Interview with William Beckmann

What is going on?! It is Adam. Welcome back to bringing it backwards. A podcast where both legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories of how they achieve stardom. On this episode, we had a chance to chat with William Beckman over zoom, video, William born and raised and Del Rio, Texas. And he talks about how you got into music, started playing guitar, the Ana middle school and the high school, and became fascinated with songwriting, but he never really showed anyone the songs until he got into college. After high school, he moved to Austin, Texas. He was working on a degree in business all while trying to really get his artist project off the ground, learning to write better and better songs. 3 (1m 53s): After a couple years in Austin, he moved to Nashville to finish up college. While in Nashville, he was just working on his craft, going back between national and Texas to play different shows. He talked about how one of his songs made it onto the radio and in Texas, and this cool story about these local artists, local, Texas artists, how they have their own radio charts there. And a lot of different stations will play a lot of local artists or native Texan artists. And that's kind of how he got discovered. He got discovered at one of these radio shows. He talks about how that landed him, booking agents and management, and eventually a deal with Warner chapel. And he also talks to us all about his most recent record, which is called faded memories. 3 (2m 38s): You can watch our interview with William on our Facebook page and YouTube channel at bringing it backwards. It would be awesome if you subscribe to our channel like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and tick-tock at bringing back pod. And if you're listening to this on Spotify, apple music or Google podcast, wherever you get your podcasts, it would be amazing if you follow us there as, and hook us up with a five star review, 4 (3m 2s): We'd appreciate your support. If you follow and subscribe to our podcasts, wherever you listen to podcasts, 3 (3m 8s): We're bringing it backwards with William Beckman. Cool man. Well, again, I appreciate you doing this. My name is Adam, and this is about you, your journey in music. And we'll talk about the new record you have out. 5 (3m 20s): Wait, thank you, Adam. 3 (3m 22s): Sweet. So tell me born and raised. You said in Texas. Tell me about that. What part? 5 (3m 28s): So I am from Del Rio, Texas, which is a small town on the Mexican border lived in, in Del Rio up until I was graduated from high school. And then I moved to Austin for a couple years, and then I moved to Nashville after that. So yeah, it's, it's, it's been quite the journey, but Del Rio is, is always been my, my home. 3 (3m 53s): That's cool. Whereabouts in Texas? Cause I mean, I'm from San Diego, which is a border town as well. So I'm curious to where, like, what is the, the city on the other side, like Mexico city, 5 (4m 4s): The name of the town that borders Del Rio is called Akuna, it's a small town in the state of Quila and yeah, it's, it's a, it's a great little town. It's pretty famous for a couple of different things, but lots of videos have been, or sorry. Movies have been done. There's there's a famous movie called Desperado. Yeah. With the guitar case and the guns and San Antonio. 3 (4m 32s): Yeah. Jericho Bandera. So that was a rat. I forgot about that movie. It was a great movie 5 (4m 36s): Rodriguez film. So yeah, that's, that's one of the famous films that was done down there and what's crazy is we just, did we just filmed two days ago, we filmed a music video in that same bar where that shootout, that was really neat. I mean, I'm excited about it. 3 (4m 53s): That's awesome. That's so cool. So would you go down there pretty often or no. 5 (4m 58s): When I was, when I was really young, we would go there quite, quite frequently. And we still go to today. It's a lot of, it's a lot of fun and it's safe and there's nothing to worry about there for awhile. It was, it was a little bit kinda shady to, to do that, but it's, it's anytime you're dealing with the international travel, it can get kind of squirrely sometimes. But 3 (5m 18s): Yeah, we used to go down to Tijuana all the time and the border town. Yeah. I mean, as young as I can remember, like my grandma like loved going to Tijuana, we'd go down there and they can barter and buy a bunch of crap, 5 (5m 32s): Eat the food man, the food 3 (5m 34s): Tacos and everything else that on there too 5 (5m 37s): Actually canned food is, is to dive for. Yeah. Yeah. 3 (5m 41s): That's awesome. So cause you speak Spanish as well. 5 (5m 43s): I do. I actually do. Yes. 3 (5m 45s): And was that something that you learned growing up or your parents speak Spanish at all? 5 (5m 50s): Vanished. My, my siblings speak Spanish and most people that live around Del Rio do, it's just kind of, it's, it's kind of second nature to you. Everybody, everybody speaks Spanish. So you better learn how to pick it