Andrew Colin Beck (born 23 May 1986) is an American artist and musician. He was an early member of Imagine Dragons; [1] he is currently a member of the Mellons, and also maintains a career as an illustrator. [2]
Beck studied graphic design at Brigham Young University. [3] After leaving school, Beck worked for Undermanned in Amsterdam, [4] headed by German designer and type designer Erik Spinnaker. Afterwards, Beck and his family traveled the world as he began to work as a freelance illustrator. [5] [6] [7]
Beck's first performing group was called The Moon Monsters, in which he played the tenor saxophone at age 15. He played in multiple rock groups leading up to Imagine Dragons, including the Cubes, the Franchise, Don Juan Triumphant, and other groups in the Utah music scene.
Beck attended university in his home town of Provo. [8] Beck met Imagine Dragons lead singer Dan Reynolds while studying at Brigham Young University [9] and was recruited, along with actress and musician Aurora Florence to fill out Dan's vision for the band. Beck played keyboards and guitar, and sang backup vocals during concerts, [10] and recorded those instruments on Imagine Dragons' first EP, Speak to Me in 2008. Imagine Dragons won two consecutive Battle of the Bands competitions together before Beck and Aurora decided to leave the band in late 2008 after Dan decided to go a different direction musically. [11]
Beck performed with the psychedelic rock band Day Sounds, [12] [13] which released its eponymous EP in October 2019.
Beck now sings co-lead, composes, produces and plays guitar in the four-piece baroque pop group the Mellons based in Salt Lake City. The band signed with Earth Libraries in August 2021.
Beck maintains a career as an illustrator, specializing in editorial [14] illustration [15] and cartooning. He has illustrated for many notable publications, such as [16] GQ magazine, Fast Company, the Boston Globe, Playboy, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, [17] Fortune Magazine, [18] the Institutional Investor, [19] [20] the Washington Post, NPR, [21] the Penn Law Journal, the Huffington Post, the New York Observer, the Hollywood Reporter, Worth Magazine, Men's Health Magazine, and Johns Hopkins University among others.
The cultural Music of Utah, while having been significantly influenced by the presence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, includes several thriving local scenes and a large number of musicians across a variety of genres. That said, much of the distinctiveness of Utah's musical traditions has derived from the interaction between individuals of multiple beliefs in the uniquely religious context of the state.
Mormon cinema usually refers to films with themes relevant to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The term has also been used to refer to films that do not necessarily reflect Mormon themes but have been made by Mormon filmmakers. Films within the realm of Mormon cinema may be distinguished from institutional films produced by the LDS Church, such as Legacy and Testaments, which are made for instructional or proselyting purposes and are non-commercial. Mormon cinema is produced mainly for the purposes of entertainment and potential financial success.
Abraham Owen Smoot was an American pioneer, businessman, religious leader, and politician. He spent his early life in the Southern United States and was one of seven children. After being baptized a member of the Church of Christ, predecessor to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Smoot served as a missionary in Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, and England. He received no formal education, but learned to read as a child and later attended the School of the Prophets in Kirtland, Ohio. Like other early members of the LDS Church, Smoot practiced plural marriage, eventually marrying six women and having 24 children. After migrating west to Utah Territory, he was elected as the second mayor of Salt Lake City and maintained this position from 1857 to 1866. He was then assigned by Brigham Young to move to Provo, where he served as stake president and mayor from 1868 to 1881. He assisted financially in the construction of the Provo Tabernacle—today the Provo City Center Temple—as well as that of the Utah Southern Railroad. Smoot was the first president of the board of trustees of Brigham Young Academy (BYA)—which later developed into Brigham Young University (BYU). He was an early financial supporter of the institution and was nicknamed the "foster father" of the academy. His goal was to make education available to young Latter-day Saints. Today, the Smoot Administration Building at BYU is named after him.
Royal Jon Skousen is an American linguist and retired professor of linguistics and English at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he is editor of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project. He is "the leading expert on the textual history of the Book of Mormon" and the founder of the analogical modeling approach to language modeling.
