William Beckett, a solo artist best known for his role as the lead vocals in the band, The Academy Is…, performed in the German Club on campus this past Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012. Opening for Beckett were artists Chris Cappello and the band, A Paper Tugboat. While these two musical guests performed, I was fortunate enough to get an interview with Beckett.

Naturally, the first thing I asked was how different were his experiences the road as a solo artist versus traveling with a band. Beckett announced that he started his career in music as a solo artist, so things have come “full circle,” for him. He said the biggest difference was the social aspect. When he was touring with the band, Beckett said it was a lot easier to stay cooped up in the tour bus, or just enjoying the road with his band mates. Now that he is finally touring on his own, he has been thrown into the culture of the cities he is visiting, and therefore makes amazing friends and meets great people throughout this time.

Beckett said he enjoys both types of touring, and loves the fact that he has been able to experience both. Going solo was said to have, “thrust” Beckett into meeting new bands.

Beckett started writing as a source of therapy. Writing was more of an outlet for him when he started writing prose and short stories. These soon turned into songs after he taught himself guitar. He began writing songs right away, and performing was a way that “made the entire experience so real,” said Beckett.

Beckett said that he has really liked every band that he has recorded with, especially opening for Fall Out Boy, whom he had grown up with in his hometown. His favorite tour was that of “Something Corporate,” which is a band he is now very close with.

“It sounds cliché,” said Beckett, “but all of my songs have a special meaning to me. No one song is more important than another.”

He also guessed to say that the songs closest to his heart are the ones that have most recently been written. He is releasing his third EP of the year on Oct. 30, 2012, in which the songs are currently very meaningful to him.

Beckett stated that every night is special to him, but that his favorite place to perform was South East Asia. “The culture was amazing to experience,” Beckett said, “and to see a million people who do not speak English” sing along to all of his songs.

When it came time for Beckett to perform, I was really excited to hear him because I knew that he was going to be singing a song off of his newest EP that has yet to be released. The first song he came out with was “Elephant,” by Damien Rice. If you ask me, Beckett’s version has a lot more passion and sounds more real. The rawness and clarity of Beckett’s voice was amazing. He had the ability to be very witty and satirical on stage. His engagingness on stage really helped the audience to feel closer to him during his performance.

Throughout the set, Beckett played many solo originals using only a laptop for background. He also incorporated a few songs from his time with The Academy Is…, which made a lot of older fans very excited. My personal favorite song that Beckett performed was “Everything We Had,” which was used in the hit movie featuring Hillary Swank, P.S I Love You. He wrote this song in his room, and to cure his writer’s block moved a lamp from the table to the floor. This is where the opening line of the song came from—

“I was the light from the lamp on the floor, but only as bright as you wanted me to be.”

He offered to anyone who suffers from writers block to change the scenery of the room they’re in, and everything will become more organic again. This was definitely one of my personal favorite concerts because it was so intimate, with such an amazingly talented performer. Be sure to look out for his EP in the next couple of weeks. Beckett is a refreshing artist to the industry for his trueness to the business, and passion for music.