William Beckett, former frontman of The Academy Is…, spoke with Hypable about his new record Genuine and Counterfeit and his journey so far as a solo act, as well as delving into a few details about the past.

William Beckett – once the frontman of now-defunct Chicago emo/scenekid darlings The Academy Is… and currently touring under his own name as a solo artist – is a fanboy.

With nerd chic constantly on the rise, more and more “civilians” find themselves sucked into media that, once upon a time, was beloved only by those deeply embedded in fandom culture. Since geeks make the most dedicated fans, many celebrities nowadays will pick up a few buzzwords in an attempt to pander, but not William Beckett – he’s the real deal.

He’s so enamored with Game of Thrones – the show and the books – that he wears a Hand of the King brooch nearly every day and will discuss his love for the Lannisters with anyone who’ll listen. He has a Pottermore account, he uses Hedwig’s Theme as his onstage intro music, and he’s made tour merchandise featuring his own face as the Ministry of Magic’s Undesirable Number One. As he fiddles with his guitar to warm up his fingers, he picks out melodies from Phantom of the Opera, a lifelong obsession, and when challenged with the potential superiority of rival Broadway classic Les Miserables, he fires back with defenses that end up flowing over from our chat into the night’s performance in Newcastle, Australia, where he brings up the topic with the crowd.

Above all, Beckett understands what it is to be a fan. He knows how to love something – to really, truly love it, without restraint or stigma, and it’s this quality that’s helped shape his success as he makes the transition from frontman of a beloved band to solo act in the wake of The Academy’s break-up.

This fall tour mirrors Beckett’s last Australian visit in a strange diptych – supporting Floridian rockers Anberlin at many of the same venues they played in 2009. However, the stage act that Beckett now presents couldn’t be more different. The Academy Is… allowed Beckett, who was then reminiscent of a young Jim Morrison, the opportunity to be the most energetic of frontmen, using his long limbs, wild hair and yards of extra microphone cord to create a small, elegant tornado amidst his four bandmates. Today, he adopts a more mature look – the short-back-and-sides wet-combed hairstyle, the dress shirt and vest, the brogues – and he’s completely at home wielding his acoustic guitar, leaning on the microphone stand and trading quips with his audience. This is the new William Beckett, and he’s reveling in it.

William Beckett speaks to Hypable. Photo credit: Hypable

Hypable spoke with William Beckett about his journey so far as a solo artist, the implosion of The Academy Is…, his new record Genuine and Counterfeit, his families – both his Decaydance one and his own flesh and blood, and the unique relationship he’s formed with his fandom.

Hypable: To start off with what I see sitting here in front of me: how did you go about creating your solo act? Comparing your onstage persona with The Academy Is… to what you do now, that’s a pretty big divide. How do you figure out what you’re comfortable with – do you ever feel trapped behind the guitar now, or did you ever feel too exposed before?

William Beckett: I don’t think about it either way. Naturally I can’t go too crazy when I’m singing the whole time essentially, and I’m playing as well, so it’s just two different shows. I don’t think one is more genuine than the other. I’m able to be myself more, I think, in certain ways, being solo and being able to talk about whatever I want, interact with the crowd however I want. When you’re with a band it’s a little different – it’s not that way. You sort of have to stick to the script a little bit, which isn’t disingenuous, but from a performing standpoint obviously the running around and mic flips and throwing the mic stand around is fun. When I play with a full band I think that those things will naturally come out. But right now, it’s nice to just kind of show people a different side that they haven’t seen.

Hypable: You’ve also gone through a few image changes. How different do you now feel from the way you presented yourself when you started touring with TAI? Obviously you’ve gone back to wearing your trademark knee scarf, which has a personal history for you, and you’ve gone from flared jeans and long hair through leather jackets and boots to what we see today. Is it just personal style preference, or do you calculate your image?

