Meet Ron Beem | Singer / Songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ron Beem and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ron, let’s start by talking about what inspires you?
Oh goodness, where do we start in the world of inspiration? Coming from a poor, humble upbringing living around many California cities and across the U.S., I had such a longing to live vicariously and channel my life/story through the struggles of character storyline in cartoons, animations, TV shows, movies and so on. Accompanied by that is the music which to this day is still a deep connection and a soaring cinematic experience for me also accompanied by my preference of genre which is rock, alternative, pop and acoustic. Another main element of inspiration is a deep connection to nature. Although my early life was a rough struggle between homelessness as a child to constantly moving as teenager, I got to see a lot of the country in the nature that came with it, which is such a beautiful thing because that deep connection along with my sobriety has allowed me to become very meditative, almost like having a sixth sense of being able to immerse into another realm, which is the beauty of nature, the calmness and serenity that comes with those daily experiences.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Okay gotcha yeah so this is gonna be a mouthful. I’m definitely getting in the habit of sharing this story and also getting better at consolidating how much has happened on since my move from Ventura, California to Hollywood California. So I started playing guitar when I was five years old and I’ll never forget the first song that I learned, which was La Bamba, a cheap guitar purchase from one of those little shops on the Venice boardwalk in 1992. My parents had recently divorced at that time in Bakersfield where my dad sold his landscape business, decided to live a humble, simple life in his van (where my little brother and I stayed periodically through those few years) and work small landscape jobs all over the West LA and beach areas. I fiddled around for really long time but never really made it a priority until I moved to Hollywood to live with my dad again in 2003. By that time, I had established an obsession for that epic melodic, heartfelt big rock acoustic alternative sound ranging from the early days of contemporary jazz, blues and funk like Pat Metheny, Lee Ritenour, Earl Klugh, George Benson, Russ Freeman, The Rippingtons, Spyro Gyra, Marc Antoine, Richard Elliott, Brian Setzer, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton Gary Moore, Joe Bonamassa, Tower Of Power, Heuy Lewis, Billy Ocean, Prince, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, The Beatles, Elvis Presley and so on to rock bands like FM, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Journey, Foreigner, Santana, The Eagles and then 90’s to modern rock bands like Goo Goo Dolls, Tonic, Bush, Gin Boossoms, Train, Third Eye Blind, Oasis, Eve 6, Fuel and then the 2000s alternative rock, pop punk and metalsound Anberlin, Jimmy Eat World, Acceptance, Mayday Parade, Paramore, Blink 182,Underoath, The Starting Line, The Redjumsuit Apparatus, New Found Glory, Taking Back Sunday, The Maine, The Used, All-American Rejects, Deaf Havana, Bayside, Boys Like Girls and so on.

So was it easy? The short answer to that is a hard no but surviving was all I knew and so getting past so many obstacles was a huge achievement on its own. As with anything, getting through the tough times was all trial and error of my own doing. Alcoholism and drug use was a major problem for a long time. Great opportunities can and went, the loss of prized possessions and instruments disappeared due to blackouts, barely scraping by just to support my habits, couch-hopping more than anyone you’ve ever known, a resume longer than anyone you’ve ever known and a perpetual hangover/withdrawal where the only cure was more.

I’m now proud to say that I’ve successfully managed to get to the other side of the mountain, to begin to heal, recover and reconcile. Sobriety is single-handedly the most important and rewarding path that my feet can tread on moving forward and it most definitely can be for those struggling.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well, in that timeframe, there are 1 million things we can do but probably start up in the Bay Area, experience the city for a day, then cruise down PCH to Fat Cars Cafe in Morro Bay, continue on down the coast, definitely pitstop in Santa Barbara to get some bomb seafood lunch on State Street, get a little touristy in my hometown of Ventura, (not much to see there, but it’s nice) continue on down PCH to get lunch at Neptune‘s Net at county line Malibu, maybe hit the Malibu Safari, definitely hit Venice Beach and get weird with the weirdos and normal folk of the Venice drum circle, check out some talented skateboarders, maybe some live music off of main, definitely catch some shows at any of the legendary venues in LA like The Wiltern, El Rey, The Fonda, the Hollywood Bowl, maybe some hiking, maybe a theater show at the Pantages. That’s pretty much it.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
This is definitely a beautiful part of this questionnaire interview because I take no credit for where I’m at today. I’m so grateful to have gone through what I’ve gone through in my life, the struggles with alcohol/drug addiction, path of coming from a broken family and being able to sit back together all because of sobriety/recovery, the ability to have rebuild my relationship with my dad and so awesome that he’s coming on three years of sobriety as well, to have reconciled with my mom that I haven’t seen in 20 years until recently, to have been able to take accountability for my part in all this, grateful for the “gift of desperation” which allowed me to follow through with sober, living and outpatient treatment with assistance from the MUSICARES program, to be able to find humility in knowing that I desperately needed professional help to get myself right, to be able to find a sponsor who is by far one of the most incredible people I’ve ever met and has helped guide me through the 12 step program of AA, the fellowship of other SOBER members that have been able to share their experienced, strength and hope with me, and the mentors that have taken under their wings, giving me a chance to rebuild reliability and dependability.

Website: https://linktr.ee/Thegatsbyaffair

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegatsbyaffair/

Soundcloud: https://Www.SoundCloud.com/thegatsbyaffairmusic

Facebook: https://Www.Facebook.com/thegatsbyaffair

Youtube: https://Www.youtube.com/thegatsbyaffair

Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/43Uv24qmPuy1X5M48yTawi?si=jQtc1JIGQo-UgltKBpjvPQ

Image Credits
– Kilo Alexander
– Bo Roberts
– Ryan Holowesko
– Chris Michael
-Jarrod Anthonee