When Beck recently passed through Australia for Harvest Festival and a single Sydney sideshow, the creator of Odelay dropped in on triple j to have a chat with The Doctor. During the interview Beck talked about the motivation behind his sheet music album Song Reader and when fans can expect a more standard audio album.
“Well I think the thing is [about Song Reader] it’s not playing a trick on anybody … for me it’s more about this thing that struck me was how much people used to play music on their own,” Beck told triple j.
“For example in America there was this song by Bing Crosby in the 1930s … the sheet music sold 54 million copies … I don’t think Thriller [by Michael Jackson] sold more then 18 million.”
“So if you think of it on that scale .. there’s something that’s really been lost in our culture … there’s this human aspect of someone playng a song themselves .. and that’s something I wanted to speak to with this project.”
In regards to a new album that will actually be recorded by Beck, the genre defying songsmith told triple j that he began work on a LP back in 2008 and hopes to finish it sooner rather then later.
“I started a record, largely recorded in 2008, so I’m trying to carve out some time from all the production work I’m doing to finish those songs before they become records from a lost era. It’s going on a half decade at this point,” Beck explained.