up. Otherwise they'll start talking about you behind your back. You need to, 3 (6m 10s): Yeah, dude. I know what you're talking about. Yeah. It's not as much in San Diego where I was at, but I mean you, yeah, he definitely needed, you picked up Spanish pretty quickly as you kind of went, went about your life down there. So that's cool. Yeah. Cause I know you use that in your, in your music a bit, you know, you translate back from Spanish and English, but I'm curious what got you into music and how old were you 5 (6m 38s): See I'm 26 years old now. And I suppose I started playing music when I was eight or nine. I started playing piano and then I sort of transitioned into playing the guitar, but I don't know. I just really kind of became an interest interested in it at a young age. And I had a really, really good mentor when I was in high school. His name's Brad, he foster. And he's also from, from Del Rio and that's kind of how we we'd connected. He lives in Nashville, but was born and raised in Del Rio. So we had mutual people that we knew and he got, he's the one that I credit to gotten me into songwriting. 5 (7m 18s): And the one that really convinced me to, to pursue it as a, as a career. So I leaned on him very early on when I was about 15, 16 years old. I didn't really know how to write songs back then. And he was the one that really encouraged me to do that. So Radney foster was a big influence on me. That's kind of how 3 (7m 38s): He just lives in your town or, I mean, 5 (7m 41s): My town, he lives in Nashville, very accomplished a very, very famous songwriter, 3 (7m 46s): But pre, but prior to that, was he or he's from your town? So you knew met him in Nashville. 5 (7m 53s): Exactly. He was the one person that I can, like I could connect with in Nashville and he was into it. Yeah. 3 (7m 59s): Okay. So you started playing piano at early age and then around 15 is when you started songwriting. Is that what you said? 5 (8m 5s): Started writing songs around 15. 16. 3 (8m 7s): Okay. And were you playing in a band or they just wrote, 5 (8m 13s): I did have, I was in a cover band and all throughout high school and we played just cover songs again, I wasn't really much of a songwriter. None of us really were, but I knew it was something that I, I wanted to get into and that I sort of had to, because it's hard to make a career out of just singing other people's songs. So I, I, I knew that at some point sooner or later we were going to have to start writing our own music and, and I sort of took the initiative to do that. And by the time I got into college, I was, I was barely starting to feel comfortable as a songwriter, a feel like I was actually coming up with songs that were halfway decent. So it was a, it was a couple of years of really, really beautiful songs before I started feeling comfortable with it. 3 (9m 0s): Okay. And do you remember that moment where you living in Austin? I mean, you said you went to Austin first and then Nashville did that kind of come together? 5 (9m 8s): I think it was sometime when I was living in Austin, did I started to think that they were starting to, to be good, you know, most, most of the time people would ask me to sing songs that I'd written us too. I was too shy. Cause I didn't think there are any good, but I remember that period of my life where I was like, yeah, I can play something and I'm playing something like, wow, that's great. And I'm like, thank you. You know? And it started to evolve from there. And now I look back on like most of those songs and think that they weren't that good because you're always sort of critiquing yourself and you're looking back and you're always a little bit hard on yourself, but, but they weren't bad songs. You know, they were actually pretty, pretty decent and, and now I feel even more comfortable than I than I did back then. 5 (9m 53s): So it's been a very big growing process, you know, it's been a, it's been interesting to see the growth. 3 (10m 1s): Sure. Do you remember the song or the moment that you were like, I feel like I feel comfortable enough playing this for someone. 5 (10m 9s): I don't really remember the song, but I remember like I remember several songs in my mind. They're all sort of, sort of lumped together by these areas of my life. You know, every year everywhere I lived, you know, every, every song writers got the COVID sessions now, everything, she came 3 (10m 29s): Up, 5 (10m 30s): Half of being cooped, you know, it, it's kind of blocked off in your mind as these different, these different little areas. And, and, and that when that moment, that era of my life and I was living in Austin, I think was when I started to come out of my shell a little bit and be more comfortable and maybe confidence, maybe that's the word I'm looking for is having, having the confidence to, to go out there and play songs for people and, and tell people that I was a song writer. And then once I moved to Nashville, it only got better from there because every, I was surrounded by so many songwriters and you learn and you pick up so much and you collab with people and it, it, it only helps you refine your, your craft that much more. 3 (11m 14s): What did you go to Austin for music? 