The Academy Is…
Interview with William Beckett
That's hard to say. I don't know…my favorite songs to perform are somewhat different than the ones that are my favorite songs on the record. Like, we haven't been playing "Unexpected Places," the last song on the record, and that's one of my favorite songs. But my favorite song to perform is actually a B-side from Santi called "Forty Steps," and I like that song. I like performing that song.
Do you write songs that appeal to yourself, or others?
It's a very fine line between writing something that's genuine—from the heart—that you're not trying to appeal to a mass amount of people. I don't wanna dumb down anything, and sometimes in order to relate to a vast majority of people you have to water things down and make them more vague. For me, lyrically, I don't like doing that. I just write songs that are about things that are meaningful to me, that I'm going through. I don’t think that I’m, you know, so different than you guys. I don't think that I'm different…that I'm that different from a lot of people. So I think that's why our fans relate so strongly to our lyrics because they see that I’m saying it in my own way and they attach to it. And that's an amazing thing. I never really expected that to happen.
I noticed that a lot of your songs talk about the theme that we're all kind of the same. You even have a song called "Same Blood." Were you going through something at the time when you were writing songs that made you realize that?
Absolutely! I mean it's like, it's so…I mean even on like a global level, there's so much going on right now in our world that is very scary, you know, when it comes down to it, and I think people forget that we're all human beings and we're all pretty much part of the same species. And killing each other isn't the answer to happiness, that's for sure. It's not the answer to freedom either. But on a more domestic level I was also thinking a lot about individuals, even like a community or family of 'em. Sometimes you do feel so distant from everybody, and some people like to alienate themselves, and some people like to alienate other people—especially in high school, in cliques and things like that. Some people think that they're more important than others. Some people feel uncomfortable around other people that treat people like that, SO…you know, it's a reminder of regardless of what you look like, what you dress like, what music you listen to…you know, how much money your parents make, all those things…what color your skin is… all that, it doesn't matter. We're all united. If we didn't fight that truth, then there'd be a lot more peace, you know, a lot more, uh…people would have a lot more fun as well, I think.
Are there a lot of songs that you wrote that didn't make it onto the album?
Not really. Most of them, we just wrote then, and then we put them on the record. But there are some songs here and there that didn't make it, that were just more like…cause we didn't have the time to work with them as much, ummm…that will always happen. It's like, you'll write 15, 16 songs and then 12 make the record, and then there's a couple B-sides, and then there's a couple that got kind of lost in the wind. They're unreleased but not forgotten. But at the same time its like, I don't know how well I can go back to old ideas and develop them…it's more like, you write a song now and record it now, it's a snapshot, it's a photograph of this moment, and, you know, two weeks from now, there's a different snapshot, a different moment, a different part of your life that you wanna talk about or think about.
Do you have any hidden talents or anything you'd like to share?I played sports in high school. I think a lot of people wouldn't even guess that I did. But I played baseball and basketball like all my life. We were at this sports bar about uh…about um, a couple weeks ago, and we were watching Monday Night Football. I'm a huge NFL fan! You know, like, I'm pretty much a sports geek, you know…and I'm not ashamed to say it. Like, me and my dad, we talk about sports, and I can probably name, I can rattle off some shit that's like, "Whoa! This guys a total ESPN dork!" Anyway so, at this sports bar where there's like darts, and pool, and shuffle board…but they had this section of the bar where there was like a free-throw shooting thing where you could shoot free throws, just shoot-shoot-shoot for free…and, me dressed like I dress, this is how I dress all the time, you know, so, when you go into sports bars and you have long hair and you look like me, you usually get some looks at first, until you start talking about sports, and then they're like, "Ah, yeah, I guess he's alright!" Um…but I was just shooting some free-throws and I swear I made like 45 free-throws in a row! In a row! I was sitting there, just like, on fire! You know, I was in a zone. The next thing I know, this table full of middle aged men, probably older than our dads, you know, they're sitting there and they're like, "Wow! That's pretty intense!" So then, one of the guys was like, "Yeah you know, I used to play in high school, do you wanna do like…like challenge me?" I was like, "Cool, let's do it!" So I go first. It's like best out of ten, and the winner buys the other one a beer—See, I'm over 21, so I can drink beer, okay. If you're not, you shouldn't. I'm not trying to be a bad example here. So I made ten in a row, and then he shot a couple, so needless to say, he bought me two beers. So I don't know, that's one of those things. I could probably beat your dad in free-throws.
Are you friends with any other FBR bands?
Yeah! I'm sure you guys know that. We're really close with Fall Out Boy; we grew up with them. We played the same VFW halls and churches, you know, country bars, and things like that.
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