Its a quarter 'til 3 am on a quiet red eye flight from London to New York. Beside Jim, an accountant from New Jersey on his left, and Sharon a student on her way home for the holidays, sits Billie Beckett. The date is November 20th. A few days ago, on November 15th, Billie Beckett performed for about 60,000 people, and he is about to take his songs to millions more.
In 2013 Reported Failure reached new heights releasing the album "Rome," their sixth. It debuted at #1 and spawned a chain of top singles. They became a household name. On their "Rome World Tour" this Fall, Billie Beckett, Vincent Peters, Matt Collins and Robert Edwards huddled before every show. "Rock and roll. Now we're free," remarked Beckett many times a week during this pre-show ritual. Playing a nearly sold out stadium tour around the world, and rocking out for twenty-nine song sets, Reported Failure embody what it means to be a rock band in the most classic 1960s-70s way.
"I have a cousin who went to one of your shows," remarked Jim to Billie early in the flight. Sharon fan-girled pretty hard when she first saw who she was sitting next to. As the night rolled on the passengers slept. Beckett stays up. He's editing the lyrics to some of the songs. He visited a friend in London for a few days after finishing the tour. After stopping in New York, Beckett is going back to California to meet the rest of Reported Failure and start recording a new album that e says is going to be called "Lie In."
Billie Beckett doesn't touch his smartphone for most of the flight. He listens to Led Zeppelin IV and later to Jeff Buckley's "Grace" on an old fashioned (already) ipod nano. "The trick to life for me," he says at one point, "is that every time I breathe, instead of air, it has to be music." Since starting the tour, he has stayed true to this mantra. "We're going to record in this house thats actually out in the woods," he says.
For years Reported Failure has found ways to escape the regular pressures of life in the music industry. They recorded "Rome" largely in Iceland. They were on their own record label for a long time before signing to Studio 60 for three albums. The band is strangely quiet in the media. They made news early this year when Beckett published a blog post that we will let speak for itself here:
Osprey037[Reported Failure wrote:]
Billie Beckett: Open Letter
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. - Henry David Thoreau
I will be brief. I have been a slaves. We have all been slaves. We are slaves to our surroundings. We are slaves to the ideas that we have learned or adopted out of convenience, or vanity. I speak of greed. I speak of materialism. I speak of separation and of discrimination. I speak of the ills preventing a man from reaching his true place of being.
Thus I must cast these aside. I reject the vices of an average life. I reject materialism. I will be rid of my possessions not necessary to survive. I reject greed. I will not pursue any more wealth than necessary to survive. I reject discrimination. I will fill my heart with love for strangers and try to even appreciate my enemies. I will seek to survive. For to merely survive is to know what it is to be alive.
My home is gone. Not gone but no longer mine own. My possessions gone. Not gone but given away. I keep a car, a guitar, clothing, a tent, and basic supplies. My money gone. Given to charity except that necessary to maintain a minimal life.
My life shall cease, so that my living may begin.
Sincerely, Billie Beckett
Beckett eventually came back to Reported Failure. He says he also sees his family. Nevertheless, Reported Failure has literally gone in to the woods to record their seventh studio album "Lie In." After playing the biggest tour of their career, and rocking out to Beatles' covers, Reported Failure has already proved that they deserve their place among the voices of rock. Now, as Billie Beckett stares out the window, he seems to recognize that the world is watching what he does now. "I edit my lyrics because I have to be precise with what I'm saying. Its literary, songwriting is," says Beckett. The flight lands. "I have work to do," he says.
Artist: Reported Failure
Title: Sticks and Stones
Release Date: December, 8th 2014
Format: Digital
Songwriter: Billie Beckett
Producer: Vin Peters, Avil Hartman
Label: Studio 60 Records
Length: 5:33
Genre: Hard Rock "Sticks and Stones" is the first single from Reported Failure's upcoming album "Lie In" Coming after Reported Failure won great critical acclaim, four Goldie awards, and had a string of chart toppers in 2013, the single marks Reported Failure's return to the airwaves at a time when everyone knows who they are, and everyone knows to expect something big. With all the hype around their name, Reported Failure have downplayed their own brand in the album artwork which only bears the title and "RF" in the corner. A creamy red-pink, the artwork is of New York city, but it is almost unrecognizable, etched in to the background, almost crumbling. The artwork reveals where Reported Failure is as a band not quite ready to embrace their day and age. With modern technology and production at their disposal, Reported Failure still recorded "Sticks and Stones" with only bass, guitar, guitar, and vocals.
