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| Birth Name(s) : Beck Hansen |
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Full Beck Hansen Biography
Beck Hansen (born Bek David Campbell, July 8, 1970) is a Grammy Award-winning American musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, known by his simple stage name of Beck.
Beck was born in Los Angeles, California to David Campbell, a Canadian musician, and Bibbe Hansen, a visual artist. His maternal grandfather was Al Hansen, a visual collage artist of the Fluxus school of art. His paternal grandfather was a Presbyterian minister, while his maternal great-grandmother was Jewish; although Beck says he was raised partially in the Jewish religion, he is a Scientologist, as are his wife and his father. Beck's mother also has Norwegian and Swedish ancestry. When his parents separated, Beck stayed with his mother and brother in Los Angeles, where he was influenced by that city's diverse musical offerings—everything from hip hop to Latin music and his mother's art scene—all of which would later reappear in his recorded and published work.
When the time came to record his follow-up to Mellow Gold, he enlisted Rothrock and Schnapf as producers and began recording an album of moody, low-key acoustic numbers to showcase his songwriting. The songs were melancholy due to several close deaths in Beck's life, including one of his greatest inspirations, his grandfather. Eventually, Beck shelved the album and pursued a more upbeat approach. Beck was introduced to the Dust Brothers, producers of the Beastie Boys' album Paul's Boutique, whose cut-and-paste, sample-heavy production suited Beck's vision of a more fun, accessible album.
Odelay was followed in 1998 by Mutations. Though the album was originally supposed to be released on Bong Load Records, Geffen intervened and issued the record against Beck's wishes. The artist then sought to void his contracts with both record labels, and in turn the labels sued him for breach of contract. The litigation went on for years and it remains unclear to this day if it was ever completely resolved. Produced by Beck and Nigel Godrich of Radiohead fame, it was intended as a stopgap measure before the next album proper. Recorded over two weeks, during which Beck recorded one song a day, the sessions produced fourteen songs. Mutations was a departure from the electronic density of Odelay, and was filled with folk and blues influences. Songs on the album consisted of older tracks, some even dating back as far as 1994. Track 10, "Sing It Again", was written for Johnny Cash, but Beck never submitted it, considering it "rubbish." Cash would go on to record "Rowboat," a song that originally appeared on Beck's Stereopathetic Soulmanure.
A song Beck co-wrote with William Orbit, "Feel Good Time", was recorded by pop singer Pink and included on the soundtrack of the 2003 film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.
In 2004, Beck returned to the studio to work on his sixth major-label album. The record, Guero, was produced by the Dust Brothers and Tony Hoffer and features a collaboration with Jack White of The White Stripes; it marked a return to Odelay-era sound. The album was released in March 2005 and enjoyed critical acclaim from most mainstream press, earning four stars from Playboy and Rolling Stone, as well as a "Critic's Choice" recognition from The New York Times. However, the album received a less enthusiastic response from Beck's indie-oriented fanbase and a relatively low 6.6 (out of 10) score given by Pitchfork. Nonetheless, the album debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts, pushing 162,000 copies in the first week and giving Beck his best week ever in terms of commercial sales and chart position. Since the release of Guero, the first single, "E-Pro", has been well received by the mainstream rock community, and has seen a large amount of play time. The second single, titled simply "Girl", is a bright, upbeat song appearing at first to be about summer love; however, a closer look at the lyrics reveals a darker side to the song. "Girl" received heavy airplay on various college radio stations. The third and final single was "Hell Yes".
Beck performed at the music and arts festival Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tennessee on June 17, 2006. He performed many songs from his album Guero. In addition to his band, Beck was accompanied onstage by a group of puppets, dressed as him and members of his band. Live video feed of the puppets' performance was broadcast on video screens to the audience. The puppets were part of his 2006 world tour.
He performed in episode 10 of the fourth season of The Larry Sanders Show, in which the producer character Artie (Rip Torn) referred to him as a "hillbilly from outer space".
He also made a very brief voice appearance in 1998 cartoon feature film, The Rugrats Movie' and guest starred as himself in a 1997 episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, entitled "Edelweiss". |
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