Behind the astute songwriting of Iron & Wine is Sam Beam, a multi-disciplinary artist from South Carolina. As a five-time GRAMMY nominee, it’s no surprise that Beam’s imaginative demeanor first appeared in childhood.
“I was the kid in the back of the class drawing, not paying attention in school,” Beam said.
Naturally, this led Beam to become an art student.
“I ended up going to an art school and studying painting, and then gradually got drawn into photography and filmmaking,” Beam said.
“I then went to a film school and worked with that for a while, and I ended up teaching when my kids came along.”
In the hum of painting, filmmaking and fatherhood, Beam was also songwriting.
“Around the late 90s, I started writing songs. I don’t know what sparked it. I don’t remember why I started to do it. It started to take hold of my imagination,” Beam said.
Beam hadn’t intended to pursue music as a career. He stumbled into a commercial breakthrough when his lifelong friend Ben Bridwell—now known for Band of Horses—shared Beam’s lo-fi demos with Sub Pop Records. Beam was immediately signed and began to release music under the name Iron & Wine in 2004.
“Ben put it in their ear when he was talking to Sub Pop about his band, and then they called me. It was that crazy,” Beam said. “I don’t want to not talk about how much luck I received at the time, with my music falling in the hands of Sub Pop Records. It was just blind luck.”
At the time, Beam couldn’t help but feel that this overnight success was a fluke–not a result of his talent.
“It took me a long time to get over this imposter syndrome feeling, like I shouldn’t be here. I haven’t earned it,” said Beam. “But after 20 years, it’s kind of worn off.”
Beam had to learn how to embody a career as a professional musician in real time, since he had no prior practice as a performer before Iron & Wine.
“I had never played a concert, so I had to figure that out. I’m also sort of a natural introvert, and so it was a gnashing, crying process,” Beam said.
“I approached music making the same way I had artmaking and filmmaking, like you were developing something and creating an object, like a recording.”
With seven full-length albums now in Iron & Wine’s catalog, Beam still begins each song he writes by simply getting lost in the music.
“The initial handshake with music is the sound,” Beam said. “For me, it has to start with the melody.”
This melodic intrigue is how Beam forms his lyrics, as he focuses on how words feel rather than what they mean. “I’d definitely take a good sounding phrase or a good sounding word over the correct meaning any day. It’s the joy of syllables in your mouth.”
Beam’s writing style also brings an openness for his audience to take liberty in their interpretation of his work.
“It’s freeing. You can kind of just jump in and give the meaning as much energy as you want,” Beam said.
For songs that do have a message, Beam returns to topics that leave room for movement. His most recent record, “Light Verse,” follows themes of opposition–from life’s difficulties to its silliness–giving Beam a lyrical map to aimlessly explore within.
“It’s a freeing direction to start a song from. You could go anywhere. You can start saying life is this way, and turn on a dime and say, well it’s also this way,” Beam said.
“I enjoy writing from that perspective, because that’s how I see life.”
Beam’s lifestyle has certainly embodied this adventure. With two decades of his career spent on the road, he has watched the world change while touring it.
“Touring has gotten a lot easier with iPhones, than when I started. It’s easier to find things or get around,” Beam said.
“It’s really a totally different ballgame than it was 10, 15 years ago.”
From drawing in the back of South Carolina classrooms to traveling the world with his words, Beam’s artistry has left a definitive mark in today’s creative ecosystem. With more than 850 million streams on his top five Spotify tracks alone, nearly every music aficionado has Iron & Wine shuffled into their playlists.
But, perhaps most beautifully, Beam hasn’t stopped creating art outside of his career in music.
“Ever since the pandemic, I’ve been doing a lot more visual art, which has been really fun,” Beam said.
“There’s definitely a painting aspect to what I’m making now, but they’re sort of halfway between painting and sculpture, where there are these cardboard quilts. There’s a painting on the other side with some kind of jumbled up hybrid animals.”
And there you have it: your favorite folk musician is also a cardboard quilter. With Beam’s affection for a wide wingspan, it’s no wonder he’s turned the nonsensical into something legible.
“You understand sweet things because you understand what salty things taste like,” Beam said.
“Those are the parts of life that make good fodder.”
Iron & Wine
GLC Live at 20 Monroe
April 24, 7 p.m.
glcliveat20monroe.com
