Duncan Sheik Turns 30

11/18/1999 12:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(11/18/99, 12 p.m. ET) - Singer Duncan Sheik celebrates his 30th birthday today. Born in Montclair, N.J., Sheik has been a musician and music fan all of his life. He tells LAUNCH that his musical road was paved with varied tastes as he grew up.

"You start out listening to Kiss, and then it was like kind of this Van Halen, AC/DC, and all that stuff. And then I went away to music camp when I was 12 and there I met kind of these more muso-oriented people and they got me into Yes and Genesis and Emerson, Lake & Palmer and this prog-rock stuff. Then finally, when I went away to boarding school, I was exposed to more pop, British music stuff like the Smiths, Tears For Fears, New Order, and Depeche Mode. That kind of led me into the music that I listen to now, which in a way, it's like a combination of that real pop and the real progressive British music, like David Sylvian and the Blue Nile, Talk Talk...that kind of stuff."

Sheik signed to Atlantic Records in 1994 and in 1996 released his self-titled debut album, which yielded the hits "Barely Breathing" and "She Runs Away." At the time he was signed, Sheik was only a studio musician and had little experience playing live, something he has gotten used to in recent years. "It's a whole other kettle of fish. There's definitely a hook to it, you know? There's definitely a thing, when it's going really well, and you're getting that feedback from the audience. There's nothing better."

Sheik released his second album, Humming, in October 1998. An Atlantic representative tells LAUNCH that Sheik is currently working on his next studio album.

-- Barry Jeckell, New York

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