Jackie Beckey

We recently caught up with Minneapolis music allstar and SHIP & SHAPE model Jackie Beckey to ask her a few questions about her many endeavors.  We have always been inspired by Jackie, and we were super excited when she agreed to model for us. One of her bands, Brute Heart is playing tonight in Minneapolis at the Kitty Cat Klub.  If you haven't already seen them, you really must go.  We have cassette tapes available on SHIP & SHAPE from Jackie's other awesome band, Myrrh.

What musicians are you listening to currently? 
This fall I've been spending a lot of time sitting around the house drinking tea and listening to Barn Owl and Celtic Frost.

What influences your personal style?
I would say musicians I love have a huge impact on my personal style.

What are your favorite Minneapolis haunts? 
Isle Bun and Coffee is definitely a favorite haunt of mine--a coffee with a puppydog tail is an amazing way to start the day.  I also love walks at Woodlake Nature Center in Richfield.

You lead a psychedelic marching band and recently wrote and performed a live score for a film. Do you have any other big projects in the works?
Writing/performing a Spaghetti Western Opera is something I hope to work on this spring.  I also hope to tour Europe this summer with Brute Heart.

Your two bands Brute Heart and Myrrh are quite different stylistically, how would you describe each project and how did they come to be?

Brute Heart started after Crystal Myslajek and I worked on Barebones together in 2006.  We had so much fun writing music together that we decided to start a band.  The Crystals and I jammed with a loose idea of what we wanted to play--I was listening to a lot of Quixotic at the time and wanted to do something a little more angular and unusual.  Andie (the drummer of Myrrh) and I have been playing in bands together for years.  We love Earth's "Hex" record so Myrrh kind of came out of that inspiration.  Jason recently started playing lap steel with us which has been really fun and making things even louder which is awesome.

You are currently in grad school studying library sciences.  How do your studies influence you creatively?
I'm sad to say that my studies in Library Science have not influenced me creatively.  I do hope to someday relive my orkydorch days by being a librarian for a touring orchestra.