Homeward Bound: Indie Vet Howie Beck Gets Local With New Album
Posted March 4, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
When Howie Beck plays the first show in support of his brand new album March 26, it’s fitting it’ll happen in Ottawa.
After all How To Fall Down In Public – the Toronto-based songster/producer’s first record in four years – represents more than a reintroduction to the music world.
It’ s a reintroduction to his country.
“I’m pretty excited to get things going again in Canada, especially because I really haven’t focused too much energy here,” says Beck, a veteran of more than a decade of independent music with a list of friends, appreciators and accomplices that includes Hayden, Jason Collett and Gonzales, the latter of whom was a notable contributor to the new disc.
“When I put records out I tend to spend more time overseas.”
Appropriately enough the album was conceived away from home.
A poppy, folksy nine-song jaunt with a certain grassroots accessibility, Beck put his fourth release together in Paris, stretching his creative legs while drumming on Gonzales recordings and developing a more “spontaneous” approach to his own art.
“I basically just set up shop there for a month and ate baguettes and walked around and drank espresso and wrote music, so in that sense alone Gonzo was really inspiring,” he says.
“I tend to be pretty claustrophobic in the way that I record … this time I kind of just wanted to open the door a bit more.”
The result may be Beck’s liveliest album, one he hopes will serve as a bridge back to the place he came from, a place he’s still not sure really gets him.
“For my past two records there’s an interest in what I do in the U.K and in Europe that’s unlike the interest here,” he admits.
“I’m still not sure why that is. It’ s fine, it’s a little strange but I decided this time consciously that I’m really going to try and promote this record in Canada first.”
Those efforts include the show in Ottawa as well as Montreal, Peterborough, Toronto, Waterloo and Guelph dates starting in a couple of weeks.
With them Beck seeks a nice start to this chapter of his career. And he’s hoping the Internet will help.
“In my experience people who become fans of my music become really serious fans and I guess by definition it’s a bit of a cult following,” he notes. “But I think this time the availably of music and social networking might really be a difference for me.”
A greater willingness to self-promote will also play an important role and it’s a skill the 38-year-old is only now starting to hone.
“I just think this time I’m more willing to do the things that aren’t music things, like interviews,” Beck concedes.
“I’ve done more of it and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Often you get to meet nice people and talk about your music.”
Or listen to it. And Canada’s full of people waiting to do both.
Howie Beck plays the Mod Club with Dan Griffin of Arkells on April 1.
More Music:
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Hamilton’s Arkells Head Promisingly Down Canada’s Long Rock And Roll Road
Legion Heirs: Toronto’s New Music Scene Taking To The Lodge?
