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Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails route by, essentially,
giving his music away to support a touring life?

Back at Riva Fish Inc., he can’t help but think of his loss of appetite for the road. “Even if I didn’t have a family, I’d have less of a desire to tour,” he says. “It’s something you can punish yourself with when you’re starting out. But after you’ve done eight or nine albums…. To do it, you’re either a machine or on drugs.

“I don’t know,” he continues. “I don’t make predictions because things change so much, but this is probably my last tour. There’s a point when it becomes apparent that it takes away more than it gives. There’s probably a lot of other jobs I’d rather do to support my family.”

As for another major-label deal, it’s doubtful. “Beck is definitely excited about going indie,” says someone close to the artist. It’s unclear if Interscope offered to extend his contract, but label executive Steve Berman is both obsequious—“Beck is very important us; he’s done an incredible body of work for this company”—and a little stunned by talk of Beck’s indie aspirations. (“If Beck chooses to pursue, you know, an independent route—[long pause] I haven’t heard that directly, so I’m not going to comment.”)

According to Beck, the choice of a major-label deal might not even be up to him. “I may never make anything again that a major record company would want,” he says. “I mean, I had to go play [Modern Guilt] for the European record company. They weren’t going to release it unless they heard the music first. I said, ‘Well, I’ve made other records.’ But I don’t think anything’s a given these days.”

BECK: I don’t pay attention to any of it, really. I’m not that aware of what the perception is. My father was doing Scientology in the ’60s, so it’s something that has been around for most of my life. But the only time I hear anything negative about it is in interviews. In the real world, people I know, they don’t give a shit. I was raised celebrating Jewish holidays, and I consider myself Jewish. But I’ve read books on Scientology and drawn insights from that. SPIN: Was there a time when you tried to keep it on the down-low for career purposes? BECK: No, I don’t think so. There were years when I wasn’t involved, but it didn’t mean that it wasn’t a part of what I grew up with. SPIN: Were you blindsided by the Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan story? BECK: Absolutely. That was out of nowhere for me. I knew Jeremy briefly.…I literally met him for a half hour [to discuss the Sea Change cover]. And he came in a couple of days later with about 20 or 30 ideas, and they all were great. SPIN: That was your total engagement with him? BECK: I saw him maybe four or five times socially after that. I didn’t really know him well.

SPIN: How seriously did you consider Theresa
Duncan’s script?
BECK: I’m not an actor. But he was a friend, and so
I read the thing and liked it. But I’d been offered
everything from High Fidelity to a John Waters film,
and I just turned it all down.

SPIN: Has the belief system of Scientology been a crucial part of your partnership with your wife? BECK: You know, it’s books; it’s not a belief system. It’s only true if it’s true for you. That’s the way anything is. With my wife, I think…you respond to a person as a person. It’s not based on anything other than two human beings. We’re just like anybody else, working and trying to raise a family.

PITCH ADJUSTMENT PITCH ADJUSTMENT

When Beck signed his deal with Universal (which started him on Geffen, then moved him to Interscope), he was guaranteed the right to also release music on smaller, indie labels. It only briefly worked out that way. Now it’s at the point of leaving the company that he can open the floodgates if he wants. Does he envision reupping with a major or going the

FADE-OUT FADE-OUT So how will this play out? Quickly, for a reporter. Beck needs his rest before showtime. But for arguably the most imaginative cultural synthesist and record-maker of his generation?

“I have no idea. I know I’ll be working on music. I
have some ideas of things I want to do, and I have a
lot of things recorded, so I wouldn’t be surprised if
I had a few things coming out sooner or later.”

In his downtime last year, Beck dived deeply into movie watching. Film directing, not acting, intrigues him. So he obsessively mainlined vintage flicks: tons of westerns (a fact that even he finds hilarious) and the entire filmography of the brooding Swedish master, Ingmar Bergman. Very heavy sledding.

“Yeah,” he says, “but Bergman’s stuff taught me a lot. Like patience: just the willingness to go with something, to suspend belief and surrender to the nonlinear. There are so many things in music these days that can desensitize you. I’ve been trying to avoid that and resensitize.” With what looks like his last flicker of energy, he fingers his sweater.

“Yeah,” he says softly. “I think that’s what’s
needed right now. A resensitizing.”
BURN BURN
Ninety minutes later, Beck and his scorching band
bring the Melkweg down.