WB: I think it’s personal style preference – I mean, in some ways it’s been a mash between the two. I brought the knee scarf back because it was never my choice to stop wearing it in the first place. That was a product of band politics, which sounds so ridiculous, like the lowest form of minutiae. Because in the grand scheme it shouldn’t mean anything, but in a lot of ways it did – what it symbolized, and that I just wanted to do it and have something that was different. And I liked wearing it, and then we made our second record and we wanted to be more “rock’n roll.”

William Beckett – 2006 and 2013. Photo credit: Kelly Swift/Ryan Russell

Hypable: How much thought went into that kind of thing back then? Like, “this is the way we want to market ourselves?”

WB: I, personally, never thought like that. Ever. In the one record that we did try [2007’s Santi] – I feel like whenever I thought that way it yielded a result that looks made up. It looks like we’re wearing costumes. So for me it’s just – I wear what I wear. Like this is how I go out. This is how I hang out at home. I don’t really think about my image in a way of fashioning it and tailoring it into what I think is going to be cool or popular. I just wear what I wear and that’s how I’ve always been.

On Page 2: Beckett spills on TAI’s breakup, his year of working without a record label, and his relationship with his fans.

The Academy Is… formed in 2003. The Chicago-based quintet were signed to Fueled By Ramen after attracting notice from fellow Chicago native Pete Wentz, and were one of the first acts to join Wentz’s own record label Decaydance when it was founded in 2005. TAI released three full-length albums and four EPs before disbanding in 2011 – drummer Andy Mrotek and guitarist Michael Guy Chislett left the band in May of that year. William Beckett, along with guitarist Mike Carden and bassist Adam Siska, attempted to continue work on TAI’s fourth album before deciding to end the band in October 2011.

Still signed to Fueled By Ramen under Atlantic Records, Beckett began writing material for himself as a solo artist – his first such venture in over ten years, having released an solo acoustic album under the moniker Remember Maine at age 17. However, midway through Beckett’s writing process, he was dropped from his contract by Atlantic. During 2012, he took things back to basics: he proceeded to release three EPs (Walk The Talk, Winds Will Change, and What Will Be) and an acoustic album, toured small venues including coffee houses and private homes, and utilised Stage-It for a regular series of online concerts and livestreams before signing with Equal Vision Records for the release of his 2013 full-length studio album, Genuine and Counterfeit.

Hypable: Clothing choices aside, the last two years have been very up and down for you. TAI ended, you planned to pursue a solo career with Atlantic, and then you got dropped. You’re with Equal Vision now, but you spent a long time doing grassroots stuff, Stage-It shows and self-releases. How long were you without a label, and were you planning to go ahead no matter what?

WB: For a year after Atlantic – and for the record I have no ill will towards Atlantic and Fueled By Ramen. Things change in this industry really fast, and most of the people there, the entire Fueled By Ramen family that worked there and ran it, they’re all gone. And so are most of the bands. That’s just how it works when you’re on that level – when it’s major labels, it’s like a revolving door with executives. Some people get demoted and some people get promoted, it’s just how it works. Like any giant company.

Bu after they let me go, I was able to take all the songs I was writing during that process – which was great because in that circumstance they could have just taken them. Like “no, sorry, you can’t use these.” But I was able to use everything that I was writing from that point, and it was never the songs that they weren’t confident with. It had to do with “how are we going to market this?” Some people on the team thought that I should be making a modern rock record, but naturally I was writing stuff that was more like ’80s pop leaning. And then, lo and behold, that’s what gets huge on the radio – that style of music! So for me what’s really cool is that I can make my kind of music, especially with Equal Vision Records.

But before that, during that whole year, it had been so much time since I had released music. Because we were working on the fourth album with the Academy, and working on solo stuff, and when you’re on a major label, they tie you up so you can’t release anything until they say it’s okay. So I was just like “I want to release music immediately, I want to put it out right away.” And then we had the concept of releasing the three EPs, like releasing an EP every four months, so we did and that was a success. I just did it on my own, a self-release plan.