Daniel Coulter Reynolds is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist of the pop rock band Imagine Dragons. Reynolds also released an EP in 2011, titled Egyptian – EP, as a duo with his then wife Aja Volkman under the moniker Egyptian. He is a recipient of the Songwriters Hall of Fame Hal David Starlight Award.
Douglas H. Thayer was a prominent author in the "faithful realism" movement of Mormon fiction. He has been called the "Mormon Hemingway" for his straightforward style and powerful prose. Eugene England called him the "father of contemporary Mormon fiction."
John Laurence Gee is an American Latter-day Saint scholar, apologist and an Egyptologist. He currently teaches at Brigham Young University (BYU) and serves in the Department of Near Eastern Languages. He is known for his writings in support of the Book of Abraham.
William James Hamblin was a professor of history at Brigham Young University (BYU), and a former board member of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) at BYU.
The L. Tom Perry Special Collections is the special collections department of Brigham Young University (BYU)'s Harold B. Lee Library in Provo, Utah. Founded in 1957 with 1,000 books and 50 manuscript collections, as of 2016 the Library's special collections contained over 300,000 books, 11,000 manuscript collections, and over 2.5 million photographs, among many other rare and unique research materials. Since its inception, the special collections have been housed in numerous places including the crawl space of a university building and a wholesale grocery warehouse. Since 2016, the special collections have been located on the first floor of the Harold B. Lee Library and is considered to hold "the finest collection of rare books in the Intermountain West and the second finest Mormon collection in existence".
Boyd Jay Petersen is program coordinator for Mormon Studies at Utah Valley University (UVU) and teaches English and literature at UVU and Brigham Young University (BYU). He has also been a biographer of Hugh Nibley, a candidate for the Utah House of Representatives, and president of the Association for Mormon Letters. He was named editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought for the term 2016-2020.
Grant Revon Underwood is a historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU). He is also the author of The Millennial World of Early Mormonism and the editor of Voyages of Faith: Explorations in Mormon Pacific History.
Steven Craig Harper is a professor of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. He was a historian for the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From 2019, he is the Editor-in-Chief of BYU Studies Quarterly.
Eugene Edward "Gene" Campbell was an American professor of history at Brigham Young University.
Eric Roy Samuelsen was an American playwright and emeritus professor of theatre at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He is considered one of the most important Mormon playwrights. He won the Association for Mormon Letters (AML) drama award in 1994, 1997, and 1999, and was AML president from 2007 to 2009. In 2012 he received the Smith–Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters.
BYU Noteworthy is a seven to nine-member, female Brigham Young University (BYU) a cappella group, based in Provo, Utah, United States. They won 1st place at the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) in 2007 and appeared on the first season of NBC's a cappella competition reality show The Sing-Off in 2009. Esther Yoder formed the group in 2003, aided by members of BYU's Vocal Point. Noteworthy began operating under the direction of the Performing Arts Management (PAM) at BYU in 2014. One of their most popular music videos is a cover of Amazing Grace, which won the Contemporary A Cappella Society (CARA) award for Best Religious Video and has garnered millions of views on YouTube since its release. Noteworthy has released six albums since its formation in 2003. In 2018, Noteworthy performed "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" for a Mormon Message for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Velour Live Music Gallery is a music venue, on University Avenue, in Provo, Utah. Velour is owned by Corey Fox. It acts as an all-ages music venue catering to an eclectic mix of genres. It is also a smoking and alcohol free environment.
The Moth & The Flame, sometimes known by initialism TMTF, is an American alternative rock band based in Los Angeles, California.
Truman Brothers is an American pop/rock Christian duo composed of brothers Ben and Chad Truman from Nashville, TN. The band was formed in Provo, UT in 2005 while the brothers were attending Brigham Young University.
The Mellons is an American Psychedelic rock/Baroque pop band formed in 2020 and based at Salt Lake City, Utah. The band consists of Ian Francis, Denney Fuller, Andrew Beck and Rob Jepson. The band are signed to Earth Libraries. The Mellons first album Introducing…The Mellons was released on October 21, 2022.