While on tour in South America, Beck sat down with Argentinian news site Pagina12 to talk about why he took a six-year break between his last album and the forthcoming “Morning Phase.” In a translation by music website The Future Heart, Beck’s quotes reveal that a spine injury slowed him down.
“I had severe damage to my spine, but now it”s improving so I”m back in the music,” Beck told Pagina12. “It was a long, long recovery. Lately I concentrated on playing guitar. Do not think I can move again as before, although I can give a lot onstage.”
Beck also discussed feeling disillusioned with the music business. “I think most musicians feel alienated from the business side of music,” Beck said. “The music business is changing a lot, it also changes the way people listen.”
Beck called out streaming services, Spotify specifically, as part of the problem: “…what Spotify pays me is not even enough to pay the musicians playing with me or the people working on the discs. The model does not work.”
The songwriter said he’s spent “the last five years” working on other people’s music, building his own studio to produce artists such as Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Thurston Moore and Dwight Yoakam.
Beck will release “Morning Phase” in February 2014. On Nov. 24, he’ll perform his 2012 sheet music-only album “Song Reader” in Los Angeles with Pulp”s Jarvis Cocker, Jenny Lewis, Childish Gambino, Jack Black, Van Dyke Parks and actor-turned-musician John C. Reilly.