Profile: Traveling Troubadour

Joseph Beck, 31, also known by his producer name Stitch Jones, takes his guitar all over the map with the sound of music following his footsteps.

From his hometown of Bloomington, Illinois to Japan and eventually California, the recording tech major has always had an ear for music and he often brings his guitar out on campus to play a few chords.

His true calling pertains to composing music in a never-ending quest to master and hone his craft.

When he is not coming to class, Beck is playing music or working with aspiring musicians who reach out to him to record during studio sessions.

There is excitement in his voice when Beck talks about producing and how he incorporates what he has learned throughout his life into his beats.

Beck always had his sights set on breaking into the recording industry. The producer recently celebrated the release of an EP with rapper Kwestion entitled “N.I.K.E.” that can be found on major streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.

The release of the “N.I.K.E.” EP is another stone on his road. The two artists met in Arkansas when Kwestion was in need of a guitar player for another project he was working on.

“He helped bring the idea to life,” Kwestion said about Beck’s work on N.I.K.E. “I think Joe helped me tap into that next level of where I’m trying to go as an artist.”

Beck is inspired by producers like Quincy Jones that have a personal sound to their music, even when working with different artists.

“It wasn’t Tupac that I was the fan of,” said Beck. “It was Dr. Dre and Tupac.”

While Beck can hold a conversation about every genre of music, he normally focuses on hip-hop and beat production, boasting a specialty in live instrumentation.

He is also extremely passionate about the metal genre, and knows a lot about video games. A Metal Gear Solid sticker is planted firmly on his acoustic guitar.

Beck grew up surrounded by the artform of music, and as a child an appreciation of music quickly took hold. His father Joe Beck Senior, 59, is a well-known drummer and DJ in Illinois.

Beck started on the drums just like his old man Beck Sr., surrounded by folks making music because of his father’s work in the industry.

“Once I gave him the drumsticks and let him tap on the drums, he was interested. You could see it on his face,” Beck Sr. said.

The producer remembers that the band Guns N’ Roses inspired him to want to learn how to play instruments. A double sided cassette tape was the source.

“This tape is the story of my life! One side is Guns N’ Roses, and the other side is Warren G. It went from like Regulators to Appetite for Destruction,” Beck said.

Beck credits this nascent duality as the foundation of his music awareness, which can be found today in the production of his beats.

While drums were the first instrument Beck learned, they were only the start to a life of producing and creating music.

In high school, Beck began experimenting with producing and recording hip-hop beats using some of his father’s drum machines. This experience came in handy later on while he traveled.

He helped form J.B. Stud and the Pimptastics, a band he and one of his best friends Marco Carriero played with in high school.

Carriero, the bassist of the Pimptastics and a musician to this day, remembers meeting Beck when he was 15 at Bloomington High School. They have been friends ever since.

“We would play video games with a bigger group,” said Carriero, “and then we would just either watch movies or talk about music — or better yet play instruments.”

The Pimptastics’ goal was to play the “craziest set list ever” ranging from the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” theme song to hair-metal and funk, performing at school homecomings and battle of the bands.

Eventually, they won the local Heyworth Battle of the Bands in 2005, a memory of which Beck and Carriero are intimately fond.

Carriero remembers his friend wielding a love for all music since he has known him. He said that even as a teen Beck had developed an interest in tinkering with drum machines and composing.

As the friends have grown older, Carriero has a great sense of pride in Beck and the producer’s method of making music. In Beck’s productions, Carriero said, everything has a purpose and industry-level polish.

Beck’s longtime friend said this love of music is why he is such a decisive and interesting producer. “He’s not stopping at good enough in his own songs. He wants to love them,” Carriero said.

Arranging and creating the foundation of a song is what draws Beck to this craft, and he often brings up metal bands like Metallica to illustrate how a band’s trademark sound is often the work of producing.

As the producer side of Beck began taking shape and he decided to pursue a life of music, Beck chose to join the Air Force to help pay for college.

Joining the Air Force started Beck on a journey of personal investment and gave him a sense of discipline that Carriero said stays firmly established in his work as a producer.

“It’s probably the best, worst thing I ever did,” Beck said of being stationed in Arkansas for 3 years after bootcamp and tech school.

Beck connected with rappers there and began making his first splashes in the local scene while continuing to experiment with producing.

He later played at live venues in Arkansas and opened for shows, giving him a taste of what it meant to be in the music industry.

However, Beck had to move again because of his duty to the Air Force, this time deploying to Iraq. Beck could not abandon the beat and still found a way to engage with music half a world away.

“(The military) almost treated my guitar like an emotional support animal while I was on deployment,” said Beck, hinting that he had to pull some strings to get his guitar overseas.

Even active duty could not stop Beck from yearning to hone his skills. The producer found ways to stay up to date with what was going on in the music scene even while on deployment.

“I would finish work and I would just, like, pick up and learn a playlist of what was hot at the time ‘cause I realized it was, like, helping people y’know?” Beck said. “There’s not really entertainment. It’s just hot.”

Beck produced beats for his brother Zach Beck, known as rapper Futuristic, in his early mixtapes while on deployment and asked his dad for music recommendations to help keep him busy.

“I always loved his beats because they mixed rock with hip hop and integrated a lot of live instrumentation,” Futuristic said.

He says his brother helped push him out of his comfort zone in the studio by having him test his voice in different ways.

Keeping up with his craft and education was not easy on deployment but nevertheless, Beck persevered.

The computers he was able to use never had the correct music software for the versatile producer.

Unable to bring his own computer, Beck could not continue his Berkeley Music Online classes for a music production certificate.

“All that stuff was like brick walls; how much do you really want to do this?” said Beck.

After transfering to Kuwait, the ever-evolving producer would face those same obstacles. He would later be stationed in Korea and Japan, unable to break into the local scenes because of the cultural and language barriers.

“I actually auditioned for a Japanese metal band while I was out there. But I just realized that this is really hard,” Beck said. His time in Japan was actually his favorite because of his history with video games and anime.

Beck said that coming back home after his service was odd, much like his commanding officers had foreshadowed.

The producer felt he had attained a great sense of responsibility during his service, but had to start life over from scratch while coming back home to people living the same lives as when he had left.

California was his new start. Beck overcame challenges in southern California before settling here at Citrus, including having to live out of his car around Monrovia.

Beck’s girlfriend of four years, Erica Reel, 22, met the producer after a Monrovia street fair where she had seen him playing guitar.

“He was playing a Thrice song when I first saw him, and I was like, ‘nobody fucking plays Thrice!’” Reel said.

Eventually, Beck got back on his feet, and the two moved in together alongside Carriero in Los Angeles above Union Station while holding down a tree-trimming job.

It was here that Beck would once again decide to follow his passion for producing, and he started attending Citrus for its renowned recording arts program.

During a studio session for a live instrument recording of “N.I.K.E” at XLNT Studios in Hollywood Oct. 12, Beck displayed a familiarity behind the board that only a lifelong pursuit of this craft could produce.

Talking to him at XLNT Studios, Beck reminisces about his past couple years in California, sounding sure he is on the right path.

“It was a super come up, dude. I was playing guitar at a freaking park that year in 2014, right? And freaking here we are in 2018 on Hollywood and Vine and studying at Citrus,” Beck said, proud of the long way he has come.