A Sunday Conversation with Award-Winning Songwriter, Kevin Beadles

Sometimes you hear a song that just hits that right note in your soul.  Moves you to a place that you've been afraid to go to, or reluctant to remember.  That's the power of a songwriter.  The ability to make you feel, remember, experience something from deep inside.  Little wonder then that when we learned that award-winning songwriter, Kevin Beadles was releasing a new album of beautiful, affecting rootsy americana, we jumped at the chance to have him come join us on the red leather interview couch and lend his thoughts on to what makes a song tick.


When I was a kid, growing up in a house with Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, and Simon and Garfunkel, the first time I ever heard Kiss's "Detroit Rock City," it was a moment of musical epiphany. It was just so vicious, aggressive and mean. It changed the way I listened to music. I've had a few minor epiphanies since then, when you come across a band that just brings something new and revolutionary to your ears. What have been your musical epiphany moments?

About ten years ago, a recording engineer loaned me a copy of Lucinda Williams' Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.  He had noticed that I sang and wrote in an affected style (much in keeping with the artists I grew up listening to such as David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, David Byrne).  He thought Lucinda might shake me out of it and she did.  What a marvel of singing and songwriting.  Poetically stark, unflinching lyrics sung with a defiant vulnerability. There was a deceptive brilliance in the simplicity of the writing.  She could twist a vowel in her mouth and run through two or three shades of emotion before the word was finished.  Hearing her inspired me to seek greater honesty in my singing and songwriting.

Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?

All the above.  Starting a song is usually the easy part, it's finishing where the work comes in.  Sometimes I sit down to write a letter (full song) and find that all I have is just a postcard (maybe a verse or chorus).  For me, writer's block isn't a lack of ideas, it's not knowing what to do with an idea.  So if I'm stuck on one song, I just pick up another and see where it wants to go.  And I keep doing that until it all falls in place.  Sometimes it happens in one sitting and sometimes it takes years.

Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new motivation?

Songwriting is just something I do. I don't worry about finding ideas; they seem to find me.  In fact, I'm often distracted by whatever embryonic song is tumbling around in my head.  Perhaps that's my way of processing life.  But re-writing is where the real craft of songwriting comes in and that's where I need motivation to keep plugging away at a song, trying to realize its full potential, especially when it's stopped being fun.  Here, my greatest resources are the West Coast Songwriters and my songwriting circle called Club Shred.  Both are chock full of terrific tunesmiths who take vicious delight in tearing apart each other's babies.  Their feedback is invaluable to me and hearing their new songs is a constant source of inspiration.




Genres are so misleading and such a way to pigeonhole bands. Without resorting to labels, how would you describe your music?

My music unites classic rock with the back porch drawl of gospel, blues and alt. country.  It's roots music with plenty of branches.  Picture Elvis Costello and Lucinda Williams getting in a faded blue '65 Ford pickup and driving across America writing songs about the strange thoughts and characters they meet along the way.



What is you musical intention? What are you trying to express or get your audience to feel?

I'm drawn to moments of transformation--that interval when a decision is made, an emotion discovered, or a life upended.  There might be only a dozen decisions or events which make any significant difference to the overall arc of a person's experience.  The rest is filler (the subject of "slice of life" songs) and the opportunity to reflect on decisions made or to be made.

In songwriting, how do you bring the song together? What do you look for in terms of complexity? Simplicity? Time changes?

I strive for simplicity but my default writing mode tends to be a little complex.  My band consists of terrific jazz players who were looking for a rock project so that tells me I'm still relying on way too many chords, extensions, and key changes.  If you listen to a song like "A Love Sublime," it just sounds like zany fun but it goes through three key changes, several shifts in feel, and a couple of chords I've never used before.  Someday I hope to master 3-chord rock, which is by no means a pejorative term to my mind.


The business of music is a brutal place. Changes in technology have made it easier than ever for bands to get their music out, but harder than ever to make a living.  What are your plans to move the band forward? How do you stay motivated in this brutal business?

Woody Allen was famously quoted as saying that 90% of success is showing up and I find that's absolutely true.  You never know when or where you're going to make a fan or get a break.  I entered a couple of rough mixes in two big songwriting competitions last year and ended up coming in second place in the rock category with each song.  I get invited to play on a local NPR radio program and the next thing I know, Ripple Music is asking if I'd like to release a CD with them.  I don't have a great overarching plan to conquer the world but I'm trying to write the perfect song and willing to share it with anyone who'll listen, and I'm finding there's an audience for my music.  Any time I'm playing music, I'm doing something I love.  To me, that's success on my own terms and I don't worry about the rest.

Come on, share with us a couple of your great, Spinal Tap, rock and roll moments?

In the late 80's/early 90's, I was singer-frontman for a band called mr. id.  We got booked to play a Harvest Festival or something of the ilk that was broadcast on cable access TV in Antioch, CA.  The stage was the flatbed trailer of a semi truck, for unfathomable reasons, I'm wearing bicycle shorts, and in the middle of our set, some guy pulls up in a little service vehicle and starts loading bales of hay on to the stage as we're playing.  That was a painful video to watch.

Later, that same band got asked to open for Chris Isaak and we had to pass on the gig because our lead guitarist wasn't willing to cancel the fishing trip he had planned.  That's when you know your band has just about reached its full potential.



What makes a great song?

COURAGE--no wait... that's what makes the muskrat guard his musk.  A great song is one you can listen to a hundred times and still want to hear again.  It's got to be unique (otherwise why listen to that particular song) but can't be gimmicky (even clever BS gets tiresome after a while).  More importantly, it has to tap into an emotion you want to experience over and over.  It speaks and you involuntarily answer "YES!"