5 (11m 17s): No, I, I was studying, I was studying business. And then when I, when I moved to, when I transferred over to Belmont university, I, I stuck with the business program, but Belmont is really big in the music business. That's true for. So I was able to change my major to the music, to a music business major and, and that's what I ended up graduating with. 3 (11m 40s): Okay. And what made you decide to go to Belmont? Was it, were you going to like a community college in Texas that you wanted transformed true or like made you decide, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to leave this school, this area, and I'm going to move to Nashville. 5 (11m 54s): I knew that I wanted to check Nashville out. It wasn't a, there wasn't like a very specific reason for it. I had a couple friends that had, that had gone to Belmont and said that they really liked it. And, and I applied, I remember applying and thinking to myself, if I got accepted, I'd be over the moon. But if I didn't and I had to stay in Austin, I'd be just as content. So really a very stressful transition for me when I did get accepted. I knew that I wanted to stick with the music business program because at Belmont there's there's kids, they'll study a commercial voice, which basically means they can sing incredibly well. 5 (12m 36s): And that's what their major is. And there's students that will that'll have songwriting as their, as their major. I mean, that's what they're getting a degree. And I didn't want that. I D I didn't want anybody to sort of teach me how to write songs. I felt like I was doing a decent, decent job of figuring it out on my own. I wanted somebody to teach me kind of how to make, how to make money, you know, how to make, I make 3 (12m 57s): A living, right. 5 (12m 59s): I don't, I can take singing lessons on the side and I can take songwriting classes on the side, but when it comes to getting a degree, I wanted to figure out how to actually take what I'm doing and, and apply that into the real world and into the music business, and try to figure out how to kind of make the career, whether that's as an artist, a manager, a publisher, you know, there's all kinds of different things that, that you could, you could do. And so I knew that if it didn't work out for me as an artist or song that I wanted to be involved in the music business, some in some other aspect, and that that degree helped give me the, the education that I think was necessary to do that. 3 (13m 40s): So did you finish at Belmont and then you just, the whole time, you're just continuing to write songs and meet people. Like, what was the like Tran, like when did the artist's career start going? 5 (13m 50s): I graduated in 2017 and I was writing songs all throughout my time in Nashville as a student. And then I, I sort of stayed in Nashville for about, about a year before I decided to quit my job that I had. I had like a bartending job and I quit that. And then I just went all in, started, put a record out and then started booking shows myself, which was fun. It was fun at times, and it wasn't that others, but we did that for about a year. And then shortly after that, I got picked up by William Morris. 5 (14m 30s): So they started booking me, which helps that didn't book myself anymore. And then I got a publishing deal with Warner, with Warner chapel, and a management deal with red light management. So that those three big deals really helped change my life. And, and now here we are. 3 (14m 51s): Wow. I mean, that's pretty, that's incredible. So like, what was that first land? I mean, to get the booking agency on board, like, how did you meet those people? And that happened, 5 (15m 1s): That happened through one of my best friends now, now who, who was a very accomplished singer songwriter, his name's Randy Rogers. And I met him. I'm a huge fan of his, and I was w when I was in high school, I was playing all his songs and he was, he'd caught wind of me and saw me play in Texas. And, and he's the one that sort of took me under his wing and helped open all those doors for me and yeah, him and I are like, best friends. Now. He's like a big brother to me. I wouldn't have it if it wasn't for him. So I've got to give him some credit. 3 (15m 42s): Is he the one that introduced you then to Warner, chapel and red light management and all that 5 (15m 47s): He's like with a snap of his finger? It was, it was done. It was a done deal. It's pretty awesome. 3 (15m 52s): That's so crazy. Do you, do, did he tell you, like, when he saw you, like, do you remember him seeing you, like, did you, were you aware he was at the show in Texas or, 5 (16m 0s): Yeah, buzz. It was a, this big radio award show that they do every year in Texas. And he was there and I, I saw him from a distance, but then they, I had the opportunity to sing one song in front of everybody. So I sang a song and he came up to me after the show and invited me on his tour bus to hang out and have a beer. And so we did, and we kind of hit it off and ever since then, he's been, and he's been really 3 (16m 26s): Crazy. 