Beck and Pharrell Williams discuss the future of music, the Capitol riots, social change and streaming in this exclusive excerpt from the pair’s wide-ranging interview from the upcoming episode of Williams’ OTHERtone podcast, premiering Monday, March 15th.
At the onset of the clip, Beck discusses how different the entry point into the music industry has become since his career began over 30 years ago.
“Virtually every child has a laptop where they have the possibility to make beats or tracks or record some bedroom masterpiece and put it out there. Soundcloud, Spotify,” Beck said.
“You have like really young people coming into music in a way that we really haven’t had before. Because you used to have to have that like 10 years of building your reputation in a scene and getting access to equipment. And then by that time, you’re in your mid-twenties before anybody’s ever heard of you. And now, you know, kids are coming out as teenagers, essentially like making albums on their laptop.”
However, technology has its drawbacks: Kids and adults today are now “hard-wired” to their devices and social media, with Williams noting how that’s how people have become “radicalized,” leading to the January 6th insurrection attempt.
“Not to get all political but, I’m sorry, all those people acting bananas, that’s called radicalization. They were radicalized and they don’t even know it,” Williams said.
“Imagine going into your T-Mobile store or Verizon store, ‘Yeah, lemme get that phone, lemme get that service package right here,’ not knowing that package you got just landed your ass in jail because you were one of them people at the Capitol that one day… I’m not saying that it’s their fault, it’s just that you have no idea what you’re signing up for.”
During the chat, Beck and Williams discussed how they’ve been working on-and-off together for the past 10 years; seven of those recordings were released on Beck’s 2019 LP Hyperspace. With the producer potentially again assisting the singer, Williams asked Beck if his next album would be pandemic-inspired.
“To me, there’s so much happening in our time that to articulate that in music is daunting, it’s like a bottleneck, it’s like having 500 gallons in a one-liter bottle trying to get out,” Beck said, adding, “The whole last year, I wanted music that made me want to move.”
“My suspicion is that it needs to work for an arena and a bedroom,” Williams said of Beck’s next LP.
Williams’ full OTHERtone episode with Beck is out Monday, March 15th.
MUSIC PREMIERES
Four years on from the ‘Actual Life’ series lifting him into the mainstream spotlight, Fred Again.. continues to feel unavoidable. The London producer and DJ born Fred Gibson has moved at a relentless pace, bouncing between sold out stadium dates in New York and surprise appearances at Sheffield’s 1,000 capacity Forge, while also making history as the first electronic artist to top the bill at Reading and Leeds in 2024.
Where the ‘Actual Life’ releases and his fourth album, 2024’s ‘Ten Days’, leaned into warmth and joy pulled from ordinary moments, Gibson has also sharpened his instinct for high impact club weapons rooted in garage, dubstep and jungle. That side of his output lives on ‘USB’, an “infinite album” first imagined in 2022 as a home for tracks that exist outside any fixed universe, including defining moments like ‘Rumble’ and ‘Jungle’.
‘USB002’, the second vinyl only chapter of the ‘USB’ project, brings together 16 recent tracks, many of which surfaced gradually on streaming services over a ten week stretch. The music was shaped live, in step with ten unannounced DJ appearances across the world from Dublin to Mexico City. Even with a Glastonbury style registration system in place, The Times reported that 100,000 people tried to secure tickets for the opening night in Glasgow.
Appropriately, ‘USB002’ feels alive and constantly in motion, helped along by contributions from close collaborators such as Floating Points and Sammy Virji. The rigid, techno driven pressure of ‘Ambery’ echoes elements of Floating Points’ 2019 album ‘Crush’, while Gibson’s take on ‘The Floor’ builds like the slow climb of a rollercoaster before dropping back to earth without warning.
The guest list stretches beyond the usual dance circles, with two Australian guitar bands popping up in unexpected ways. ‘You’re A Star’ reworks Amyl and The Sniffers’ ‘Big Dreams’ into a breakbeat driven rush, while ‘Hardstyle 2’ pulls the experimental post punk edge of Shady Nasty into an Underworld adjacent space alongside Kettama. Gibson’s real trick is his ability to connect with anyone. These tracks are not reinterpretations but full takeovers.
The visual world wrapped around the ‘USB002’ rollout reinforces the instinct behind the music. Phones were prohibited at shows staged in vast warehouse spaces under sweeping light rigs, while Gibson’s team shared striking black and white footage and created artwork for each single on site. Bottling that sense of urgency, the project is rooted in the thrill of the present moment, something Gibson seems able to summon simply by turning up.
If the ‘Actual Life’ series and ‘Ten Days’ captured passing snapshots of experience, ‘USB’ is defined by constant movement, a space where boundaries are removed entirely. Sitting somewhere between an album and a playlist, ‘USB002’ underlines why Fred Again.. feels so dominant right now, and suggests that his current run may only be the beginning of something much bigger.
