Willis Earl Beal spent some time homeless, and working entry‐level jobs, notably as a night‐shift security guard. During this time Beal began to record music, leaving CD‐Rs in public spaces around Albuquerque. Beal would also leave self‐illustrated flyers around the town in the hope of finding a girlfriend.
One of these flyers was discovered by Found Magazine who put Beal on the
cover of their magazine. Found later released a limited‐edition box set called
The Willis Earl Beal Collection, which included Beal's poetry, artwork and a
17‐song album. Through these flyers and the
subsequent coverage in Found, Beal was contacted by more than 100 members of
the public Beal participated in auditions for Simon Cowell's The X Factor
television show, but dropped out of the “boot‐camp” stage of the
competition
In 2012, Beal signed a recording contract with Hot Charity, an imprint of independent record label, XL Recordings. Beal's first single for the labels, “Evening's Kiss” was released on February 17, 2012 and the accompanying music video was illustrated by Beal. Beal's debut album, entitled Acousmatic Sorcery was released on April 2, 2012.
His next album is titled Nobody knows.. He will also star in a film entitled ‘MEMPHIS’ directed by Tim Sutton that will premiere at the 2013 Venice film festival.