| Pullman guitarist known for his songwriting skill |
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| Written by Brian Rich -Argonaut | ||||||
| Tuesday, 21 March 2006 | ||||||
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Call him Pullman’s John Mayer, Jack Johnson or Chris Carrabba, just
don’t call him generic. With each new song, Cody Beebe tries to draw
from different influences and touch on styles he’s never approached
before, all in a quest to keep his sound fresh. Beebe, a junior at Washington State University, grew up playing acoustic rock with his uncle, a Nashville musician who didn’t quite make it professionally but had a knack for teaching. Beebe picked up the guitar quickly, learning things from his uncle when he could and practicing his own style when his uncle wasn’t around. Once he was in high school, Beebe started writing his own music, and in college, he began making an impression with his songwriting. He even had a song featured in a contest for VH1’s Save the Music. “It was my freshman year. It was my birthday and my girlfriend at the time submitted two of my songs. The song ‘Remember My Name’ got an honorable mention,” Beebe said. Beebe said he started writing music while listening to a lot of Pink Floyd, though now he’s moved on to musicians such as Jack Johnson and John Mayer. His lyrics and music are influenced by life and death, he said, and the realization of how fragile and short life can be. “That’s what ‘Remember My Name’ is about, whether or not you do all of the stuff in your life — become a millionaire, et cetera — and about who’s actually going to remember you,” he said. “It’s a lot easier to write if you’re upset about something, but it’s a lot more uplifting if you can write about something that makes people think of something in a different way.” One of Beebe’s most successful songs has been “With This Ring,” a song that has become a hit with his family and friends at weddings. He originally wrote it as a Christmas gift to his cousin as part of a routine gift exchange, but the song was so powerful that he has already performed it at other weddings and has three more lined up in the next year. Beebe performs in his band, Second Story Regret, with some friends while writing solo music on the side. While his band is about to compete in WSU’s annual Battle of the Bands, his solo project already won WSU’s Acoustic Battle of the Bands, securing him an opening spot at the April 22 Springfest. Beebe said he is excited for the festival, though he wasn’t impressed with it in previous years. “They always call it Springfest, but it doesn’t make sense to me,” he said, because it is typically indoors and doesn’t offer many bands. Beebe said this year should be a bit better because it will last all day, though that could mean fighting with his “morning voice.” “This year it’ll be outside and it says that it’ll be at 11 in the morning,” he said. “I hope I don’t have to play then, because I don’t know how my voice will be.” Beebe will also perform with Heartspark Thursday night at CJ’s. The show will feature a Pullman rap artist and a Portland rock band called Lunaractive, which Beebe said should make for a pretty weird combination of sounds. Once Beebe graduates with a civil engineering degree, he hopes to move to Seattle to further his music career. He said he’s getting a degree right now more as a backup plan, so he has something to do while he chases tours and record deals to add to his current deal with Vicarious Rex Records, a low-key record label that is helping him release his second album in April. “This summer I’m going to Europe for a month,” he said. “Then I’m going to try to play around the Northwest and play coffee shops or wherever I can.”  Add as favorites (27) | Views: 923
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