Music

Falling on hard times

Meet the once-destitute soul sensation who feels under-produced and over-hyped. Rich Glass speaks to Willis Earl Beal

ho is Willis Earl Beal? The underdog back story of this 27-year-old musician has led to a maelstrom of transatlantic media hype. Even on Wikipedia, it reads a bit like dirty realist fiction by Charles Bukowski: a tale of serial failures, but with a Hollywood ending. Born and raised in Chicagos South Side, Beal and his brother lived with their grandmother. Speaking over the phone from New York, Beal states that his sudden success hasnt registered with his family: Theyre going through the same struggles theyve always been going through, he says. My brother still works at the dollar store. My grandmother is still a caretaker. She works every single day.

Seeking greater purpose, he enrolled in the army. I wanted to be someone who could do something in life, Beal says. I was always pretty inept, a fuck-up. The stress of military life led to involuntary stomach spasms and he was discharged without having fought, before being diagnosed with an intestinal disorder that led to a five-month hospital stay. Now, its a cute little thing I can refer to, but its not [a] wholesome story. It was Beals subsequent move to Albuquerque that sparked his artistic awakening.

My brother still works at the dollar store. My grandmother is still a caretaker

He spent time homeless and worked dead-end jobs, before starting to make music with cheap guitars and a $40 microphone, recording to a karaoke machine with one working speaker. He also left flyers around town featuring his pencil sketches and invited people to call him up if they would like to hear him sing a song, or send a letter if theyd prefer to receive a drawing. Davy Rothbart of Found magazine stumbled on Beals work by accident and released a collection of his music, art and

writings, leading to an extensive feature in The Chicago Reader that, in turn, precipitated a record contract with XL recordings. His debut album, Acousmatic Sorcery, is a document of hard times. The record introduces him as the bastard love child of Marvin Gaye, Screaming Jay Hawkins and Captain Beefheart, his voice shifting from soul smoothness to a raging howl backed by dissonant instrumentation and sounding like it was recorded at some point during the American Civil War. Beal mocks the acclaim for its lo-fi sound: It wasnt a conscious choice. It was just a lack of equipment, he explains. Its a travesty people arent hearing the songs the way they should be hearing them. Hes already recorded a five-track EP with more fully realised versions. Despite having sought it out, Beal is intensely wary of his sudden fame: People tell you they like you, he says. But you dont really know if they actually like you or if they just believe they should like you. Beal also harbours an ironic hostility towards the Internet and social media: I wish someone would destroy it, he says. Its odd because its the very thing thats causing me to be famous. The dichotomy of that is that I feel its over-hyped me. These contradictions are further apparent as we discuss his pre-fame appearance on X Factor: I guess I had stars in my eyes. I thought I could go out there and show them something real. But it was just a bunch of fucking bums wearing sparkly costumes and singing in the bathroom. Talking about the experience of being homeless, Beal softens somewhat: I cant tell you how many bloated Native Americans on mouthwash I met on buses late at night, he says. These guys were just lonely and sad. They were like ghosts. Its these experiences Beal feels were his making as an artist. The homeless experience opened my eyes, caused me to believe in myself. Put a little fire in my ass. For all his self-belief, Beale says he will probably always feel a little like an outsider: Youre always on the fringes, because youre always at risk of being thrown out of whatever Old Boys Club youve been accepted into, he reflects. Were all walking through dreams anyway.
Willis Earl Beal plays London Calling Saturday 19 May. See listings for more details.

64 www.timeoutamsterdam.nl May 2012