5 (16m 27s): And, you know, and it's, I feel like it's a cliche thing to say, you know, sometimes it's, it's not what, you know, it's who, you know, but I think, I think that moment in my life really made me realize it's not, it's pretty true because one person, it, it doesn't take away anything from your talent or, or the part of work that you've put in. But one person, one contact can really help open up an incredible amount of doors for you and, and, and make things move a lot faster versus trying to build those relationships organically by yourself without any help. So, yeah, it was, it was, it was kind of funny the fact that I had to temporarily move back to Texas and played shows, which is what got me the opportunity to make some of these deals happen back in Nashville. 5 (17m 15s): So it was pretty ironic, but it was it's awesome. 3 (17m 18s): That is so cool with the, I'm just curious now about the radio show, how did you get that one? 5 (17m 24s): I had a radio promoter, an independent radio promoter that got me into that award show in Texas, their own radio circuit. So there's these radio stations that will play a lot of independent artists, a lot of Texas artists. And then they have their own, their own radio chart every week. So you can have a song that goes number one in Texas, based off of all the songs that are getting spun in the state 3 (17m 51s): Really that's crazy. Cause I come from radio, I did radio for 17 years. We didn't, well, I only worked in California, but I didn't know they did that in Texas. That's so awesome. 5 (18m 1s): Terrestrial radio chart. And, and so of course, a lot of us, we pay attention to that and who's getting the most spins and the state. And anyway, there's a lot of independent radio promoters too. That'll help you help your song. Get up on the chart. And my radio promoter at the time was the one that took my first single and started pushing it to radio. And she was the one that got me in, in the door to do that award show at the end of, at the end of the year. And that's where I met all those, all those really cool people. 3 (18m 37s): That's incredible. Where was the show at? Was it in Houston? 5 (18m 42s): I'll never forget. It was Arlington, Texas 3 (18m 44s): Arlington. Okay. 5 (18m 45s): Probably in early 2019 maybe. And yeah, it was really honestly the night that changed my life. I met a lot of great people that night and, and it really kind of helped me do what I'm doing now. 3 (19m 3s): Wow. That's awesome. I love to hear stories like that. Or like the radio actually helps build a career, especially in 2019. I feel like the, like, I, I was a part of a lot of bands, you know, getting kind of exposure in that, in that realm and seeing them kind of off over it over the course of years, but to see that in 2019, like, I mean, I couldn't remember that really happening the last few times where like maybe Portugal the man, or like now I guess glass animals, but like, other than that, like it's cool to hear like something from like 2019, which isn't that long ago and especially right before the pandemic. Cause then that's when everything went out the window, but like to hear that that's, that's so awesome. 5 (19m 44s): Yeah, no, it's really, it is cool to, to think about. And I love, you know, I, I still listen to a lot of radio today, sometimes when I don't know what to put on, on, you know, on my Spotify, I'll just tune into whatever's playing. And again, a lot of it, especially when I'm in Texas, a lot of it's terrestrial radio. So you just put it on FM and I find a country station and then you'll end up coming across some songs that you've never heard of before. So you always should Zam it and you look them up and it's some, some artists with, you know, 1500 followers on Instagram and he found you on the radio. Bizarre. 3 (20m 21s): That's amazing. Like they don't, again, they don't really do that. We're were the markets I was in, there was local shows specific to that city and they were like on Sunday night, you know, it wasn't like you could cruise around at, you know, Thursday at five 30 in here, like some unknown person. 5 (20m 40s): Yeah. That's great. That's that's awesome. And, and they've got a really good, yeah, they're pretty picky. I mean, if they spin it on the radio, then, then that's, that's great. But yeah, I mean, sometimes it's just some, sometimes it could be like some high school kids, some, some high school girl that just dropped an EAP and the songs are amazing and they get makes its way to the radio and it's crazy. 