Ian Beert
Gig Seeker Pro

Ian Beert

Band Rock Pop

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"Ian Beert to Play Hillfest and Nedfest"

"With dedication, paired with passionand self-awareness that is evident in his music, Beert has proven himself a musician on the rise." - Marisa Beahm - Marquee Magazine 08/06.

To read the entire review, go to http://www.marqueemag.com/08_06/beert.html. - Marquee Magazine


"Locals only: Ian Beert"


By Greg Glasgow (Contact)
Friday, November 10, 2006

The buzz about local singer-songwriter Ian Beert has been growing since last fall, when the musician started playing around town.

Impressed with his talent and John Mayer-esque sound, Guitar Cellar owner Bob Dooney took the young performer under his wing and helped him record a CD, Something About Today, which is available through CDBaby.com.

Beert — who also cites Michael Jackson, Coldplay and Ben Harper as influences — drew nearly 500 people to his CD-release show in September at the Fox Theatre.

Raised in a suburb of Chicago, Beert came to Boulder in 2003 to attend the University of Colorado, where he is now a senior majoring in communications. He has a West Coast tour — his first tour — planned for February, and after he graduates in May he says he plans to hit the road full-time.

Beert plays a solo acoustic show tonight at CU's Club 156 with Pete Lewis of the band Storytyme.

Q: How did you first start playing music?

A: Both of my parents are classical musicians — they play cello and bass and violin and all that stuff — so I started playing upright bass in fourth grade. Basically it was just because my dad did it and I thought it was cool. So I did the orchestra thing until freshman year of high school and then I quit and I didn't do anything with music.

(Then) my friend needed a dance partner for this show choir thing, the tuxedos-and-sequins kind of thing, and a bunch of my friends were doing it, so I was like, "Oh, sure, why not." So I did it and was decent enough at that that they said, "Come back for the singing tryout."

I did that and they said, "You're good enough to do it," and that was how I started singing my junior year of high school. I started playing guitar shortly after that.

Q: And how did it progress when you came to CU?

A: I came to CU in fall of '03, and I had no aspirations of being a musician. I just came out here and didn't really know what I was going to do. I actually didn't start writing songs that people liked until the summer after my freshman year. And then I did a little performing my sophomore year — sorority benefits and open mics and stuff like that.

I kind of didn't know where to go with it, so I stepped away from it a little while. I still wrote a lot but it wasn't a huge thing. And then last year I totally felt the urge and the desire to do it, and I started playing open mics and writing a ton, and incidentally Bob Dooney found me and decided he wanted to help me get started.

That was toward the end of first semester last year.


Ian Beert, with Pete Lewis and Ross Kenyon
WHEN • 7 tonight
WHERE • Club 156, University Memorial Center, University of Colorado campus, Boulder
TICKETS • $10
INFO • (303) 492-7704 or www.programcouncil.com

Q: Do you have a band now, or do you still just play solo?

A: I have a band. When we do the band it's still (billed as) Ian Beert. I do a lot of full-band shows, but within those full-band shows I usually do a half-hour solo set in the middle.

I love when people can strip it down and just play solo. It's a lot more raw. When I've seen Ben Harper play it's the most inspiring thing ever when he's just alone sitting on his blanket-covered chair. It's the most soulful thing ever, and I love doing that.

Q: Did playing in the school orchestra as a kid give you a good musical background for what you're doing now?

A: I think it actually did a lot. It kind of subconsciously gave me this sense of songs and how they work and the structures behind them. And I think basic (music) theory got ingrained in me really early. I can just hear things and know what it is. My parents, it's in their blood; it's in my blood.

It's a combination of orchestra and all that stuff, and for some reason it's in me.

Q: You mentioned that it took you a while to write songs that people liked; what changed in your writing process?

A: I stopped trying to force it and I stopped trying to write songs that people liked. One day I sat down and there was this emotion flooding over me — it was this amazing day out and then it started raining. It was the craziest thing ever, and I just started playing my guitar and humming words and all of a sudden I had this song and I played it for some people and they were like, "That's really good, actually."

I definitely work at writing, but it wasn't this crazy effort. It just kind of flowed through me.

Q: How has the response been to the CD?

A: It's been great. Everything from, "This is my favorite line in the song" to very minute things. People are listening to it and really taking it apart and finding it inspiring, which is really cool and an incredibly honoring thing.
- The Daily Camera


Discography

"Something About Today", Ian's new 11 track cd is distributed by CDBABY and is now available in major retailers nationwide and through several digital opportunities such as iTunes, Napster and many more. "One Step Behind" (T1), "Shine" (T4), "Something About Today" (T5) and "August" (T6) are all beginning to receive airplay.

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

Sometimes we stumble upon the things that change our lives, sometimes they smack us right in the face. As he wandered into the rabbit hole of music during his suburban Chicago high school experience, Ian Beert found himself in a world he could not escape, and would never even think to try. Ian found in music what everyone does: the expression of feelings and experiences that transcends and connects everyone.

Ian discovered his talent as a 16-year old, surprising his friends with a warm, and powerful voice and a natural, smooth, and energetic ability at the guitar. Experimenting with all colors of music: classical, jazz, blues, pop, rock, hip-hop, and the jam-band scene, Beert started to create songs that captured the experiences of his life. Now as a 21- year old, the only difference is surprising musical maturity, a charming and familiar stage presence, and 5 more years of experiences with relationships, romance, struggle, perseverance, and faith.

Ian’s voice reaches listeners’ ears with the kind of graceful and catchy melodies that you scream at the top of your lungs while driving down the highway. Whether its through the speakers of your car, sitting around at a party with a few guitars, or on stage in front of an adoring crowd, Ian invites his audience in for a conversation on the “big stuff” in life: love, pain, goofin’ around, loss, laughter and hope.

"Music connects people unlike anything else,” says Beert, “there is something divine in it, and I have tasted of that, and I know pretty much everyone else has too. We all know those songs that make us feel alive, elevated, and connected. I mean who hasn’t caught themselves jumping around, dancing, and laughing all by themselves in their underwear during some song that just moves your soul? I mean its one of my favorite things to do. If I have lived like that, and written songs that make people do that, then I can’t ask for anything more.”

It is this down to earth, playful sincerity that distinguishes Ian, on and off the stage. This personality drips from his music and gets all over those who are graced by it. Regardless of the setting, listeners will have encountered something real and full of soul, and they will have gotten their face rocked off.