There's more than one 'Beam': 1) Formed in 2000, Beam is led by French ex-pat Helene Renaut, a music major from Brittany. She describes her musical awakening: "I grew up obsessing on the songs of Jacques Brel until I discovered Neil Young!" Determined to escape the gloom of her hometown, she busked gypsy songs on the violin to finance a move to San Francisco in 1995. After gradually becoming a fixture on the emerging solo acoustic scene here, Helene began collaborating in earnest.