Beck

Beck Artistfacts

  • July 8, 1970
  • Beck has a broad musical imagination that takes him in odd directions musically and lyrically. His eclectic sounds were the influence of Devo, The B-52s, Grandmaster Flash and the Velvet Underground.
  • His birth name is Beck David Campbell, but his father, David Campbell, left the family when Beck was young, and he took his mother's last name, Hansen.
  • His breakout hit was (ironically) "Loser," released on an indie label in 1993. It got him a deal with Geffen Records, which re-released the song in 1994 and included it on his album Mellow Gold. As part of Beck's deal with Geffen, he was allowed to keep recording for indie labels, so in 1994 he also issued albums of rather experimental material on the labels Bong Load and Flipside.
  • Born in Los Angeles, Beck moved to New York when he was 18 and joined the "anti-folk" scene, playing acoustic music with a punk sensibility. He returned to Los Angeles when he ran out of money and began playing area coffeehouses, which is where he made a name for himself.
  • From 1997-2006 he made six appearances as musical guest on Saturday Night Live, where he was known for pushing creative boundaries. On his sixth appearance, he sang while his band played dinnerware.
  • Because Beck's father is a Scientologist, there's a misconception that Beck has similar beliefs. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald in 2019, Beck said:

    "I'm not a Scientologist. I don't have any connection or affiliation with it.
    My father has been a Scientologist for a long time, but I've pretty much just focused on my music and my work for most of my life, and tended to do my own thing. I think it's just something people ran with."
  • Beck's mother Bibbe was raised amid New York's Andy Warhol Factory art scene of the 1960s. She appeared in several of Warhol's short films, including Prison, which she starred in alongside Edie Sedgwick at age 13. Beck, though, didn't know about her bohemian past for a long time.

    "I was raised in LA, and my mother's Factory days in New York were well behind her," he told The Daily Telegraph. "I didn't even know about them until one day when I was 14 and listening to a Velvet Underground song, and she mentioned that she knew the band."
  • His stage moves are modeled on those of R&B stars. He says he's not afraid to look foolish, which allows for greater expression when he performs.
  • Beck married Marissa Ribisi, twin sister of Hollywood actor Giovanni Ribisi, in April 2004. Marissa gave birth to their son, Cosimo, shortly afterwards and a daughter; Tuesday, three years later. On February 15, 2019, Beck filed for divorce after nearly 15 years of marriage.
  • Beck is mysteriously sensitive about his profile, which is unexpectedly triangular. He told The Guardian: "Photographers always ask to do some from the side. Until they see how I look from the side, and then they ask to do some more from the front."
  • Beck shows often involve an element of performance art. In 1993, before a gig at Raji's in Los Angeles, he covered the stage with leaves and started the show by sending them into the audience with a leaf blower. He was making a statement about the ubiquity of leaf blowers in Los Angeles and also sending a message to the record executives in the audience looking to sign him.

Comments: 2

  • Justin Michael Riley from CaliforniaGreat band always cought my attention when listening to the radio
  • Brianne from Detroit, Mi I love this man...
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