SAN ANTONIO — It was always a childhood dream for up-and-coming country music artist William Beckmann to perform at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo.
That dream became a reality on Sunday
KENS 5 reporter Alan Kozeluh and photographer Jeff Johnsey caught up with the 27-year-old Del Rio native before the show.
Alan Kozeluh
William, just thank you for agreeing to sit down with us.
William Beckmann
Of course! Thank you all for having me. Thank you so much.
Alan Kozeluh
Okay, so starting off, cards on the table: I am not the biggest country music fan.
William Beckmann
That's all right.
Alan Kozeluh
I actually kind of avoid it like the plague most of the time. But "Damn this Heart of Mine," there's something about your music that kind of breaks through. Why do you think that is?
William Beckmann
I really don't know, I what that song... And I do appreciate you saying that - that song specifically is sort of a departure from the record that I put out prior to this one. It's kind of got a little bit of a rock element to it to it. So it's almost kind of like to me, like a country Tom Petty thing. And so maybe that's why it's, it's, it's cutting through a little bit for somebody who doesn't particularly like country music. But, but I mean, I'm really excited to have these new songs and to put them out there. And that's just one of the songs. So we're about to put another one out, and I'm really excited about it.
Alan Kozeluh
That would explain it. I am a bit of a Tom Petty fan. You use a lot of Spanish language in your music, there's a lot of Mexican influence in there. Tell me about growing up in Del Rio and how that influenced your work.
William Beckmann
Yeah, so a lot of my friends in Del Rio are bilingual. And that's just the way we grew up. That's how it is grown up on the border. It's inevitable that a lot of the Mexican culture sort of is just around you, and you pick up on it. And granted my family, my family's Hispanic as well. And when I first started playing music and singing, I joined a band in high school and we played all over - all over Del Rio, and we got out a little bit and played anywhere we could. But we played several songs in Spanish, it wasn't something that we did intentionally, it was just us knowing that if we, if we played the songs that people liked, then it was only going to be a better show. And a lot of those songs happened to be in Spanish, just what what was popular at the time, or even kind of older hits and stuff. So it was a really big melting pot, as far as the songs that we would sing. And then that sort of stuck with me than when I when I started doing my own thing. I always just wanted to throw in two or three songs in Spanish just to tap into that into that side of me.
Alan Kozeluh
So I got to kind of earn my pay as a journalist ask you some tough questions here. in "We Danced All Night" are those real mariachis that you use for that?
William Beckmann
They are that's actually - it's actually a father and a son that I was able to get ahold of, and they agreed to be on the track. But they overdubbed everything. So the son who was maybe about 15-16 years old - one of the most talented kids I've ever seen or worked with - he played all the violins and he just stacked him up several times to where it sounded like there was 10 of them. And his son - or sorry, the father played the, the guitarrone, which is kind of the bass. And they both played trumpet. It was really insane. I never thought when I first asked them to be on the track, I was assuming they were gonna bring a whole mariachi band, and it was just them to that showed up and they did everything. And it sounded like a full band. So it was really cool to have them on that song.
Alan Kozeluh
Yes. So I hope you don't mind me saying but you got a little bit of a babyface.
William Beckmann
Thank you.
Alan Kozeluh
And then you got that smooth baritone. It doesn't really match up. Do you think that affects how you're received?
William Beckmann
I think probably , you know whether it's good or bad I can't really tell you that. But I think it does throw people off. And it's been that way since I've started singing. So I've learned to get accustomed to it. And whenever I did, when I was living in Nashville full time, I used to do what they call writer's rounds, which is essentially where you get several people, maybe two or three people on stage, sometimes four. And everybody's got their own songs and you kind of just take turns singing songs that you that you wrote, and you kind of have to play off of whoever's playing in front of you. In other words, if somebody's playing a really happy song, or like a really funny kind of tongue in cheek song, then it'd be good for you to play something a little bit more heartfelt and sad. So that there's a little bit of contrast or vice versa, if somebody plays something really slow, it'd be good to pick it up and play something. So you're always trying to, I guess I learned from doing that how to how to kind of play off of people. And one thing that I would lean into is singing one of my songs called Bourbon Whiskey, which is a lower register in my voice when I sing that song. So for me to do that, it was just a way for, for me to kind of catch people off guard and whether people were paying attention or not, if I busted up, you know, into that song, and it usually kind of make people turn around. So I knew most of it was, people didn't really think that I would sound like that.
Alan Kozeluh
Now I listened to a bunch of music, and I only heard one cover it was Bruce Springsteen, 'I'm on Fire'. What went into deciding to cover that one specifically, was he an inspiration too?
William Beckmann
I'm on fire. Yeah, it's one of those classic songs. And it's been covered by several other people, I actually kind of recorded that song on accident, we went into the studio, and it was just my producer. And I'm just kind of in the middle of COVID. So nobody was really getting together or congregating in the studio. So it was almost like I booked some studio time. It's just me and him. And kind of a similar thing to Danced All Night Long. I just overdubbed and layered a bunch of instruments until it sounded like a, like a full band was, was there. And when we recorded I sang it, we were just kind of messing around. I never thought that I'd really put it out. And it sounded so cool. I thought it sounded like a western movie almost that I ended up deciding to put it on the album that I was working on at the time. And so that's kind of how that song came out. We were just trying to get levels and stuff. And I was just playing guitar. And it ended up being pretty cool.
Alan Kozeluh
So of all the songs that you've written so far, is there any that really has a special place for you?
