Michael J. Sheehy

麦可约翰•西希（Michael J. Sheehy），打从团队时期的Dream City Film Club起，就慾想筑构出那么一个结合了颓废美学、冷调歌德、灰濛蓝调的音乐域境。只可惜，两张半的专辑发行、快五年的合作经验，还是阻挡不了Michael J. Sheehy的孤独宿命：99年的迷你专辑《Stranger Blues》一出、旋即解散的消息也跟著发佈。英伦乐界，又是一阵的惊讶、与嘆息。

单飞后的第一张专辑Sweet Blue Gene，果然展现出Sheehy卯然一身的寂寥！ 许多乐评们，把他低沉、灰黑、诲暗的唱腔，拿来跟猫王Elvis Presley、 Nick Cave、REM主唱Michael Stipe；甚至U2的Bono、和美国蓝调唱匠Chris Isaak，比高较低一番。但是，对Sheehy独树一格、那股隐隐透现於歌曲中， 当自我生存於世俗里，所遭遇之喜怒哀乐，而转化吟唱出的凄美愁悵； 则是不约而同地讚誉有加。

新世纪的Ill Gotten Gains专辑：第一首曲名即与首张大碟同名的 Sweet Blue Gene；在在显示出，Sheehy持续打造凄迷空幻王国的决心！ 只是，这次的Sheehy，不要一再重複单调地慵懒呻吟； 带点迷幻摇滚色彩的Mystery Train、与Michael Jnr.，透露出Sheehy 灵魂里的跃动因子。蓝调味十足的No One Recognised Him、Love Insane、 Tired Old Love Song，是Sheehy最擅长的创作方式。多年合作伙伴 Victoria Benjamin等女歌伶献声演出的Just A Word、Black Hole Is Waiting，把苦涩的孤寂，加进了几许阴柔的幽美气息。收尾的 Let It Be Love This Time，让最低迷的Lo-fi音场，寂然地延宕於结束的 静寞之后、久久难以平复。 这并不是一张直接令人砰然心碎的专辑；Sheehy的音乐， 化作久久不散的幽灵：苦涩、哀鸣、凄愁，笼罩在稠厚的忧鬱雾靄里。 所以，我知道，那浓地化不开的孤寂，被这自虐式的颓丧， 遮盖住所有追求平静的想望；直逼灵魂往深不见底的炼狱纵然而去。

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by Wilson Neate
After the demise of Dream City Film Club in 1999, Michael J. Sheehy quickly emerged as a solo singer/songwriter. While many of his U.K. contemporaries were exploring melodic guitar rock or neo-prog, Sheehy struck out in a different direction; his dark and often darkly humorous, punk-spirited songs drawing on everything from early American rock & roll, blues, gospel, and country to the British hymnal tradition.

Michael J. Sheehy was born in 1972 into a working-class Irish Catholic household in Kentish Town (North London), where pop music consumption centered on American artists like Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Marty Robbins, and Patsy Cline. Ironically, although country music would later exercise a considerable influence on his work, Sheehy disliked it as a child. While Elvis remained a firm favorite, in his teens Sheehy gravitated to glam rock -- particularly Marc Bolan and David Bowie -- and American proto-punk bands like the Stooges, rather than the homegrown class of 1976. Other artists to attract his attention were Marvin Gaye, Tim Buckley, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave.

Sheehy began performing solo pub gigs in his late teens and, after three years on the London "toilet circuit," he met Laurence Ash and Alex Vald, with whom he formed Dream City Film Club. Following two full-length releases (Dream City Film Club and In the Cold Light of Morning) and the Stranger Blues mini-album, the group was at the point of implosion; apathetic audiences, an indifferent music press, a lack of radio exposure, and inevitable financial strain had taken their toll and contributed to the disintegration of relations among bandmembers.

Taking advantage of a short break between the release of Stranger Blues and a tour in support of the record, Sheehy spent two weeks in the studio recording his own material. Although he had no immediate plans to release it -- given his commitments with DCFC -- the sessions provided him with an opportunity to work on songs that he had considered too personal to record with the band. As it turned out, DCFC split on the eve of their tour and Sheehy had no difficulty reverting to his previous identity as a solo performer, finding it the perfect outlet for the type of material he was writing.

Sweet Blue Gene, the fruit of those two weeks in the studio, was released in 2000. His songs crossed a range of styles: sparse hymnal ballads, reverb-laden swamp blues, and industrial soundscapes. In lyrics that were alternately arrestingly poignant and grimly funny, Sheehy trawled sordid, miserable, and occasionally disturbing territory. The album was a critical success in Britain -- in marked contrast to the work of the often maligned DCFC -- and Sheehy returned to live performance, including dates with Tindersticks in Europe.

While Sheehy euphemistically characterized the period following Sweet Blue Gene as a "lost year," it certainly provided him with a wealth of material for his 2001 follow-up; Ill Gotten Gains is another collection of haunting, melancholy ballads and dirtied-up, electronically enhanced rock & roll in which, lyrically, everything tends to go horribly wrong.

In spring 2002, Sheehy completed his third album (No Longer My Concern) and toured the U.S. with Peter Murphy.