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Addie Brik – Biography (2009)

Composer and performer Addie Brik isn’t afraid of bucking convention. “Strike The Tent” provides Addie Brik with the title to her long-awaited second album, and an entirely new direction for the deep south-born artist who relocated to London in 1997. “Those words – strike the tent – have a hugely poignant meaning for me,” Addie says. “They say move on, it’s over.” The follow-up album to Addie’s 2004’s critically lauded Loved Hungry, Strike the Tent is the product of a long journey, both artistically and literally. Strike the Tent came out of the experience of living in Budapest for two years – “A country where the language barrier was formidable” – and was recorded in Hungary and Transylvania. “Very slowly, I ended up meeting and working with local musicians, some of them Gypsies,” says Addie. ”It was an amazing experience, a long time of finding my way – and yes, very slow.”

With experiences as diverse as starring in the Buddhist epic, ‘Kingdom of Philosophy’ as the Silent Princess, ruler of the wind and rain, exuder of the Four Noble Truths for his Excellency Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche as well as collaborations with HB Barnum, Aretha Franklin’s legendary writer and arranger, Addie Brik’s eclectic career goes from strength to strength.

Early Life

Addie discovered she had the soul of a poet at a tender age. Reared in the steamy and sensual deep south of America she started writing poetry while still in her teens. This led to a place at the prestigious Naropa Institute where she was mentored by literary giants Steinbeck and Allen Ginsberg. She was bitten by the performance bug when Francis Ford Coppola invited her to join a young artist’s troupe and take part in a production of Sam Shepard’s ‘Cowboy Blues’, sharing the lot at Zoetrope with such luminaries as Ed Harris.

Music

By now, Addie was becoming increasingly interested in music and her voracious appetite for experimentation led her inevitably to the seething hotbed of creativity that was the LA underground scene. Soon she was singing and writing with Prince’s stellar home-girls Wendy and Lisa as well as seminal hip hop artists The Sugarhill Gang - creators of a clutch of immortal rap anthems such as Rapper’s Delight and The Message. This frantic and exciting episode in Addie’s musical development fittingly culminated in the indie hit Wattsland with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In another extraordinary twist to her unpredictable career Addie decided in 1990 to combine the dirt and glam of LA’s alternative scene with the finest voice coach classical opera had to offer - Lynne Nagle at the University of Southern California.

Drawing on her now broadened repertoire and technique, Addie then plunged into a series of collaborations with members of Funkadelic, Fishbone and Tackhead. Todd Rungren also produced a track she had written for the EMI band What Is This.

It wasn’t long before Addie was attracting the attention of some of the music world’s biggest hitters. Then Peter Gabriel came across one of Addie’s demo tapes which led to a deal with Geffen Records with Andy Gill (Gang of Four) producing.

By now coming to a full-blown creative maturity, Addie was beginning to excel in many aspects of music-making including voice, composition, arrangement and production. Her trademark lyrical intensity was also to mark her out as a thoughtful as well as dynamic performer.

In 1994 she wrote and produced the album Duck see Goose which was released on the Intuition/East West label in Germany. She assembled a formidable line-up including Jamaaladeen Tacuma the renowned Philly bassist (Ornette Coleman, Duran Duran,The Golden Palominos), Gilles Apap on violin (1st Prize Winner, Yehudi Menuhin International competition), Fernando Pulham on the trumpet (Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald) and Aster Aweke the Ethiopian singer and Guadeloupe raised crooner and actor Joel Virgel.

Addie has always been passionate about extending her range; from 1995 to 1998 she started studying classical Indian singing with famed vocalist Lakshmi Shankar (Passage to India, Ghandi). Polymath Cameroonian composer Francis Bebey actually wrote an inspired track specifically tailored to Addie’s distinctive vocal style and energy. Tragically it was to be the last piece of music Bebey ever wrote.

After the release of Duck See Goose, Addie entered into a whirlwind of production releasing between 1998 and 2001 many projects and recordings such as collaborations with Plaid, ‘Female of the Species’ on Law and Auder, and ‘My Little Pony Ride’ in 1999 on Lo Recordings. In 2001 she co-wrote and sang on the highly acclaimed Luke Vibert and BJ Cole album Stop The Panic on Virgin America and Cooking Vinyl UK.

Loved Hungry – 2004 Debut Album Release

Heartfelt, moody, artful, delicious and sweet at all times with a beautiful lyrical playfulness which shines through after repeated listenings, this represented a breakthrough album of terrific and original music. On the record Addie was joined by Russian prodigy and famed producer, Andre Samsonov, Jono Podmore (Kumo/Can) the Russian Chamber Orchestra of London and To Rococo Rot as well as Tarwater from Berlin.

