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| Birth Name(s) : Bek David Campbell [1] [2] |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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| Profession:
Actor |
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Full Beck Biography
Beck Hansen (born Bek David Campbell, July 8, 1970) is a Grammy Award-winning American musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, known by his simple stage name of Beck.
Beck was born in Los Angeles, California to David Campbell, a Canadian musician, and Bibbe Hansen, a visual artist. His maternal grandfather was Al Hansen, a visual collage artist of the Fluxus school of art. His paternal grandfather was a Presbyterian minister, while his maternal great-grandmother was Jewish; although Beck says he was raised partially in the Jewish religion, he is a Scientologist, as are his wife and his father. Beck's mother also has Norwegian and Swedish ancestry. When his parents separated, Beck stayed with his mother and brother in Los Angeles, where he was influenced by that city's diverse musical offerings—everything from hip hop to Latin music and his mother's art scene—all of which would later reappear in his recorded and published work.
The founders of Bong Load Custom Records, Tom Rothrock, Rob Schnapf and Bradshaw Lambert discovered Beck, signing him to their fledgling label. "Loser," a collaboration between hip hop nuance producer Carl Stephenson and Beck, created a sensation when radio host Chris Douridas played the song on Morning Becomes Eclectic, the flagship music program from Santa Monica College radio station KCRW. That exposure and a subsequent live performance on the show July 23, 1993 led to a bidding war among labels to sign Beck. Eventually, he chose Geffen Records, who offered him terms that included an allowance for the release of independent albums while under contract. Of all the record labels to offer Beck a contract, Geffen offered him the least amount of money, but the greatest amount of creative freedom.
When the time came to record his follow-up to Mellow Gold, he enlisted Rothrock and Schnapf as producers and began recording an album of moody, low-key acoustic numbers to showcase his songwriting. The songs were melancholy due to several close deaths in Beck's life, including one of his greatest inspirations, his grandfather. Eventually, Beck shelved the album and pursued a more upbeat approach. Beck was introduced to the Dust Brothers, producers of the Beastie Boys' album Paul's Boutique, whose cut-and-paste, sample-heavy production suited Beck's vision of a more fun, accessible album.
A song Beck co-wrote with William Orbit, "Feel Good Time", was recorded by pop singer Pink and included on the soundtrack of the 2003 film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.
Beck performed at the music and arts festival Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tennessee on June 17, 2006. He performed many songs from his album Guero. In addition to his band, Beck was accompanied onstage by a group of puppets, dressed as him and members of his band. Live video feed of the puppets' performance was broadcast on video screens to the audience. The puppets were part of his 2006 world tour.
Beck's seventh major label studio album, The Information, which again reunited him with Nigel Godrich, was released on October 3, 2006. The album reportedly took more than three years to make and was described as "quasi hip-hop." It came with a sheet of stickers, which were to be used to "make your own album cover." The lead U.S. single, "Nausea", officially went to radio on September 5, 2006. In the UK, the first single was "Cellphone's Dead". The Information in its entirety was leaked onto the Internet in late September. On September 27, 2006, Beck released a Yahoo! Music Unlimited exclusive track before the album was released, titled "Think I'm In Love". Customers who purchased at Best Buy were treated to an exclusive download of an outtake track titled "This Girl That I Know", whereas Target shoppers received "Inside Out", both of which were on European versions of the disc. Some U.S. stores also included a bonus disc, featuring the track "O Menina", which was also included in the Japanese release, along with the other two bonus tracks. Some copies of the album include a bonus DVD of "homemade" (by Beck and Godrich) music videos for each song. Because of its inclusion of free stickers, The Information was disqualified by the Official Chart Company from entering the UK albums chart, but in the U.S. the album gave Beck his third straight Top 10 studio album peak on the Billboard 200, reaching #7.
Beck married actress Marissa Ribisi, the twin sister of actor Giovanni Ribisi, in April 2004, shortly before the birth of their son, Cosimo Henri Hansen. Ribisi gave birth to another child in 2007.
Beck has performed on Saturday Night Live six times; these shows were respectively hosted by Kevin Spacey, Bill Paxton, Christina Ricci, Jennifer Garner, Tom Brady and Hugh Laurie. He has made two cameo appearances as himself on Saturday Night Live: one in a sketch about medical marijuana, and one in a VH1 Behind the Music parody that featured "Fat Albert & the Junkyard Gang".
He has also performed a guest voice as himself in Matt Groening's animated show Futurama, in the episode "Bendin' in the Wind"
He also made a very brief voice appearance in 1998 cartoon feature film, The Rugrats Movie' and guest starred as himself in a 1997 episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, entitled "Edelweiss". |
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