And that was the plan, to do a self-release, because labels approached me before that, after they heard about Atlantic. But I wanted to – it was an opportunity to find out and put forth what I want to accomplish and what I want it to be. And it took a minute, you know, for me to find it. But I did, and if it weren’t for my fans and if it weren’t for going back to doing things on a DIY independent thinking – of work ethic and grassroots, which is how I started in this industry to begin with – if it weren’t for that then I don’t think I could have done it. I don’t think I could have sustained, and I wouldn’t be here right now.

I owe all that to my fans. I owe it to the core that has been so amazing. And I’ve also noticed that, you know, as new fans are becoming excited and involved, the core fan base that has been with me since the beginning is very welcoming and very accepting. It’s just really an amazing thing to see that your fans are people that are examples of what I’m singing about as well, positive people.

Hypable: I was going to bring that up – you have always had a unique relationship with your fans, you’ve spoken about how Genuine and Counterfeit was inspired by a gift from a fan, you’ve given fans personal previews of your new albums and you’re doing house shows and constantly interacting online. What do you feel you owe the fans – what makes you feel like going above and beyond the normal level of fan/artist “duty,” so to speak?

WB: There’s a multitude of things and factors that come into it. Naturally, I feel like I’ve always had a pretty strong connection with my fans. I’ve always enjoyed getting to know them a little bit more, and staying out after shows to talk to them and meet them and kind of hang out. I just, I like my fans, you know? I like them as people for the most part. There is obviously a line between what is appropriate – as far as being familiar with me, or too familiar – there’s a line when someone may start to feel entitled, but that hasn’t really happened, which is great, because I feel like I’m just being myself and being close with my fans.

I think that’s what’s going to make this something special, as opposed to me not really caring or not doing house shows or not doing Stage-Its because “that’s my time now.” I think that stuff is extremely important. It’s a sense of community. It’s a sense of making new friends, for my fans to be able to meet each other from all across the country or across the world, and then come to a show together, and to bring people together – I think that if I weren’t doing a lot of these things, it wouldn’t happen. And I feel like I owe it in some ways.

Hypable: Obviously, The Academy Is… had a very large and loyal fan base and there are people who range from thoughtless to downright attacking about things like what songs you should play, or that you’ve let them down in some way in regards to ending the band. How does it feel to see that kind of thing?

WB: It’s very rare that I see anything on the Internet that’s like, straight up like, “screw you, you ruined my favorite band,” like this and that. I rarely see it. I see it, for sure, but it’s so overwhelmingly overshadowed by all the positivity and all the excitement about my new music, and it’s not like I never play Academy songs. I wrote those songs too, they’re my songs. I play them, they’re my songs too, it doesn’t make any sense! I mean, in a lot of ways I get it, but the fans that act like that aren’t fans. Let’s just be honest about it – they’re not. They’re not fans and they’re ignorant to the situation. They should read interviews and find out why – one of the main reasons why it ended was for our fans. Because we didn’t want to force a record that wasn’t what we wanted. We didn’t want to force a record out just to put a record out. Or to please people or any of that. Because we never made music for that reason.

The Academy Is… during promotion for Santi – from l-r Carden, Siska, Beckett, Mrotek, Chislett.

Hypable: The band had sort of a double split, with Andy [known as the Butcher] and Michael leaving first. But about a year ago or so, Butcher went through a stage of tweeting some really emotional stuff, about how he wish he hadn’t left… Would have that made a difference to TAI, if he hadn’t left at that time?

WB: Yes. Yes. If Andy would have stayed I probably wouldn’t have ended the band.

Hypable: Is he someone you’d like to work with again?

WB: Yeah! We’ve talked about it for sure, and he’s a really big supporter of my new stuff. He was going to play drums on my new record but he had some family stuff come up. He’s a guy who’s is a great example of such spirit, such positivity and talent beyond anyone I’ve ever met, and so having him in the band was a big thing for me. Particularly because my other relationships in the band weren’t necessarily strong enough to sustain without him. That’s a pretty good way to put it.

On Page 3: On touring alone, the dispersing of emo’s royal family, and the addition to Beckett’s own family – his daughter.

