Duncan Sheik
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Duncan Scott Sheik (born November 18, 1969 in Montclair, New Jersey) is an American singer-songwriter. Sheik's upbringing was split between his parents' home in South Carolina and that of his grandparents in New Jersey. There, Sheik's grandmother (a piano graduate of The Juilliard School) taught him to play the piano and encouraged his musical development. Sheik graduated from Phillips Academy in 1988, after which he studied semiotics at Brown University.
Sheik began his professional musical career playing for other acts, including Liz And Liza (with Lisa Loeb), and played on His Boy Elroy's 1993 album. Duncan Sheik's eponymous debut album spawned the 1996 hit single "Barely Breathing" in the U.S, which remained on the charts for 55 straight weeks. In 1998, he was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Barely Breathing".
A lay Buddhist, Sheik's involvement with Soka Gakkai has increased steadily over the years. In 2000, Sheik wrote the foreward to The Way of Youth: Buddhist Common Sense for Handling Life's Questions by Soka Gakkai leader Daisaku Ikeda.
In his second album, 1998's Humming, Sheik experimented in the studio with meticulous string arrangements while keeping the haunted vocal sound of his first album. Additionally, on some tracks Sheik took a step away from his pop roots to address larger social issues. In fact, some songs are laced with biting anger. Some say that Sheik went to greater lengths to reflect his Buddhist faith after reaching certain popular success from his eponymous record.
Sheik's next record, 2001's Phantom Moon, was a collaboration with poet and writer Steven Sater, who Sheik met through his Soka Gakkai involvement. The two collaboratively created the album by each drawing inspiration from other's simultaneous work, with Sheik sending Sater music and Sater sending Sheik words. The album continued the melancholic tone of Sheik's previous work, and displayed his growing prowess as a composer and arranger.
In 2002, Sheik made a brief commercial comeback his album Daylight, including single success on the tracks "On A High" and "Half Life". Escewing the Nick Drake-like sound of Phantom Moon, Daylight featured a lighter, more modern sound with production effects and electronic backgrounds. Sheik indicated in interviews that the record was an attempt to create an album of pure pop songs.
Most recently, Sheik wrote the score for the 2004 film A Home at the End of the World, starring Colin Farrell. The score was well received, although the movie was not well received.
External link
- Official web site (http://www.duncansheik.com/)
- Fansite w/ message board (http://www.sheikfreik.com/)
- Soka Gakkai International web site (http://www.sgi.org/english/)