3 (21m 5s): Wow. Okay. So having all that kind of happen in 2019, you said the early 2019 was that all kind of came together for you. So then you make, you make all the Eagles. Now you got a booking agent, you've got a manager you're you got a pub deal with Warner chapel. And you're probably like, okay, you know, it's happening, it's finally happening. And then what, like a year later, the whole entire country shuts down and like, where were you like free when that happened? Like when all these things are kind of landing, are you, do you have a record ready to come out? And then does that delay everything? Or like, like, I guess, walk me through like the end of 2019 where you were and then how the obviously 20, 20 crushed everybody. 3 (21m 46s): And what was that like, 5 (21m 48s): We were about to go into the studio and make a record before everything happened. And then that record is essentially the record that just came out of the same songs. There were a couple of new, newer songs that were written that were added on to that project, but yeah, it stopped everything. Everything for me, things were starting to feel really good and feel like they were moving and, and the shows were going really well. And of course, everybody had to had to quit for a little while, but yeah, it was hard. It was definitely disheartening, especially because, you know, as well as I do that, it takes, it takes a while to build up a certain level of momentum with whatever, whether it's your, your streaming numbers, whether it's social media growth or your ticket sales, anything, it takes a while to build up speed. 5 (22m 41s): And so I felt like we were doing that and when everything came to a screeching halt, it, it just, I mean, it just bummed me out honestly. And, and then of course COVID happened, but now it's really kind of cool because it feels like we're building up that, that same kind of momentum that we had before. And we're just trying to keep it up and build it and, and, and really just deliver and make sure that we don't waste, waste the opportunity that we have. And when I say we, I mean my whole team, my band it's been, it's been a beautiful journey and I know that we're just getting started. So yeah, it was COVID was definitely a bummer for everybody, but things are, things are looking really well right now. 5 (23m 28s): So we're excited. Yeah. 3 (23m 29s): That's cool. I mean, the tour you're on. Tell me about that real quick. Cause I mean, the ascent amphitheater that you're playing it is it's pretty big spa, right? I mean, it's what like 6,500. 5 (23m 39s): Yeah. It'll be a, the Randy Rogers band and Parker McCollum and myself, I'll be the first of three. 3 (23m 46s): And are you doing that entire tour with them? 5 (23m 48s): No, this is a, I've done a couple tours with both of those artists and they're, they're really good friends of mine, but I think this is the one, I think this is one, should we did one show like this in Oklahoma city, but they just kind of been these one-off shows. I've actually been doing a lot of headlining stuff myself, which has been 3 (24m 6s): Cool 5 (24m 8s): To see. Cause that's always interesting for me to see how many people come out just to hear us play as the, you know, for the headliner then there's no, we're not a support act and it's always cool. You see four or 500 people show up to come see you play. That puts a smile on my face. 3 (24m 24s): Yeah. That's huge. That's awesome. Cause you have a big tour coming up next month, I believe. Right. All through Texas. 5 (24m 31s): Absolutely. 3 (24m 33s): That's exciting. And is this the first time that you've got like really a chance to do since COVID yes. 5 (24m 38s): You know, it's been again, COVID kind of through made things a little bit weird. They've always been kind of one-off shows it hasn't felt like an actual tour. Like we've left for weeks two, three weeks and, and played it's always been sporadic, but, but like I said, now that things are starting to pick back up. I would imagine we'll be gone more than we're at home, so 3 (25m 4s): Yeah. That's exciting. That's super exciting. So with faded memories, that's the new record? You said a lot of those were done pre COVID 5 (25m 13s): Most of them, yes. 3 (25m 14s): Okay. And then how did that affect the, the album when it, when you came into it, like, okay, we have these songs, we wait on putting it out because nothing's going on, we can't support it. And then did you go back? You said you added songs to the record, but like was the record done mixed, mastered, or were you able to go back and kind of tweak and relisten to stuff? A bunch of times 5 (25m 34s): It was a very loose process. I mean, we, we had all the time in the world to work on it just because this record was done over the course of, of the pandemic. But I remember there was two songs in particular. One was a song that I wrote called 30 miles. And then the second one was the Bruce Springsteen cover that we did have I'm on fire, which I've always loved that song, but those two tracks were actually recorded by my producer and myself. And there was nobody else on those tracks. So there's just two of us and we overdubbed everything. So I'm playing all the guitars and the bass and he's playing the drums and of course I'm singing it. 5 (26m 17s): Then I played the keys. And so it sounds like a full band. It sounds like a whole production, but it's really just him and I being in the studio because we couldn't get any musicians. It was like right in the middle of everything and nobody was, was leaving their house. And so we, we went in the studio just by ourselves and, and, and honestly it just kinda messed around until we found something that sounded good. But those two songs off of the record were just by ourselves because we couldn't, we couldn't risk having a bunch of people in the same space. 