LOOP “I was popping into people’s studios all the time [in the early ’90s], recording different tracks. When the guy from Bong Load [Records] called to tell me they were releasing ‘Loser,’ I don’t think I even had a copy of it; that’s how long it had been since I recorded it. Then a major label in New York, which I won’t name, called and said they wanted to meet with me. I didn’t want to go. But a friend said, ‘ Why not? They’re gonna pay for your ticket!’ ”

“I was going for 30, but I would have loved 28,” Beck says about the running time of Modern Guilt, which clocks in at a fleet 33 minutes. He’s the kind of conversationalist who takes in your questions with expressionless eyes, then looks for his answers somewhere over your shoulder. “A lot of my favorite records are around 28 minutes. Rubber Soul. Pink Moon. It wasn’t really conscious, but I like giving myself a challenge. ‘ What can I say in 30 minutes that doesn’t need to be said in 50?’ ”

SCRATCH SCRATCH VOCAL SPIN: Is Beck’s working method similar to that of other artists—Gorillaz, MF Doom, the Black Keys—you’ve collaborated with? DANGER MOUSE: In certain ways, but different in others. He can write songs so fast. It’s something I wasn’t used to. SPIN: Did that surprise you? Did your respect for Beck grow? DANGER MOUSE: Absolutely. It’s not to say that I didn’t have respect for him going in. But watching him work the way he does…[As a producer], I’m always feeling pressure to figure out “How the hell is this going to work?” And before you knew it, he had the solution. And I’m just watching, astonished, and going, “Okay, that’s why you’re Beck.”

PUNCH-IN
“I hear it is very short, but good!” says a breath-
less young Israeli about Modern Guilt, outside the
Melkweg three hours before showtime.
“And I hear it is a return to form!” squeals his
new BFF, a Netherlander in shorts and a blazer. “It
starts quiet and gets psychedelic. Just like Beck!”

REWIND The place looks as if it seats 100, but there are only six of us here. Somewhere on the other side of majestic Lake Zurich, 45,000 shnockered locals are crammed onto the waterfront boulevard Fanmeile (Fan Mile) to watch the 2008 European Soccer Championship final on three mammoth video screens. No wonder there are so few of us tucking into the langoustine ragout with lemongrass sauce at the divine lakeside eatery Riva Fish Inc., with its stunning night view of swaying sailboats and luxe mountainside homes.

Beck, who hasn’t a care or a clue who is getting their kicks tonight on the soccer pitch, does the monkfish and gazpacho—the latter, he’s been assured by a friend, will act as a coolant on what has been a stultifying day in Switzerland. Not even the boat ride he, his actress wife Marissa Ribisi, and the little Hansens took hours earlier could cut the heat. “The kids were, like…” Beck makes a low groaning sound. “Let’s just hope there’s no heatstroke.”

If you didn’t know better, you might think that’s exactly what has zapped Beck’s energy tonight. “Low-key” doesn’t quite describe his vibe; that would suggest he’s a warm-bodied presence. In fact, he’s more of an essence—there but not there, friendly but remote, in the flesh but somewhere in the clouds, too. It suits his ethereal looks, which are still long and lean and striking, even if his Huck Finn features, now framed by shoulder-length locks, have yielded to faint age lines, dense stubble, and an unexpected crop of chest hair.

REWIND REWIND REWIND The decision to collaborate on Modern Guilt with Danger Mouse dates back several years. “When The Grey Album came out [in 2004], I thought, ‘I’d like to work with this guy,’ ” Beck says. “I didn’t know anything about him at the time. But we started running into each other in L.A. [Late in 2007] I called him and said, ‘I’d like to work on something by the end of the year.’ But he only had one day available, because he was finishing the [second] Gnarls Barkley record. So that day we did the first song on the album, ‘Orphans.’ And then he said, ‘ You know, tomorrow I can come by, too.’ And the next day we did ‘Gamma Ray.’

“I think in January he told me he had two weeks. And I thought, ‘Well, if we did two songs in two days…’ So we got together again and did a lot of songs, 15 or 16 really quickly.” That number grew to 30 or 35. Only ten are on the record.

LOOP LOOP LOOP

“So I went, and I met with these two executives in some high-rise in Manhattan. They sat me down across from this big desk and, out of these huge speakers, blasted my own song right at me. You know how these guys do—they started bobbing their heads to the music.”

DATA COMPRESSION DATA COMPRESSION

CROSSTALK CROSSTALK SPIN: Your contract with Interscope gives you complete creative control, but did label executives express excitement that you were working with a hitmaker like Danger Mouse? BECK: I never heard a word, but I’m sure they weren’t angry. But the fact that somebody makes hit songs, that’s not what attracts me to them. SPIN: Was there any commercial consideration in choosing Danger Mouse? He’s not the kind of producer you’ve chosen to work with in the past. BECK: Well, in ’ 98 I was gonna work with the Neptunes. I’d just recorded Midnite Vultures and was listening to the first stuff they were doing. But I took a few years off, and by the time I came back, they’d become the producers, and for that reason I thought our musical collaboration wouldn’t be pure. When [Danger Mouse’s multiplatinum] Gorillaz record came out, I thought, “Maybe it’s the same thing, again.” But after he and I met and hung out, I decided I wasn’t gonna second-guess it. SPIN: Do you feel pressure to make hit singles? BECK: I don’t. The songs that were successful weren’t intended to be. It’s weird. With Odelay, I thought we were doing something experimental. SPIN: What was going on in the culture at the time that made that album a hit? BECK: I have no idea. I mean, maybe it was so different from what was prevalent at the time. You know, we were coming off of six or seven years of homogenization, that ’90s rock sound. I think it got acceptance by default. SPIN: Aren’t you undervaluing its boldness? BECK: Well, it definitely had energy and that threads-hangin’-out kind of sound. But part of it was just ineptitude, and the other was trying to avoid certain things that, when I started out, I just considered bad taste. Certain beats, drums sounds, guitar sounds. But that album sat around for six months or longer. I had many people tell me that it wasn’t good and would be a mistake to release. But at least I went out and did something interesting, instead of trying to re-can “Loser” ten times. SPIN: So what happened? BECK: When the reviews came out, I got an incredulous call from my tour manager: “Have you seen the reviews?!” After Mellow Gold, I stopped reading them, and I said, “Are they awful?” He went, “No! They’re saying it’s a great record!” I was shocked. SPIN: How did— BECK: I’m sorry. I’ve gotta catch a bus.

YEAR 1994 1994 1994 1996 1998 1999 2002 2005 2005 2006 2008

TITLE Mellow Gold One Foot in the Grave Stereopathetic Soulmanure Odelay Mutations Midnite Vultures Sea Change Guero Guerolito The Information Modern Guilt

COPIES SOLD 1. 2 MILLION 168,000

92,000

2. 2 MILLION 587,000 743,000 679,000 867,000

76,000 432,000 84,000*

*FIRST- WEEK FIGURE

HARMONIC DISTORTION B eck and family’s bumpy overnight travel time f rom Zurich to Amsterdam by tour bus: 12 hours.

S pin reporter’s travel time from Zurich t o Amsterdam by Boeing 737 (after a sweet night’s sleep): one hour, five minutes.

H H ARMONIC DISTORTION “BECK, RIBISI BU Y $7 MILLION L. A. HOME”

— People.com, November 12, 2007