In 2005, when a range of alternative genres from pop-punk to hardcore all got branded “emo” and started growing mainstream legs, The Academy Is… found themselves at the center of the emerging scene. This subculture – more brightly colored than the gothy, My Chemical Romance-style “emo,” revolved around a core five bands – the traditional pop-punk Fall Out Boy, rap-infused Gym Class Heroes, theatrical Panic! At The Disco, electro-pop Cobra Starship, and The Academy Is…, whose sound was more indie-rock.

Those five groups, despite their difference in musical style, became an inseparable unit, guest-starring in each other’s music videos and albums, and constantly touring together in different combinations. When Pete Wentz founded his own imprint in order to sign Panic! At The Disco – the babies of the group – the other bands came along too.

Beckett on MTV’s TRL with Pete Wentz; and filming the video for the Snakes On A Plane theme song with Travis McCoy, Gabe Saporta, Maja Ivarsson and Samuel L. Jackson.

The entire crew, sharing a label and management, formed the Decaydance family – they picked up newbies along the way, but those original five were the leaders, the stars of a community highly dependent on social media and blogging, with the main resources being MySpace and LiveJournal. The fandom – known sometimes as “bandom,” was so dedicated that it even went as far as fanfiction, shipping pairings like “Peterick” (Pete Wentz/Patrick Stump) or “Treckett,” Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes and Beckett. With Fall Out Boy leading the charge, TAI became posterboys of a genre that was soon known simply as “the scene.”

Meanwhile, in private, Beckett was delighting in the growth of his own personal family. In late 2007, Beckett – then 22 – welcomed a daughter, Genevieve Dylan. Evie, as she is known, is now a boisterous six-year-old and a regular star of her father’s social media and livestreams, but for several years she was kept a secret, with Beckett going as far as deny her existence in an interview when rumors abounded.

Hypable: TAI were part of the whole Decaydance scene –  that group was like alternative rock royalty for a few years. You mentioned having no hard feelings with the labels, but when you got dropped from Atlantic, or when the band broke up, was it easy to maintain all the relationships that you wanted to maintain, with those people?

WB: Not really, but I think it’s not as a result of that. All of us have our own lives, and everyone has been going through huge changes. Fall Out Boy wasn’t a band for a while – they were apart and doing their own thing – so at that point I saw Patrick [Stump] more than I saw Pete [Wentz], but traditionally I would see Pete a lot more than I would see Patrick. But you know, that’s an example. Cobra is like a whole different level, of where they’re at and what they want, and they don’t tour a lot anymore. But Gabe [Saporta, Cobra Starship’s frontman, formerly of New Jersey hardcore band Midtown] has busted his ass for like, twelve or fifteen years. He’s done it. He’s earned everything that he’s accomplished, everyone in that band has, and I’m so happy for them. But if I ran into Gabe tonight, it would be like nothing ever changed. It would be like we never skipped a day apart from each other.

It’s the same with Gym Class Heroes and Travis – I was in New York and I ran into Travis like completely randomly – it was outside of a bicycle shop and he was getting a bike – I ran into him and it was just like – both of us jaws on the sidewalk and huge hugs. He insisted upon us taking pictures and putting them online – he tweeted “Treckett Lives” and all this stuff. And that’s what I’m talking about. Like we’ve built a bond and a respect that is so strong and so deep that no distance and no void can really change what it is when it comes right down to it. Cause we’re like, you know, we’re brothers.

Treckett – 2006 and 2013.

Hypable: Yes. But it’s a big change from living on the road with that same group of people, all those bands and your own band, for five years in a row. So working as a complete solo artist, how isolating is that? In the sense of just not being with a team of people in day-to-day life, except for whoever you’re producing with, or even on out tour? Do you feel like you’re lacking camaraderie, now that you’re working with new people all the time?

