NEW YORK (By
Peter Galvin/ BLUE STREAK CONSULTING/ www.bluestreakconsulting.com) -
Duncan Sheik is ready to talk politics. The talented singer-songwriter, known mostly for his finely wrought examinations of romantic and spiritual states of being, has turned his gaze to the state of the world on his new album White Limousine, out now. Songs like the title track and 'Star-Field on Red Lines' deal directly and incisively with the hypocrisy of our foreign policy and the tragedy of war. 'My politics are known,' says Sheik, a Nichiren Buddhist who has initiated humanitarian projects in Albania and Cuba, performed in innumerable benefits for hurricane relief, women's issues and the homeless, and participated in 2004's Concerts for Change. 'I've resisted putting those thoughts to music until now. But there's a point where not doing so seems irresponsible.'
Included in the White Limousine package are two discs, labeled MINE and YOURS. MINE is Sheik's version of these songs; YOURS is a DVD that enables listeners to create their own versions. Using the software provided, fans can isolate and remix White Limousine's many sonic layers. White Limousine is Sheik's fifth album and his first for Zoe/Rounder, following Duncan Sheik (1996), Humming (1998), and Daylight (2002) on Atlantic, and Phantom Moon (2001) on Nonesuch. The latter was a collaboration with playwright/lyricist Steven Sater, with whom the songwriter would create two more productions he calls 'anti-musicals:' a musically modern reading of Hans Christian Anderson's The Nightingale and a reworking of the 19th Century playwright Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening, which premiered at New York's Lincoln Center in 2005 and will have it's first full production later this year at the prestigious Atlantic Theater in New York.
Here, the thoughtful troubadour expounds on the foibles of our 'fearless' leader, the joys of twirling the night away at Twilo with hundreds of gay men, and the indescribable highs of composing for musical theater.
On the new political bent of his lyrics, Sheik has this to say: 'There are two related threads on this record. One is completely personal, and the other is definitely more social and political commentary. There are a few songs that kind of act like a fulcrum between the difficulties that were going on in my personal life and the difficulties that are going on in the world at large, and how those two things kind of mirror each other. The perception of one is always affected by the other and vice versa.'
The singer says that for several years after September 11, he purposely did not deal with political themes in his music. 'When I made Daylight,' he says, 'it was right after September 11, and at the time, there was a lot of knee-jerk political music that happened. Most of it seemed not very level-headed or even-handed-it was really far one way or the other in terms of a political perspective-either totally jingoistic or just kind of simple-mindedly liberal. Obviously, I'm on the way left side of the spectrum, for sure, but I just felt like at that time, it would have been ridiculous and annoying for me to comment on that stuff. I felt, 'Oh, I'm a 32-year-old white guy with an acoustic guitar who lives in Tribeca-like, who cares about my opinion really?' And then, as time went on, I've read a lot more and dug a lot deeper, and I think things have happened politically and historically that has made it more acceptable and necessary to talk about this stuff. I almost feel like it's a little irresponsible to not engage with what's going on in the world. '
White Limousine's title track contains an obvious anti-Bush verse, yet on the Sheik's web site, he writes that he feels sorry for the President. 'Well, I believe that he's convinced himself that he's doing the right thing,' the singer explains, 'and somewhere in his heart of hearts, maybe he knows he's not doing the right thing. But I believe that there's a huge part of his psychology that's wrapped in the idea that he can be the superhero who rids the world of evil, and he sees that as a positive thing. How can any one person take it upon themselves to rid the world of evil? I mean, even Jesus, Mohammed, or Buddha-none of those people had that as their project. They were really trying to say, 'Here are ways to be happy within yourself, and then provided all of that works out, maybe you'll reach a better place where there's less suffering.' That's why I feel bad-Bush has a really fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be a human being and to be a leader of human beings.'
It is not lost on Sheik that the mission to obliterate evil is not only happening abroad-clearly, on the list of what's evil to this administration and many of its followers is the idea of a 'homosexual lifestyle' and even more insidious, gay marriage. 'Yes,' Sheik agrees. 'I mean how tragically ironic is it that Bush's anti-gay policy or stance is so similar to that of the Taliban or whoever he says he's going after in order to give people freedom. Again, you get back to these kinds of ridiculous contradictions that come up over and over, and people don't really seem to acknowledge them. People feel that as long as they are going after the 'Terrorist Boogeyman,' the government can do anything it wants. People are willing to throw every civil liberty out the window.'
Speaking of gay topics, Sheik is asked about his awareness of his gay fan base. 'There was this one time in particular,' he remembers. 'Junior Vasquez had done a remix of my song 'Reasons for Living,' and I went to Twilo or somewhere like that, and it was a totally gay scene-hundreds of super-cut dudes with their shirts off dancing to my song, which I thought was awesome. It was surreal. [laughs] And recently, I've done two full-scale musicals, and obviously, most of the men in the musical theater world are gay, and I don't even bat an eye anymore. It's just the environment that I live and work in.'
When the subject of gay marriage comes up, the singer is typically unequivocal. 'Well, really, what is the argument for not allowing it?' he asks. 'The argument for not allowing it just doesn't make sense to me on any level-on a human rights level, on a psychological level, on a spiritual level. The argument against gay marriage is just stupid. What else can I say?'
Moving on to the topic of his latest musical theater projects, Sheik talks about the differences between composing songs for musical theater versus writing songs for an album. 'Well, the great part about working with Steven Sater, my collaborator on these shows, is that he's very prolific,' the singer explains. 'He writes a lot, and he'll send me lots and lots of lyrics. And I come up with a lot of music on my own, but lyrics are more of a painstaking process for me. So, it's a great way of being more prolific. Also, it's great to have this amazing narrative in place that you can use as a skeleton to create a new work. And it's amazing to work with all of these incredibly talented people, like Michael Mayer, who's directing Spring Awakening, and Bill T. Jones, who's going to do the choreography.'
Finally, the subject of the DVD that accompanies White Limousine is broached. Sheik is asked if he feels that it's at all risky to allow people to rearrange and transform his music in whatever way they'd like. 'It's totally risky,' he admits, 'but it's really exciting too. But hopefully, people will turn them into something that's really interesting and better than the originals-cooler, more progressive, more modern. To me, that's what's so cool about it-you don't know what you're going to get. You know, I mentioned the whole thing about hearing my song at Twilo at 2:00 in the morning, and that's really what I'm into-I would love to hear electronica versions of these songs. That's a not-so-subtle hint of the direction that I'd love people to go in.'
For more information, contact Peter Galvin at 212-645-449.