Tell us about the first song you ever wrote?

Way too embarrassing...suffice to say, I was about eight years old, the title was "I'm a Fighter Pilot" and the melody bore a suspicious resemblance to "Jeremiah was a Bullfrog..."


What piece of your music are particularly proud of?

I entered five songs from the new CD in international songwriting competitions this past year and four of them won prizes.  So, naturally, it's the one I like best that came up short. "You Can't Argue with Water" absolutely nails something I've wanted to express for a long time... the ephemeral nature of love.  And I think that message is what makes the song problematic for some people.  They want to hear that love is eternal and undeniable, which it certainly can be.  But all too often, love is something beyond our control, it comes and goes, and no amount of whining will change that fact.  Plus the song has one of my favorite lyric couplets, "She blew in out of nowhere and left without a trace/How could a summer thunderstorm leave lipstick on my face?"



Who today, writes great songs? Why?

Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, Lynn Smith, Steve Seskin, Bonnie Hayes and a thousand others.  They each have a unique style and ability to get to the heart of an emotion.  There are so many talented songwriters and most of them never get widely heard.


Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?

Ever since I bought an iPhone, I've been surprised how digital has taken over my listening.  It's always with me... at the gym, on a bike, odd moments in the day.  And it's great to have my entire catalog of unfinished musical bits and riffs on hand anytime I get inspired to work on something.



We, at the Ripple Effect, are constantly looking for new music.  When we come to your town, what's the best record store to lose ourselves in?

I live in a college town (Berkeley) so there are a ton of used record stores nearby.  Just walk a few blocks on Telegraph Ave and you're bound to find one you like.



Any final comments or thoughts you'd like to share with our readers, the waveriders?

I used to think that being in Liverpool put the Beatles at a major disadvantage compared to bands in London.  Then I read how Liverpool was the major shipping port for the entire U.K. which meant that every kid in town, including the Beatles, knew someone who worked on a freighter and had cheap access to the latest records coming out of the U.S.  At a time when rock music was only played a few hours a week on the BBC, this was quite an advantage.

I think it's great that music is so readily available today.  In fact, it's so readily available that fantastic music can easily be overlooked or forgotten--that's why I love the concept behind Ripple and the waveriders.  So thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with me, I hope you check out my music as well, and please feel free to contact me if anything moves you.

Kevin Beadles - You Can't Argue With Water

I receive about two dozen new or pre-release CD’s and a dozen new music downloads every couple weeks.  In addition, I spend three or four hours a week searching out new music.  My deal is that I only write about what I truly like.

I listen to all new releases at least twice. Then, I weed out works that I think are simply dreadful. Unfortunately, that accounts for 50% of what I hear.  Out of the remaining 50% I make a second cull that eliminates songwriters that can’t sing but who insist on doing so; musicians who can’t write lyrics but write their own songs anyway; cocktail lounge singers and acts; and amateur attempts to home record by musicians who cannot competently produce a recording or play their instruments. I never eliminate a work based on musical style or genre.  The music could be jazz, blues, gospel, rock, alternative, indie, folk, country, Americana, roots, reggae, hip hop, metal,  rap even Cajun. The type of music is irrelevant to my culling process.  If music is good it is good regardless of style. I also do not look at the record label until I have decided that the music is worthy of a written review.

The second cull usually leaves me with about ten to fifteen CD’s and downloads that I then listen to a third time. This time I look for two things - music that I believe has hit potential and artists whose musicianship and/or recordings make them potential stars worthy of a larger audience. If the music does not have one or both of these elements it is also placed on the “don’t review” heap. Thus, out of my mountain of new music only two or three releases actually make it to my “must review” pile.

One that made the cut is Kevin Beadles’ “You Can't Argue With Water.”  It is new yet very familiar - a mixed bag of pop, alternative and modern rock, country and folk.  The musicianship is competent, but, the album is not about the musicianship. Like the song’s musical scores, the music just fits nicely.  The vocals are good but not exceptional.  It is the songs that make the album worthy of review. They are well-crafted even if they occasionally sound like they are built on the shoulders of musical legends. This album is a case of the whole exceeding the sum of its parts.

The tracks “Shine,” “High,” and “Where We Came From” are crossover anthems that could  grab airplay on any one of the hundreds of modern pop rock radio stations . “A Love Sublime” contains Dave Clark Five background vocals that make this modern love song connect with the 1960’s. When Beadles sings “Mrs. Jones Cadillac” you can’t help but think of tongue-in-cheek Johnny Cash songs (”My Name Is Sue,” “Cadillac One Piece At A Time”) but, played with the feel of Michael Martin Murphy singing “Wildfire,” even though the lyrics make this a serious tune. The crooned “Sharkskin” rocks somewhere between Timbuk3’s “The Future’s So Bright (I’ve Got To Wear Shades)” and  Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose,” yet  is presented as if it were a Harry Connick, Jr. tune.  “A Prisoner In Chains” sounds awfully similar to the 1991 song “Walk On The Ocean” by Toad The Wet Sprocket. Two melancholy songs, “Caroline” and “Happiness Is Small,” are modern versions of street corner “doo-wop” (without the “wop”) and the final track, “Indian Summer,” is a modern country/pop crossover love song reminiscent of any of a dozen Carpenters tunes.

I finally got around to looking at the liner notes on the CD cover and, low and behold, The Ripple Effect’s own Racer and Pope John are thanked by Beadles.  It appears that Ripple Music in association with Tactile Records released the album.  Good job gentlemen.

- Old School

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