Biography: Beck

b. Bek David Campbell, 8 July 1970, Los Angeles, California, USA. Hansen rose swiftly to prominence in 1994 with his exhilarating marriage of folk (Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie) and guitar noise. As a child he loitered around his bluegrass street musician father, living with his office-worker mother Bibbe Hansen and half-brother in some of Los Angeles’ worst addresses, picking up on the city’s nascent hip-hop scene as a breakdancer. He also spent time in Kansas with his grandmother and Presbyterian preacher grandfather, and with his other grandfather, the Fluxus artist Al Hansen, in Europe. His guitar playing, however, was primarily inspired by the blues of Mississippi John Hurt, which he would deliver with improvised lyrics while busking.

After dropping out of school at 16, Hansen (he had by now adopted his mother’s surname) moved to New York, though he was unable to join in with the local punk scene. On his return to Los Angeles he played his first gigs in-between sets at clubs such as Raji’s and Jabberjaw. Hansen’s music was now a pot-pourri of those diverse early influences - street hip-hop, Delta blues, Presbyterian hymns, punk with scat lyrics - and the whole was beginning to take shape as he released his first single in April 1993, ‘MTV Makes Me Want To Smoke Crack’, the title of which would be made ironic by his future success in that very medium. The split 7-inch single featured two tracks by Bean on the other side. This was followed by a 12-inch for Los Angeles independent Bong Load Custom Records, entitled ‘Loser’, produced with hip-hop technician Karl Stephenson. Those who might try retrospectively to read something sardonic into this title should be reminded that Beck was, at the time, living in a rat-infested shed: ‘I was working in a video store doing things like alphabetizing the pornography section for minimum wage’. When ‘Loser’, which sampled Dr. John’s ‘I Walk On Gilded Splinters’, was finally released after a year’s delay in the summer of 1993, critics fell over themselves to cite it as an anthem for doomed youth. Vaulted into the US Top 10, Beck was suddenly viewed as a baby-faced saviour for the ‘slacker’ generation, a platform he was most unwilling to mount: ‘I never had any slack. I was working a $4-an-hour job trying to stay alive. I mean, that slacker kind of stuff is for people who have the time to be depressed about everything.’

The major labels swooped for his signature. Geffen Records won possibly the most competitive chase for an artist in a decade, though not before David Geffen had telephoned Beck at home, and the artist had already set in motion several more independent records, including the Golden Feelings cassette for Sonic Enemy, ‘Steve Threw Up’ for Bong Load and a 10-inch album, A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight, on Fingerpaint Records. Despite this, the contract with Geffen was highly unusual in that it allowed Beck to record and release material for other companies should he wish - a right he took delight in exercising. The Mellow Gold debut for Geffen was only one of three albums released in 1994. The second, Stereopathetic Soulmanure, appeared on LA’s Flipside independent, and the third, One Foot In The Grave, a collaboration with Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening, emerged on K Records.

The long-playing Odelay was Beck’s next major release in the spring of 1996, and was an outstanding record of great depth and multiple layers. Recorded by Beck with major input from production/songwriting duo the Dust Brothers, the album reaped numerous Album Of The Year awards in the music press and spawned five successful singles, including ‘Where It’s At’ and a Noel Gallagher (Oasis) remix of ‘Devil’s Haircut’. His major label follow-up Mutations was originally planned for release on Bong Load, but its downbeat charms were still impressive for what was effectively a stopgap collection. Like all Beck’s major label releases, however, the album was issued as an impressive vinyl package on the Bong Load Custom Records label.

Beck returned to the mix-and-match style of Odelay on 1999’s soul-influenced Midnite Vultures, but following a successful tour to promote the album he entered an unusually quiet period. The artist’s return to the studio was typically adventurous, teaming up with Mutations producer Nigel Godrich to record an album of introspective, acoustic-based material informed by the recent end of his long-term relationship. Although not universally praised on release in 2002, Sea Change confirmed Beck as without doubt one of America’s most original musical talents. It was certainly a more impressive recording than the follow-up Guero, an over-hyped return to the style of Odelay that saw Beck reuniting with the Dust Brothers. Guero was quickly followed by the remix collection Guerolito and the Godrich-produced The Information. The latter was issued with a sheet of stickers so that buyers could make their own album cover, a ruse which unfortunately disqualified the album from the UK charts.