The mesmerising Willis Earl Beal will tour Australia for the first time in December and January, performing at Falls Festival and his own headline shows in Melbourne and Sydney.
Rolling Stone describe him as “an addictive slice of ultra- lo-fi soul-folk” and NME believe that he possesses “what is easily one of the most stunning voices in music today”. Complimenting his soulful croon, Willis Earl Beal writes immediately arresting, warm, ernest and moving music. He’s made dozens of songs using whatever spare instruments and materials he could find in Albuquerque’s flea markets, thrift stores and alleyways. A red electric guitar, forgotten acoustic guitars, a lap harp, a makeshift drum kit created from pots and pans.
After living in Chicago his entire life, Beal felt compelled to be near the desert, an idea he had long
romanticised. In 2007 at the age of 27 he moved to Albuquerque without a plan and lived on the streets while trying to land a job. He found that singing helped him cope while sleeping rough, and when he eventually secured work at a motel, he saw the late night shifts as an opportune time to create his music using a cassette-based karaoke machine and a $20 microphone.
He would scatter hand drawn flyers around town, listing his phone number and address along with the message “My name is Willis Earl Beal. Call me and I’ll sing you a song. Write to me and I’ll draw you a picture.” In 2009, Found Magazine discovered one of the flyers and featured it on their cover along with an in depth 4 page interview, resulting in Beal being contacted directly by over 100 members of the public. He quickly gained media attention through his grassroots self-promotion, and his debut album Acousmatic Sourcery was released in early 2012 through XL Recordings, accompanied by a self-illustrated video for the first single ‘Evening’s Kiss’. The song recounts a trip to a local cafe, where an attractive waitress who Beal found likeable happened to work.
He would often dress up in a suit in an effort to impress her and in the hopes of perhaps wooing her, but on this particular night something felt amiss. “I felt like ‘Jesus Christ, I’m just a fraud. I’m here and I’m deluding myself into thinking that this person, this waitress, is actually interested in me,” Beal says. He grabbed a napkin and scribbled down some heartbreaking lines about losing out on a desired dream, resulting in the chorus lyrics “the evening’s kiss got me fading away.”
Join Willis Earl Beal this summer in the intimate surrounds of Melbourne’s Northcote Social Club and Goodgod Small Club in Sydney.
Willis Earl Beal – Australian tour dates Tickets on sale now.
Wednesday January 2nd – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Tickets: handsometours.com; northcotesocialclub.com, (03) 9486 1677; in person at the Corner Box Office (57 Swan 11am-8pm Mon-Sat)
Thursday January 3rd – Goodgod Small Club, Sydney
Tickets: handsometours.com, www.goodgodgoodgod.com, www.moshtix.com.au
Willis will also perform at Falls Festival, all details can be found here: www.fallsfestival.com.au

