North Texas Musicians Remember 'Genius' Daron Beck, Who Died Thursday

Daron Beck, vocalist and keyboardist for the Fort Worth experimental metal band Pinkish Black, died on Thursday of unspecified medical complications.

His partner, Lisa Bush, announced Beck’s death on Facebook Friday morning.

“He was a wonderful man, extremely generous and kind to me, our dog Lady, his mom and many others,” she wrote. “You all know what a brilliant, creative force he was, and he had lots of plans to create more music soon.”

Beck's death comes on the heels of losses to the local music scene recently, including the deaths of music journalist Michael Cocoran and D Magazine Senior Editor (and former Dallas Observer Music Editor) Zac Crain in July, and influential musicians John Freeman and Shaun Martin in August.

Beck had suffered two heart attacks in one month in 2018, at the age of 42, Fort Worth Weekly reported.

Pinkish Black is a giant among North Texas music and was a staple at venues across the area: The Kessler and Texas Theatre in Dallas, Rubber Gloves and The Argo in Denton, and Lola’s and The Wreck Room in Fort Worth. The band also opened for artists such as Ghost and Sleep on national tours.

Beck previously played in groups Maxine’s Radiator, Pointy Shoe Factory and The Great Tyrant, Pinkish Black’s predecessor that disbanded after bassist Tommy Atkins died in 2010.

“He was a musical genius,” says musician Wanz Dover, who came up with Beck in the Denton music scene. “He would sing with such passion and such soul. It came from such a deep place. It's the kind of thing you just don't see too often, the depth of emotion and whatnot.”

“I admired him as a fellow keyboard player, especially with Pinkish Black,” says composer and musician Paul Slavens. “[It’s rare to find] people in a younger generation that you really admire and respect and who allowed us into their musical world.”

Many North Texas fans and musicians took to social media to honor Beck. Will Kapinos of Dim Locator wrote that he was "absolutely gutted" about the news, especially in the week following Freeman's death.

Beck’s musical style is difficult to describe. Pinkish Black has been assigned all kinds of genre labels, from the broad (“heavy metal”) to the hyper-niche (“sci-fi synth doom”). The Observer called their 2019 album, Concept Unification, "a soundtrack for a David Lynch movie starring Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson and Maynard from Tool."

According to Beck’s friends and collaborators, he relished being hard to pin down.

“Daron being in Pinkish Black and having that persona about him was so him,” says musician John Durbin, Beck’s bandmate in Maxine’s Radiator and a childhood friend. “But at the same time, if you knew him personally, he was just this easygoing, fun-to-be-around borderline comedian — not necessarily what people thought of him if they went and saw a Pinkish Black show.”

Other of Beck’s friends echo this sentiment.

“He loved to blow up people's perceived notions of him,” says Dover. “So people would be like, ‘Oh, the great goth singer, blah, blah, blah,’ and then he would go off on the brilliance of Dionne Warwick. And he wasn’t being ironic.”

“He never wanted to conform to whatever waves or slight passing trends were going on in the underground music community,” says Akkolyte and Yells At Eels drummer Stefan Gonzalez, who collaborated with Beck in the supergroup Pinkish Eels.

“He was the kind of guy who I looked up to,” says Aaron Gonzales, Stefan’s brother and bandmate, who was introduced to Beck’s music in high school. “At that time, there didn't seem to be a lot of really interesting bands that were, like, of my tastes in Dallas. Or if there were, I hadn't really found them yet.”

“He was always just doing his thing, you know?” Stefan says. “He really cultivated this kind of dark but humorous persona early on.”

This persona reached a national audience in 2005 thanks to a memorable audition on the fourth season of American Idol. Beck traveled to New Orleans to perform Tom Jones’ “Delilah” and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell On You” for the judges.

“You’d be very good in a strange, obscure cabaret club,” Simon Cowell told him.

“Thank you!” Beck responded.

“That wasn’t really a compliment,” said Cowell.

Beck was unfazed by Cowell’s backhanded remark and was upfront about the defiant, tongue-in-cheek nature of his audition.
“I looked at it as a vehicle for true ‘outsiders’ to get on TV,” he later told Central Track. “It was a weird and kind of mean show back when it started, and I thought it would be hilarious to see what they would say about my voice.”

“He’s a hero for that,” Durbin says with a laugh. “I think he made it to the ‘worst of’ DVDs or something like that and that would be his goal. That's exactly what he wanted to do.”

Dover insists that while Beck accomplished great things during his lifetime, his work will continue to be discovered and grow in popularity in years to come.

“That guy’s got a musical history that should not be forgotten,” says Dover. “That, I dare say, is more impressive than probably just about anybody else in the city, regardless of what people think. Doesn't matter who's most popular. That guy really left behind a real musical legacy.”