“beautiful but uncomfortable in a David Lynch kind of way.” Peter Kisk, THE FACE.

“An Incredibly opulent and worryingly irrestible album indeed.” David Stubs. THE WIRE

“Weird and often quite wonderful, too”. Angus Batey, THE TIMES

“For a highly-strung, classical-meets-electronic, minimal-but-mistressful session check out Addie Brik- a beauty.” Kate Wildblood, DIVA

"The Most Striking Debut Album Of The Year So Far" 4 Stars – MIRROR

“Collaborations with Plaid and Like Vibert have clearly given Brik the confidence to innovate. That’s when Brik is at her best: this is a promising debut album.” Ben East, IDJ

“..an opus that challenges the paradigms of modern soul music.” DJ.

Strike The Tent – Set for Release this Autumn 2009

Characterised by an enthusiastic spontaneity, the 11-track Strike the Tent is an exquisitely well-crafted album. As with its predecessor, there’s a modicum of electronic soundscaping, but this one tantalises with its enhanced palette: one hears, or perhaps imagines, percussion, zithers, accordion, drones, ululations. From “Throat”, the 90-second opener, which, with its trilled syllables and swinging rhythm, hints at classical Indian song, to the rapid thrill of the proto-blues of “I’m Going On”, “Plaintive View” which is reminiscent of a Kate Bush song, or the spacious curves of the superlative “Three Pictures”, Strike the Tent is an album that conjures pictures and makes connections. “It has an insouciance,” Addie says of it. “In some ways, this album is more weighty, clearer and prettier than the last one – but it’s also sadder and more beautiful.”

Other Projects

Addie is no stranger to TV and video - she has appeared on the Arsenio Hall Show and The United Negro College drive as well as many other appearances on national networks. She has worked with highly influential video directors such as Doug Freel on the video for Wattlsand and Grammy-award winning Stephen Johnson of Talking Heads fame helmed her video release for Duck see Goose.

As befits such a talented multi-media artist, Addie has expressed herself through many and varied artistic forms. She is an accomplished dancer in the Raqs Sharqi Egyptian style. And she presented ‘The Sensuous Show’ a thirty minute collage of erotic image and music, the story of rival bitches and racial clans. It was screened at the 2001 Big Chill festival, The Scala and the Spitz, London. She also wrote a track for HBO’s series Sex and The City, 2001 - 2002.

DISCOGRAPHY:

- Vocalist on Mark Springer’s 2004 release (Virgin Records)

- Collaboration with Rothko - release 2004

- Conroy Maddox ‘Coma’ – 2004 (A collection of musical and conversational interpretations of the late English surrealist artist, writer and storyteller)

- Loved Hungry – Debut Album 2004

- Vocalist/witer on new Hairy Butter record (Jon Tye/Richard Thomas)

Lo Recordings release 2003

- My Little Pony Ride EP – Lo Recordings – Feb 2000

- Ghostbastards 12” – 2001 (4 Track Featuring Ghostbusters Scored And Adored Purple Ghost Mix, Cursor Miner Mix, Addie Brik And Eu Mix And Solar X Bastards Make Me Feel Good Pic Sleeve)

- Whino – 1997 – Featuring Addie Brik, N’Dea Davenport, Wendy & Lisa, Michael Ward, John Philip Shenale, Eddie Kurdzeil, Kadir Darbesh, Iris Parker, Christian Marsac and Andrei Samonov

- Duck,See Goose: Duck, See Goose (Clandestine-1994) [CD]

Duck,See Goose: La Decadance (Clandestine-1994) [CD/EP]

Duck,See Goose: Call Me Daddy (Clandestine-1994) [CD/EP]

- Wattsland – 1984: Featuring members of the original Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s line-up, Jack Irons, Hillies Slovak and Flea, and the Moreland Brothers of Wall of Voodoo.

Compilations Addie Brik has featured on:

- Living In The Music - Compilation by Nik Weston Feat Track: ‘Go Easy Lord’ – 2005 Nuro Records

- Constant Friction Compliation – 2002 Lo Recordings Feat Track: ‘Bonded’ co-written by Bedouin Ascent remixed by Plaid

- Luke Vibert and BJ Cole Feat Tracks: ‘Stop the Panic’ / ‘Nice Cave’– 2000 Cooking Vinyl Fresh Fruit Compilation – Feat Track: Addie Brik & Richard Thomas ‘Elegant Flower’ – 2000 Lo Recordings

- Female of the Species Compilation - 1999 Law and Auder

www.addiebrik.com

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