Beck Hansen

A post on New York mag’s Vulture blog pointed us in the direction of this recent interview with Stephen Malkmus (of Pavement, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, etc.) in Spin in which he said something curious of Beck:

Stephen Malkmus: …Beck also said he was trying to start a private press of books and that I should get involved.

Spin: Really?

SM: Yeah. He asked if I wanted to do something. But I don’t know what the status of that yet because, you know, I haven’t contributed to it yet. But he’s planning a ’60s-style private press. Limited editions books of writings, drawings, poetry.

Perhaps during recording sessions for Thurston Moore‘s recent album (which Beck also produced), conversations veered toward the bookish and literary and Beck got inspired. Moore recently started his own art press, Ecstatic Peace, which publishes finely designed books by artists and writers. A notable title on their list is Fly Me by Yoko Ono.

Though not much else is known about the press–the name, where it will be based, when we can expect to see books–the prospect of someone like Beck throwing his creative energy into books is pretty exciting. I for one am interested to see what he can pull off.

After all, if the recent history of rockstars getting into the publishing game is any indication (I’m looking at you, Johnny Temple), the future may be bright.