WB: No. I mean I like it, I’m a personable person. I’m a friendly fella! I’ve made so many new friends since doing it on my own that I wouldn’t have made otherwise, I don’t think? It wouldn’t have been as strong, because I essentially become a part of the crew. On this tour, it’s been only two shows so far, but it already feels like family. I haven’t been on tour with The Maine in a long time, and Anberlin it’s been a while too. In certain ways, obviously, I miss the familiarity of going back to the dressing room and Butcher’s doing a wood burning and Sisky’s listening to music. But at the same time, I’m going to go back to the dressing room and I’ve got new friends that are listening to music. Not doing a wood burning, but you know what I mean? It’s like having an exciting new group of friends every tour, and it’s enriching. And you know what? I don’t mind being alone. I like being alone. I go to movies alone sometimes. I go to coffee shops alone and just write. I got to bars alone sometimes and write.

Hypable: Is Genuine and Counterfeit is the most personal writing that you’ve ever done?

WB: It’s always been really personal. Even Fast Times At Barrington High, [TAI’s third album, released in 2008] which is about the past – that was really personal as well, but this one is for sure the most that I’ve ever delved into my own relationships. That’s pretty clear when you listen to the record, when you listen to the lyrics. I’m not talking about everything being peachy. I’m addressing real life relationship issues and struggles.

Hypable: You’ve been in the same relationship for years – is that something that is easy or hard to make peace with, in the sense of people like your family and your girlfriend seeing your writing saying “oh, you wrote about that?” Right from the start, do you have to be like, “Look, I’m not Taylor Swift, but I’m gonna write songs about things?”

WB: She gets it. She’s been in it for a long time. Since the beginning, she’s been there. She knows that I’m going to write some songs that are inspired by us that aren’t very nice sometimes. So she just deals with it. Like, most of it’s written to be universal. It’s written to be something that people can relate to, not over-the-top detail orientated.

Hypable: This record also vaguely mentions your daughter. You being a dad – that’s something that, for several years, you actively chose not only to keep private but to outright deny.

WB: This is one of those things that is sort of a touchy subject because my band – not everyone in my band, but certain people in my band – were not supportive at all of me having a child. So that made me very sad and very unwilling to open up to people, because the people that I trusted most, that I needed most… It was a scary time, you know? A huge step. And to be met with downright – things I would never say to my friend – that turned me off to all of it. And I regret, deeply, ever denying anything about her. It was only the one time, but obviously you say something once and you can’t erase it. But that was one of those things, you know… It would be nice if people could understand where I was coming from, with how uncomfortable and how hurt and let down I was by people that I trusted, let alone people that I don’t know at all.

William and Genevieve Beckett. Photo credit: Courtney Beckett

Hypable: That’s where I was going with that – just what had led you to make that choice, and whether you would still do the same thing.

WB: No, I wouldn’t. I mean I believe in holding certain things private, but I’ve always been extremely proud to be a dad. It’s like the best thing in my life. And then it can get to a point where it’s like “screw this, screw you, I’m talking about this.” I mean I could have written a record about that. But we wrote a record about high school instead.

Hypable: Were there any songs you wrote at the time that were about the situation you were going through?

WB: I wrote a bunch of stuff that never saw the light of day, so yeah. But nothing that anyone has heard, really. I really focused and honed in on concepts of Fast Times to be inspired by my high school experiences, which really shaped me into who I am.

On Page 4: Beckett gets technical about his computerized “band in a box,” his latest recording process, and his plans to tour with a new live band.

After self-releasing three EPs – a total of twelve songs – during 2012, William Beckett also released The Pioneer Sessions, an acoustic collection of those tracks, before announcing his new record deal with Equal Vision. Beckett went into the studio for his first full-length solo album, Genuine and Counterfeit, during early 2013 and the record was released on August 20.

During the past two years of touring as a solo artist, Beckett has introduced his “band in a box” as an element of his stage show. Using his Macbook, Beckett is able to amplify his own pre-recorded synth and drum tracks, while singing and playing the lead parts on guitar live, creating a fuller, less acoustic sound for his new songs.

Hypable: In terms of creating your first new music post-TAI, the ’80s pop thing on the three EPs – that period of writing was very synthy, in a way that’s kind of experimental for you, not the style of music you’ve released before. And then the full-length album was more full band. Was that sound digitally generated or real in the studio?

