By Jessica Selby
In 1996, singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik released his eponymous debut album, featuring a single that became a big hit on the charts. After that, many thought he disappeared from music. Little did they know, however, that he was hard at work branching out into non-pop music, composing music for movie soundtracks and musical theater.
Born in 1969 in New Jersey and raised there and in South Carolina, Duncan developed his musical interest from his grandmother, a graduate of Juilliard. He grew up to be the artist responsible for the 1996 single “Barely Breathing,” which reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for a record-setting 55 weeks. The song also peaked at number two on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary and Adult Top 40. The album itself went Gold, selling over 50,000 copies.
After his debut, Duncan put out a few more albums, with which he went back and forth between pop and singer-songwriter albums. He then moved away from making albums to writing music for the stage.
“That was a very, I guess you could say, happy accident for me.” Sheik said. “I actually was not a big musical theater aficionado at all, but my friend [playwright] Steven Sater asked me if I might want to work on a more adventurous piece of theater that would involve music.”
The two spent seven years writing their play before staging it. The result was Spring Awakening, a modern adaptation of a controversial German play by the same name. The play used modern songs, composed by Sheik, to tell the story of teenagers in the late 1800’s.
Although Sheik had virtually no experience with theater, the experience was life changing. “I didn’t always love the theater.” Sheik admitted. “But I’m really proud of what we did with that show, and now I have a lot more respect for the medium in general and I know more about it now because I’ve been working in the theater for 11 years. And so, it’s something I’m really happy to be a part of.”
Writing for the theater allowed Sheik to step out of himself and compose from a different viewpoint. “The big difference is that in the case of a theater piece, you’re writing from the perspective of a persona that is not your own.” Sheik said, “There is this kind of great thing about writing for theater because it gives you this much bigger pallet of personality that you can draw from, and it allows you to have a different voice and to say things you wouldn’t normally say.”
In addition to Spring Awakening, Sheik has recetly worked on a number of other plays, including the haunting Whisper House, a show as unconventional as Spring Awakening.
He’s also currently working on some more pieces for the stage. “I am working on a stage adaptation of Alice in Wonderland with Steven Sater.” says Sheik. “we’re getting it ready for a program [with the National Theater in London] called Connections, which… prepare[s] the piece to be performed at two hundred different high schools all over the UK. It’s an interesting way to work on a piece because you’re getting it ready for every different eventuality.”
According to Sheik, the show is similar to Spring Awakening in that, while the setting is the 19th centure, the music is contemporary. “I guess we could be accused of redoing what we did before,” Sheik said, “but it seems to be something that we were able to communicate to an audience in an interesting way.” He is also working on a musical adaptation of American Psycho – that’s right, the novel and movie containing topics like murder, rape, and cannibalism is going to be a musical.
As if all this weren’t enough Sheik has just finished an album called Covers 80’s which will be released June 7. Why an album of 80’s covers?
“There were these many occasions over the course of the past fifteen years, where I’d be at a party or a family gathering and someone would hand me a guitar and be like, ‘oh, you’re a singer-songwriter. Play us some songs we can all sing along to.'” Sheik’s repetoire was limited to one Radiohead and Oasis song, but learning rock standards provded boring.
So he decided to take songs that were important to him as a teenager, which were mostly electronic and synth-filled, and he wanted to turn them into songs he could play on an acoustic guitar.
What about the signature drum sounds, a staple of the 80’s pop genre? “Yeah, there are none.” he said. “I used a harmonium, marimbas, dulcumers and banjo and ukelele and marimba, and obviously piano, guitar and vocals.
“What was fun was that a lot of synthesizer sounds were vaguely replicating marimbas or dulcimers and different kind of string instruments,” Sheik said, “and it was kind of taking the synthesizer sounds and finding the organic sounds from which it came.”
“I think that’s part of why the music gets a bad rap, because it’s seen as all about production and not very [substantive] and that it’s thin in the songwriting department.” Sheik said. “But there were so many great songs written in the 80’s, and when you strip away some of the 80’s clothing, you find there are these really interesting, enigmatic pop songs that are great no matter how you present them.”
And as if this wasn’t already a great concept for an album, Rachael Yamagata, another talented singer-songwriter, is featured on nine of the album’s 12 tracks, adding an even more unique sound.
Duncan has a lot going on, and as if a new album and several stage performances weren’t enough, Sheik plans to write a book. “Hopefully it’ll be a literary memoir about a kid from South Carolina who has dreams of making it in the music business, and as he starts to make it, the music business kind of evaporates before his eyes.”
Okay, Duncan – anything else you’re working on? “I am going to begin writing and recording a real ‘normal’ Duncan Sheik album that will be a set of disparate songs that will not be connecting to a piece of theater or anything else.”
We’ve all got a lot to look forward to from the prolific Mr. Sheik, in all different mediums. From his pop-rock beginning to his Tony-winning musicals, Duncan Sheik has, without a doubt, come back as a force to be reckoned with.
