Here's an excerpt from Beck's interview published in The Irish Times, where he talks about supporting U2 and about their song writing (not a negative word to be said) and about where music (at least in the US) could be heading (he talks about the St Louis show being cancelled).
“The band are very engaging and welcoming, generous, thoughtful, personable,” he says of the experience. “It was the most welcoming headliner of any tour I’ve been on. Here’s an example: usually when you open for someone, they don’t let the support act play louder than them. The headliner sets the limit. But with them, there was no limit. That tells you what kind of people they are: they were happy for me to be my best, and whatever they could do to help, they would.”
Even through his favourite prism of songcraft, he’s a big fan, he adds. “They’re the masters of what they do. As a songwriter you get to look very closely at how brilliantly the songs are constructed. For musicians, it’s a rarefied place that they inhabit.”
With tensions running high in the US, U2’s show in St Louis, Missouri was cancelled as protests in the city diverted their security. “I think we’ll soon hear more music that reflects where we’re at,” says Beck. “It always takes a while for music to come out; I’m sure in the next couple of years we’ll be flooded with music about these times.”
Would he be adding his voice? “I don’t know, there are so many moving parts. It would be easy to write about if there was one thing, but it’s systematic. Ultimately it’s one of these times of conflict, and it’s coming from all angles, everywhere. And it’s not just political – in America, it’s pervading a lot of areas.
“But society is a gigantic organism: it goes through periods of transition and periods of stasis. Not to make light of the difficulties, because it’s painful, but hopefully some of that leads to a better place than where we were. That’s my optimistic side, anyway.”
Over to you.