William Beckmann
Got a song called 'In the Dark', which I really like a lot. There's a really cool guitar part in there. And the message to something that it's always kind of stuck with me. But yeah, it changes you know. As a songwriter, you're always constantly working on new things and new songs. So when people ask me what my favorite stuff is, it's honestly kind of what I've been working on the most recent stuff. That's, that's always what I'm super hyper focused on. And of course, all the older songs that I've written are always fun to play, especially when people know them, we go out and play and some of the people know the lyrics. But yeah, I've been really enjoying that the songs that I've been writing. It's always it's good whenever you're writing songs, because sometimes you go through a little dry spells, but but things have been pretty productive and creative for me lately.
Alan Kozeluh
You said the message of that song was particularly special for you, what were you trying to say with it?
William Beckmann
You know, that song is sort of a song of kind of longing for somebody. And I mean, I don't need to get into the personal details of it. But it is really nice to have people come up to me and tell me that they connected with it in some sort of way or help them get through a breakup or something or come to terms with the fact that you might miss somebody. And that's just how it's how it is. And it might be like that for a long time. When I'm able to sing songs and have people tell me that they connect with it relate to it, it's always a special feeling because it makes you feel like you've done your job as a as a songwriter.
Alan Kozeluh
I know you mentioned in one of your songs you talk about going to San Antonio. Now you're here in the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo. So how does it feel to be performing here?
William Beckmann
It's a dream come true. Man. I've been coming to this since I was a kid. I used to see Gary Allen play on this stage. And I used to freak out how the stage rotates. And now I'm going to be (up there). It's been a really crazy ride and it's just beginning I feel like for me, which is a blessing. I've wanted to be a musician since I was a kid. And to have opportunities like this to do it and to live out my dream is really, really special.
Alan Kozeluh
Anything you'd like to add anything I haven't asked about?
William Beckmann
No, I just like to thank the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo for for having me out. It's like I said a dream come true. And I hope this is the first of many I get to play.
Jeff Johnsey
I gotta ask him. Okay, we touched on this earlier about George Strait influence. Can you mention any of the other people that are in the country western music genre that has an influence to say Bruce Springsteen, other artists across different genres.
William Beckmann
Yes, I am a huge, of course, I'm fan of George Strait is all over the board and Frank Sinatra, I've admired his voice. And, of course, all of his songs are classics.
Alan Kozeluh
He also had the whole baby face.
William Beckmann
Yeah, you know, that's one of those - one of the things but I'm a big Sinatra fan. Of course, Radney Foster. Man, taught me just about everything. I know. Randy Rogers is another man that I look up to and, and, and admire, he's helped me out tremendously. Clay Walker course you have the Eagles. I'm a very big Eagles fan and the Beatles, John Lennon. It's interesting because I have different influences for different reasons. I've got my songwriter, idols, I've got my singers that I idolized for the way they, you know, Sinatra, being one of them, because Sinatra didn't really write or compose any of the songs he sang. But undeniably one of the best singers of all time. So my influences kind of range. Kind of on a broad spectrum because of that, because I am a songwriter, but I am also a singer, and a musician, and an entertainer. So I sort of look up to people for different reasons. But but but yeah, luckily, there's so much great music out there that I'm able to pull inspiration from a lot of it.
Jeff Johnsey
Could you comment on other singer songwriters like Bernie Taupinn? And Short? I mean, those type of people that right there in the psyche of America for now, and guess what do you think about the way they write their songs? And how does it correlate to what you do?
William Beckmann
That's a great question. I have always been like a very big Neil Young fan. And when I was first starting to write songs, I remember listening a lot to him. And there's something really cool about, I feel like his music, that it's specific to something but it's also broad enough to where you can relate to it, if that makes any sense. You never want to be too specific, because you want to stay relatable to people that are listening to it. So there's almost something cool about having a veil to where you almost don't know what somebody's talking about. That's sort of how my song, or what I was trying to accomplish that when I wrote a song called 'In the Dark,' the one that I was talking about earlier. It's it's accessible, it's relatable, but it's also a very, very personal song is about specific people in my life. And so that's one thing that I learned through Neil Young course. All the Beatles catalogue, I'm a big Paul McCartney and John Lennon fan. And there's new songwriters that I'm finding out about every day. But yeah, I just try to be a sponge and soak up as much as I can.
Alan Kozeluh
There's probably a few people that when you bring up Neil Young being an influence that might be controversial statement for.
William Beckmann
I don't know, he's got his records are great, though, you know. But yeah, you know, I'm always trying to learn and, and do as much as I can.
Alan Kozeluh
Do you feel that you've made it?
William Beckmann
No, I'm not. I don't know. It's, I feel grateful for what I've been able to accomplish in the short amount of time that I've been doing this, and I hope I get to do it for a lot longer, but I don't think I've made it and I hope I never do because I'm afraid that if I ever feel that way that it'll make me feel sort of content and it'll, I'll lose the hunger to keep learning and to keep listening to new music and to keep writing and chasing something. It reminds me of like, you know, have you ever wondered what the dog would do if he actually caught the mailman? You know, he wouldn't know what to do and it's kind of the idea of you don't want to get there you just want to chase it. You want to you want to keep growing and trying to make it so no, I haven't made it.
Alan Kozeluh
Maybe a slightly less anxious version of saying that would be "it's the journey."
William Beckmann
Yeah, it's the journey you got to live it and love it the whole the whole ride you know, that's why we got into it. That's why I did at least you know, I love meeting people. I love touring, I want to do this for the rest of my life and hopefully I get to.