A reverberated guitar clangs a simple chord progression. It is slow and sad. A sneaky lead lick comes in with the lightest touch of "wah" effect on the guitar. Neither guitar parts take up too much space. They are waiting for something steadier to join them.
Roar. The bass comes in. Robert Edwards' drumming has always been so confident, and this song is no different. His beat grounds the jamming riffs of Peters and Collins in time with Beckett's chords. The overall effect becomes chilling when Beckett starts to sing in a soft tone. He sounds hopeless. All the while the powerful bass foreshadows the noise to come. Vin Peters' riff too is cunning, giving a sense that something is going on in the dense ambiance of the verse.
More voices. Billie is joined for a moment in his passion by the whole band. Stomp on the pedal board. The chorus kicks in to overdrive. What was building subtly in the background has come to a storm of noise as Billie screams the chorus. Reported Failure is coming in heavy and they aren't fucking around. Vin plays a sweet guitar riff over the noise. Matt slams his bass his hard as he can. Robert pounds his cymbals. In this wall of noise, the group loses their shit.
As quickly as it started it was gone. The original beat and riff return. Beckett sounds like he is adding more details to a manifesto. This time when the chorus comes Vin is screaming right along with Billie. The overall effect is a madness of heavy noise. This noise continues in to a post-chorus. A fiery tremolo picking joins the guitar thunder. About three and a half minutes in to the song, Reported Failure wont let up. The chords swell in overdrive. The noise reaches a critical mass.
"I want you baby in my bones/You make the castle and give the king a throne" sings Billie as the noise fades down. Edwards' drumming is unbelievable, holding the shifts from loud to quiet together tightly. Vin clicks his guitar. Matt's bass doesn't let up. Billie says "Heard the rain is coming, babe" just before the hurricane of fuzz filled guitar and screams and bass and epic drums return for a final time. But Beckett makes the end up the song over the last fading subtle fills from Edwards, and guitar chords. His tone on the outro is defeated, but vicious. Billie Beckett will not go down without a fight.
My lover has blue eyes
Golden brown hair its flying everywhere and
she'll take apart my heart
She wants everything in love
And love her from the start
My lovers hair isnt straight
She lets it curl and fly about
She makes the world go round
And she is everything (the levee's breakin down...)
She's in the castles and the towers
I need her
My lover needs to lie down
I cant help but feel
She's gonna tear me up tonight
My lover wears her diamonds
She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen
She's makes the world go around
And she is everything (the rain is coming now)
She's in the jets and all the highways
(We've been going so long)
I need her
(I've loved you so long)
My lover needs to lie down
(We've known each other so long)
I cant help but feel
(We've been drowning so long)
She's gonna tear me up tonight (I need somebody)
She's gonna tear me up tonight (I need somebody)
She's gonna tear me up tonight (I need somebody)
She's gonna tear me up tonight (I need somebody)
I want you baby in my bones
You make castle and give the king a throne
Cuz baby when the world leaves us alone
Its about what you own. Its what you own
Well baby if you want you can rule my head
You can be the princess in my bed
I just want you to come when I sing
I'll drink your honey and forget your sting
I heard the rain is coming
Heard the rain is coming
babe
I need her
My lover needs to lie down
I cant help but feel
She's gonna tear me up tonight
She's gonna tear me up tonight
Well you had caught me from the start
You can take everything in my head
You can have me you can tear me apart
If you lie in my heart you can lie in my bed
But even tough now I've come off the throne
All the stitches made have been unsown
I've still got something left I own
Got sticks and stones got sticks and stonesBillie Beckett's lover, or the lover of whomever the speaker of the song is supposed to be, me be beautiful, but there is something sinister about her. This woman who has a constant presence in the "highways" and comes with a "sting" seems to have inflicted an intense sorrow upon her man. She may be going to tear Billie up, but he finds solace in the fact that he still has "sticks and stones." The sense of despair and hopelessness throughout the song mixed with fury give the impression that his lover has won, but that something violent brews inside the man she has wronged.
The lover in "Sticks and Stones" is perhaps not a person at all. The fact that she "makes the world go around" suggests that Beckett is using the lover as a symbol. She is desirable clearly. She wears diamonds. She is a beautiful blonde haired blue eyed woman. But above all Beckett screams over and over "I need her." She is an addiction. "The levees breakin down" is uttered in the background at one point. In a refernce to Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks," Reported Failure are suggesting that the addiction to the "lover" has reached a tipping point. When the levee breaks, and as "the rain is coming" it seems that the possession of sticks and stones may be the only thing that could help save our poor friend.
Edited by user 08 December 2014 16:36:04(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