3 (26m 50s): Wow. Okay. So those two songs did that kind of set the tone then for the, for the rest of the record, 5 (26m 57s): We're actually the first two sessions that we did. Those were those two songs. And later on, we were able to get some musicians in. But, but yeah, that, I remember, I distinctly remember those two songs being him and I, and me thinking to myself, man, this sounds like a full band. Nobody would believe us if we told them it was just us, you know, spending hours just messing around. 3 (27m 22s): That's so amazing. And you said you have a video that you just recently shot? 5 (27m 27s): Yes. That's the first song called danced all night long and we filmed that in Mexico and I'm really excited about it. It's going to be a really cool video. It took us a long time to shoot because we did it in one T or like one shot. So it never, it never, there's no edits from the beginning one, one consistent shot. So hopefully it, hopefully it comes out great. I know we did the tag about nine or 10 times, which was really, really difficult and it was a very tedious job, but, but yeah, like if we messed up once, I mean, that was it. We had to start over. So 3 (28m 7s): Yeah, one shot there. You're just like, okay, go. And then the whole video. 5 (28m 12s): Yeah. So the whole video kind of tells the story of me falling in, love the me seeing this girl walk in the bar and she's beautiful. We kind of make eyes and, and kind of fall and fall for each other. And, and towards the end of the video, we ended up dancing together. But it's this bar that we shot it in. It's got a long round bar. And so a lot of, it's just kind of, it's like a cat and mouse game of us kind of following each other and then eventually making our way to the dance floor. But when, when you see the video, it'll be really, really cool. 3 (28m 45s): That's amazing. I've only seen one other video in my life. That's one shot like that. I think that's such a cool concept. 5 (28m 52s): What video is that? Can you remember? 3 (28m 54s): It was, I can't remember the song. It's a video, you know, the band Eve six? 5 (28m 60s): No, 3 (29m 1s): They're from the nineties. I'm just too old fat. Okay. So there, they did this video and it was for a song that really wasn't a hit. I don't think it was a hit. It was like years later they had a, really, a couple of real big songs in the nineties and they did this video and the whole thing is one take and then they make it in reverse. So it looks like, so he did the whole thing backwards and then it like, it's really cool. It's a cool concept, but it's all one tank. That's the only other video I could ever remember doing that. And I think that's a, it's such a cool idea. 5 (29m 31s): Yeah. I think there's a band. There's, there's a video that the band Midland did AME concept, but yeah, they're, they're not easy to do, man. 3 (29m 43s): No pickups. 5 (29m 46s): You, you missed months. Then the whole take is ruined and you have to go all the way back to square one and start all over. 3 (29m 53s): Oh, did you get to a point where like you were in the dance scene at the end and you screwed up and you're like, ah, I gotta go all the way back to the beginning, 5 (30m 1s): Frustrated towards of it. But I'm glad that we, we nailed it on the last one. 3 (30m 6s): That's so cool, man. And congratulations on the record and you know, the big show in Nashville coming up and of course all the shows you have coming through Texas. That's awesome. 5 (30m 15s): Thank you 3 (30m 17s): And William, man, I appreciate your time. I have one more quick question. I want to know if you have any advice for aspiring artists, 5 (30m 24s): Absolutely write the best songs that you can and get and get your name out there. As much as you can, whether that be making Tik TOK videos, going out and playing live performances. There's, there's so much content out there and there's so many people doing it that you really have to get to set yourself apart and get in front of people. That was something that I wish that I would have realized at a younger age, but now that I'm a little bit older, I realized how important it is to, to just be seen, to be visible, to put yourself out there. It's really important to, to hustle and, and, and promote yourself as much as it is to, to write the best songs that you can and, and the, and the practice, your musicianship and your singing and all that ha that's half the battle.