 by Holly Day
“I wish I could have a kiss at every station, you know what I mean?,” says Antony of Antony & the Johnsons about putting together his concert rider for his upcoming tour. “To have someone there to give me a real, fresh waterfall kiss everywhere I go. That would be nice. But I don’t think they can sort that out for me, you know? So I guess I would just put on it that I’d like a little petting zoo at each concert. That would be really nice, to have a petting zoo with kittens and wombats, and kisses. And maybe an ostrich or an emu, some birds just hanging around eating seeds and talking. That’d be really cool, too. But there would have to be wombats, they’re really incredible. They’re so cute.”
Download an mp3 of Antony & the Johnson’s song Hope There’s Someone.
For those who aren’t yet aware, Antony of Antony & the Johnsons is truly
something special, and this is why—it seems that everyone who ever heard
his debut, 1999’s Antony & the Johnsons, has laid claim to “discovering”
him, as if metaphorically staking someone as unique and wonderful as Antony this
early in his career will somehow transport them down the same path to stardom
(that Antony most definitely deserves).
 It’s
a funny kind of let-down to be one of the thousands of critics to find out that
no, Antony’s already been discovered many times over, both by music critics
everywhere and by the people in New York lucky enough to catch one of his many
live, much publicized performances around the city. Lou Reed raves about “discovering”
Antony while record shopping, and even had Antony perform on his last album, The
Raven. He’s also been “discovered” by Boy George, who brought
Antony in to help work on the script for George’s musical, “Taboo,”
based on the life of Leigh Bowery. And then, when I called up Antony for an interview,
I got to find out how many other journalists had “discovered” Antony—during
the interview the second line on his telephone clicked away at a steady pace,
all calls from people who also wanted to interview Antony.
“It’s kind of fun,” Antony says about this strange sort of fame
he’s enjoying, and adds, “At least I didn’t set aside a day
for doing interviews, only to have nobody call.”
The soft-spoken front man of The Johnsons (featuring a rotating cast of musicians)
is both an incredible lyricist, with an ability to encapsulate the most frighteningly
honest and humble of personas, and an amazing vocalist and arranger, drawing on
the traditions of blues, chamber orchestra and cabaret music all at once. His
music is catchy in a completely hook-less, pop-less way, memorable in the way
that opera classics, which can’t possibly be sung by the average aficionado,
are still hummed by those who try.
“Actually, my voice isn’t that big,” says Antony. “It’s
just the amplification that makes it seem big. And I don’t practice. In
fact, I’m terribly lazy in all those regards. I just sing when I’m
supposed to. Although, if I got a nice apartment, I would sing more often,”
he adds. “Part of my problem is that my apartment is so small that the neighbors
complain if I sing. It’s so discouraging if you’re enjoying a nice
little sing in your room, and an ogre next door starts bashing on the wall. It
makes you feel bad. So I have to keep a buttoned lip at home.”
 Where
his debut featured sweeping orchestral arrangements of harp, violins, cello and
an assortment of other classical and non-classical instruments, his newest effort,
I Am a Bird Now, is much quieter, featuring just two or three instruments
per song. Voice is more the focus of attention in these pieces than anything,
and, along with Antony himself, the voices on this release are provided by guest
artists Lou Reed, Devandra Banhart, Boy George and Rufus Wainwright.
“The album was originally a performance that I presented in 1996 in New
York,” explains Antony. “It was a piano concert that I did in my friend
William Basinski’s loft in Brooklyn, and it was called I Am A Bird Now.
I always knew that one day it would be the name for a record. A lot of the songs
on the record are from that period—a couple are from earlier, and a couple
from later, but there was a whole body of songs I developed for that concert that
I one day wanted to record, and I finally did.” He adds, “I really
feel like this album is something that should be listened to as a whole, as opposed
to just separate tracks, because it’s kind of like a little journey, a little
pathway through a series of ideas and events.”
So no putting it on the 5-CD changer and setting it on random? “No!”
says Antony, laughing. “Those iPOds drive me crazy, too! They shuffle you
up, and then suddenly, it’s like you’re reading Chapter 10, and having
dessert, and you’re reading Chapter Two, and then you’re reading another
book entirely! It just doesn’t make sense anymore. For me, the layout of
a record is so important. I’ve been someone who has always been involved
in making complete pieces. Before I was making records, I was making experimental
performances and theater pieces and stuff, so I definitely construct my albums
with an arc in mind, with a whole picture in mind. And that comes right down to
the design of the artwork and everything. I put it all together to be a cohesive
piece.” ||
Antony & the Johnsons perform on Sun. Feb. 20 at the Fine Line Music
Cafe with TBA. 7:30 p.m. 21+. $12. 318 First Ave. N., Mpls. 612-338-8100.
Find out more about Antony & the Johnsons on their official website at AntonyAndTheJohnsons.com.
Download an mp3 of Antony & the Johnson’s song Hope
There’s Someone.
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