Beck Hanson


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MUSIC Interview

Beck Hansen may be the hardest-working man in show business

BY RICHARD MARTIN, rmartin@wweek.com

Since releasing Odelay in 1996, Beck Hansen has robot-danced across the world's concert stages on his way to becoming an international pop-culture icon. He has won awards, sold millions of albums, appeared on Leno and Letterman and peered out from the cover of every major music publication.

Now, he's working his way back to his native Los Angeles after 18 months on the road, mentally preparing for the next Beck onslaught. Already slated are new records on the independent labels Bong Load, which originally released his "Loser" single, and K, the outlet for his folk leanings (à la the 1994 album One Foot in the Grave). Beck spoke to WW from a tour stop in Syracuse, N.Y.

WW: You were recently nominated for seven MTV video awards. Does this forecast a career in acting?

Beck Hansen: I doubt it. I've had some offers--like one from John Waters. That would have been interesting, but I've definitely got my hands full with what I'm doing right now. I go out for 18 months on the road, and it's like, "Yeah, I'll do a movie for three months. That sounds great." I'd like to make another record in the '90s.

Is this gonna be the band you'll tour with in the future?

This is definitely the band. This is the fourth one I've played with and this is the thing that works, so you'll be seeing us taking it to other places in the future. It keeps getting bigger. It's up to nine people now. We were watching The History of Funk the other night, that PBS thing, and it's just so funny how it can escalate. That whole period in the '70s, where everyone was outdoing each other, and P-Funk ended up with like 40 people onstage. All the other bands had to stop. Kool and the Gang was like, "What are we going to do, get 60 people?"

I interviewed DJ Spooky awhile back, and he suggested that your usage of hip-hop and blues might amount to "colonial appropriation."

Well, I grew up in a Salvadoran ghetto. Me and my brother and mother were the only white people in the area. I don't come from a privileged background. I didn't relate to the shiny '80s bands like INXS and Huey Lewis and the News. I grew up hearing ranchero music and hip-hop. I got into playing blues when I was 15, playing slide guitar and listening to every Mississippi John Hurt and Son House record. I lived that music for years, and had no inclination or desire to ever pick up an electric guitar or be a part of any dominant musical cultures at the time.... It's not like I'm usurping this stuff because it's suddenly cool--I've just gone where gravity has pulled me musically.