WB: It’s all real. It’s real ’80s synths, we had a Juno in the studio, which is essentially in all John Hughes movies, that’s the synth that they use a lot of. It’s the same on the record, there’s actually a lot of synth on the record and piano on the record as well. But obviously there’s more guitars and layering and soundscapes. It’s just larger sounding.

William Beckett in the studio for Genuine and Counterfeit. Photo credit: Jack Edinger

Hypable: Is that the reason that you’re using the “band in a box” idea for your performances? You’ve obviously got a knack for making acoustic versions of your songs, and you even released The Pioneer Sessions, acoustic recordings of those three synth-heavy 2012 EPs. What made you want to use that technology as opposed to just getting up with your guitar and playing folky acoustic versions?

WB: Because I think the folky thing is boring. That was the one thing I didn’t want to do, be another singer songwriter with a guitar and stool. It’s just boring to me. So I wanted to do something different, and it’s been working so far, it’s been fun to do it this way. And it’s just more exciting – I can play before The Maine, [if it was folky] the sound would go from like “here” to “HERE,” and that kind of dwarfs me in a lot of ways, so I have to compete, you know? It was perfect on Warped Tour this summer too, because of all the festival grounds, the noise – I was the only guy on my stage that used a band in a box.

Hypable: Were you on an acoustic stage or one of the main stages?

WB: It was the Acoustic Basement stage, which was a big success.

Hypable: So you would have had the biggest sound for that kind of space… Do you have active plans to tour with a full live band?

WB: I do, yeah. Next year I want to bring a band out and do this album with a full band. So I can run around a little more.

Hypable: What will be the difference touring as William Beckett and his backing band as opposed to The Academy Is…, as far as what you would want from a stage show, group dynamics, that sort of thing?

WB: I think it depends on who I choose for the band. I think from a performance standpoint, from my end you’d probably see a lot of the familiar energy, cause these songs are really energetic. But they’re also more dynamic. Not to like, bash anything I did before – they’re just more dynamic now. So I think you’d see a pretty broad spectrum of energy level and emotion.

Hypable: Would you want to stay with the guitar?

WB: Probably not. I mean I would only play acoustic on songs that have acoustic on them. Cause not all of them do – a handful.

William Beckett performing on Warped Tour 2013. Photo credit: Chris Martin

Hypable: You made a joke on stage about you have your “band in a box” because you don’t like to be disobeyed. How controlling are you to work with? If you were taking out a band, obviously it would be under your name and your control. Will you be comfortable taking that much control over a band?

W: Nah, I was joking – I don’t treat people like that, like “you work for me” sort of thing. Never. We’d just be like friends – positive vibes. We all love music, we all love performance, we take our art seriously, but yet we have fun. Like all the good things of a band and none of the BS.

Hypable: Finally – it’s abundantly clear that you understand the importance of being a fan, on more than just a surface level – through your relationships with your own fans, and your own interests. Are you obsessive about anything, the kind of fannish-ness that, if you started talking to a “normal person” about it, they’d be like “whoa, way too intense”?

WB: Game of Thrones – the books too – is probably the number one, and Boardwalk Empire. I love good television. But I know that Doctor Who is a giant thing, and that’s a show I haven’t been able to get into, period. I’ve tried, but I just can’t. I know a lot of my fandom will be bummed by that. Sorry guys, I just don’t get it. I think I’m just sore that they didn’t choose me to be the next Doctor.

Hypable: Oh well, we can always live in hope!

Hand of the King? Or the Fourteenth Doctor? Photo credit: Hypable

William Beckett headlines the Reggie’s Rock Club Fourth Annual Acoustic Holiday Show in Chicago this Saturday, where he will be performing with a full band. Tickets are still available. Beckett’s dance card for 2014 is also filling up – he tours Japan in February, collaborating with co-headliners Artist vs Poet to play a full band set, and immediately after that, he’ll depart on a six week American tour with We Are The In Crowd. Tickets for the American tour are on sale now.

Genuine and Counterfeit is available in all good record stores as well as on iTunes. You can watch a making-of video for the lead single, “Benny and Joon,” below.

Header photo credit: Chris Martin