Who is Duncan Sheik? A sneak peek of My Conversation with Duncan Sheik.
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The full interview is coming soon!
Duncan Sheik is a Grammy and Tony Award-winning singer-songwriter and composer, with hit songs such as Barely Breathing to the Broadway musical Spring Awakening, he’s achieved endless creative heights, but…
Who is Duncan Sheik?
Yesterday, Duncan and I had a long, detailed, highly nuanced discussion about everything from seemingly simple questions like “What is songwriting?” to navigating being a major label artist while maintaining one’s artistic integrity. We discussed guitars, alternate tunings, finding cool, unexpected chord progressions, and talked about artists like Jeff Buckley and the importance of originality in art.
It didn’t take me an hour into our conversation to realize, “Who is the real Duncan Sheik?”
He is a man of integrity in every sense of the word. Musically, he is one of our generation’s last genuinely great singer-songwriters.
Duncan touched on some “heated moments” early in his career as he strived to maintain his artistic vision and overcome challenges in an industry that, by design, thrives on mediocrity, yet he refused to conform to its mold.
Professionally, Duncan Sheik is a Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and composer known for huge hit records like Barely Breathing, Wishful Thinking, On a High, and Bite Your Tongue to name a few. His third album, Phantom Moon, written in collaboration with poet/playwright Stephen Sater, is revered as one of the early 2000s masterpieces in songcraft, creativity, and fantastic music. He is also an award-winning composer for Broadway musicals, winning a Tony and Grammy award for 2007’s musical Spring Awakening.
When it comes to music, Duncan has explored as much territory as any artist in the last 28 years. He continues to do so with the 2022 release ClapTrap. And in my interview/conversation, I’ll share for the first time a super cool new project he is gearing up to work on.
Whether you’re a fan of Duncan Sheik or a musician, songwriter, artist, fan of theater, Broadway, poetry, playwrights, or art in general — I promise you will not want to miss the interview.
You will have a new-found respect for Duncan Sheik’s incredible talent, perseverance, and longevity in an industry few break into, much less continue to thrive, despite the constantly changing sounds and landscapes.
Duncan is an artist in the purest sense of the word.
…Interview Coming Soon!
Note: This piece may be featured in a publication outside of my Medium page; if so, I’ll share the link. Also, I will post here some other takeaways from the interview, regardless of where it ends up landing.
As always thanks for reading, and more articles to come this week!
-Daniel
