater Music.
• SubUrbia (1996), “Feather in Your Cap”.
• A Life Less Ordinary (1997), Deadweight.
• Bury Me in Kern County (1998), Megaboob.
• Peanuts (1998) , “This World Is Something New to Me” with various other artists.
• A Room for Romeo Brass (1999), O Maria and Dead Melodies.
• Condo Painting (2000), Computer Girls.
• Heartbreakers (2001), Tropicalia.
• Moulin Rouge! (2001), “Diamond Dogs” ( David Bowie cover).
• Southlander (2001), performed in a small role, played and sang "Puttin It Down" and "Broken Train".
• City of Ghosts (2002), Blackhole.
• Adaptation (2002), Dead Melodies.
• Holes (2003), He's a Mighty Good Leader.
• Along Came Polly (2004), Lost Cause.
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) , “Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime” ( The Korgis cover).
• Between Heaven and Earth (2005) , Strange Invitation.
• Inland Empire (2006), Black Tambourine.
• Nacho Libre (2006), “My Heart Is with the Children,” “There Is No Place for Me in This World,” “Tender Beasts of the Spangled Night,” “10,000 Pesos,” “Holy Man,” and “Return of the Luchador. "
• Life During Wartime (2009), Life During Wartime (with Devendra Banhart)
• The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), “Let's Get Lost” (with Bat For Lashes )
• Scott Pilgrim vs. Everyone (2010) , We Are Sex Bob-Omb, Garbage Truck, Threshold, Summertime, Ramona

Studio Albums

• 1988 - Banjo Story
• 1993 - Golden Feelings
• 1994 - A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight
• 1994 - Stereopathetic Soulmanure
• 1994 - Mellow Gold
• 1994 - One Foot in the Grave
• 1996 - Odelay
• 1998 - Mutations
• 1999 - Midnite Vultures
• 2002 - Sea Change
• 2005 - Guero
• 2005 - Guerolito
• 2006 - The Information
• 2008 - Modern Guilt
• 2014 - Morning Phase
• 2017 - Colors

Studio album, sheet music and lyrics

• 2012 - Song Reader

Singles

• ¹ - Charted at # 5 on the UK Indie Chart . ^[24]
• Youthless

EPs

• Stray Blues (2000)
• Beck (EP) (2001)

• Official site