Antony and the Johnsons

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Antony and the Johnsons
Birth name Antony Hegarty
Born Chichester, West Sussex, England, 1971
Genre(s) Chamber pop
Dark Cabaret
Label(s) Secretly Canadian
Rough Trade
Website www.antonyandthejohnsons.com

Antony and the Johnsons is a Mercury Prize-winning music act from New York City. The band is essentially the vehicle for singer Antony (full name Antony Hegarty).

Contents

[edit] Career

Antony Hegarty is the leader of Antony and the Johnsons. He was born in Chichester, West Sussex, England in 1971 and moved to Amsterdam in 1977 for a period before settling in San Jose, California in 1981. As a teenager he was enthused by the British synth pop of the time — in particular emotive torch singers such as Marc Almond and Boy George. In 1990 he moved to Manhattan to complete a degree in Experimental Theatre at New York University and founded the performance collective Blacklips Performance Cult with creative partner Johanna Constantine.

Current members include:

  • Julia Kent (previously of Rasputina) - first chair cello
  • Parker Kindred - drummer
  • Jeff Langston - bassist
  • Doug Wieselman - horns
  • Maxim Moston - violin, arrangement
  • Rob Moose - guitar, violin

Their early live shows were often opened by Dr. Julia Yasuda, an intersex person, who performed the welcome in Morse code.

One theme explored in the band's music is aspects of transgender life. This is expressed in songs such as "For Today I Am a Boy", in which a young boy dreams of growing up to be a woman. This song is featured in the 2007 documentary Red without Blue.

British experimental musician David Tibet of Current 93 heard a demo and offered to release Antony's music through his Durtro label. The debut album, Antony and the Johnsons, was released in 2000. In 2001, Antony released a short follow-up EP, I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy, which, in addition to the title track, included a cover of "Mysteries of Love", a David Lynch/Angelo Badalamenti song and "Soft Black Stars", a cover of a Current 93 song.

Producer Hal Willner heard the EP and played it to Lou Reed, who immediately recruited him for his project The Raven. Now gaining more attention, Antony signed to US-based record label Secretly Canadian, and released another EP, The Lake, with Lou Reed guest-performing on one of the tracks. Secretly Canadian also re-released Antony's debut album in the United States to wider distribution in 2004.

"Candy Darling on her Deathbed" by Peter Hujar used as the cover art for I Am a Bird Now
"Candy Darling on her Deathbed" by Peter Hujar used as the cover art for I Am a Bird Now

Antony's second full-length album, 2005's I Am a Bird Now, was greeted with positive reviews and significantly more mainstream attention, winning the Mercury Music Prize for the best album of 2005. Rival Mercury nominees, and favourites for the prize, the Kaiser Chiefs suggested that Antony got in on a technicality; despite the fact he was born in the United Kingdom he spent much of his time in the US - although they later apologised for the suggestion that he wasn't a deserving winner.

Antony made an appearance and performed Leonard Cohen's "If It Be Your Will" in the 2006 full-length documentary, Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man.

Antony is mentioned by the press as being part of the New Weird America movement.

He appeared as a prison inmate, performing an acoustic version of the song "The Rapture" in Steve Buscemi's movie Animal Factory. He also made an appearance in the Sebastian Lifshitz movie Wild Side performing the song "I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy". In the Wachowski brothers' screen adaptation of V for Vendetta, the main characters dance to Antony's "Bird Gerhl" from I am a Bird Now as it plays on V's illicit Wurlitzer.

Antony's unconventional voice evokes comparisons to singers like Aaron Neville and Nina Simone. He has many fans in the music industry, including Kate Bush, Björk, Philip Glass, Marc Almond, Kembra Pfahler and Laurie Anderson as well as Lou Reed, Devendra Banhart, Rufus Wainwright and Boy George, who are guest vocalists on I Am a Bird Now.

In November 2006 Antony and the Johnsons performed a successful European tour of 'Turning', a multimedia collaboration with video producer Charles Atlas, which focussed on themes of transformation and metamorphosis: [1].

He also sang back up on the song "I Defy" from Joan As Police Woman's 2006 debut album Real Life and appears on the Cocorosie album Noah's Ark (2005), in the song "Beautiful Boyz".

In 2006-07 Antony sang back up (with Sharon Jones and a children's choir) in Lou Reed's first full performance of his album Berlin. This was performed at St Ann's Warehouse in NYC in December 2006 and at The State Theatre in Sydney, Australia in January 2007.

Antony sings on "The Snow Abides", a mini-album by Michael Cashmore of Current 93. It comprises five songs, two of which are instrumental and three of which are sung by Antony. Antony is featured on two tracks ("The Dull Flame of Desire" and "My Juvenile") on Björk's 2007 album Volta. In addition, he duets with Marc Almond on the song Ballad of The Sad Young Men for Almond's album Stardom Road released in June 2007.

Antony can be heard on several tracks on Hercules and Love Affair's "euphoric disco" album most notably on the track "Blind" released March 2008[1].

Since the release of I Am a Bird Now, Antony has been featured in the Bob Dylan documentary I'm Not There as well as on a number of fashion runways (Including Gucci, Versace, Fendi and Chanel) in the band's cover of Dylan's Knocking on Heaven's Door.[2]

[edit] The Crying Light

Antony and the Johnsons' third album, The Crying Light, has been announced for release on September 9, 2008. Additional details have yet to be made known, but Antony has described the theme of the album.

It's about landscape and the future. I guess I'm thinking about those things a lot - about the natural landscape of the world and the landscape inside each person. On my last record, everything was sort of sad and redemptive. And this one, it's more extreme in both directions. Some of the songs are much more joyful, and some of the songs are much less redemptive. And then some of the songs are more thoughtful - more philosophical. I think this record is just about sitting with things.[3]

New appearance dates are to be announced nearing the release date.[4]


[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] EPs and singles

  • I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy (Durtro, January 2001; reissued on Rebis Music, 2006)
  • Calling for Vanished Faces/Virgin Mary 7" (Durtro, May 2003) (Split single with Current 93; Limited to 500 copies)
  • The Lake (Secretly Canadian, November 2004)
  • Hope There's Someone (Secretly Canadian, June 2004) #44 UK (charted in 2005)
  • You Are My Sister (Rough Trade, November 2005) #39 UK

[edit] Live albums

[edit] Miscellaneous appearances

[edit] References

  1. ^ Singer Antony & The Johnsons featured on 'Blind' by Hercules and Love Affair
  2. ^ Antony and the Johnsons News
  3. ^ Exclaim! News: New Antony and the Johnsons Album out in September
  4. ^ Antony and the Johnsons News

[edit] External links

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