Singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik to play 5 Points Pub Friday
Although Duncan Sheik has only played Columbia once before, he remembers the night and the city fondly and anticipates his return.
“I can’t go into all the details,” he said with a laugh. “It seemed like it would be worth coming back.”
The singer-songwriter, best known for his 1996 breakout hit “Barely Breathing” as well as his work on award-winning rock musical “Spring Awakening” with friend Steven Sater, is touring in support of his new album “Covers 80s Remixed,” which came out this month.
The tour stops at 5 Points Pub Friday night, and Alpha Rev, Courrier and Laura Warshauer will join Sheik on stage. Tickets are $20 and available in advance online at the5pointspub.com or at the door.
The artist’s new disc is filled with new arrangements of ’80s hits from groups like the Smiths, Depeche Mode and Thompson Twins sung by Sheik in his distinctly soft, folksy croon.
“It’s an homage to the bands I listened to in my teen years,” Sheik said.
The singer released an acoustic album with the same tunes in 2011. The remix album features guests both behind the mic and behind the scenes, including a duet with Rachael Yamagata on the Tears for Fears hit “Shout.” Samantha Ronson, Terry Urban and many more DJs helped to create the mixes on the disc.
Sheik decided to make a remixes album to bring new life to the collection of tunes.
“I wanted to reimagine them as more modernist, electronic versions for 2012,” he said, noting that the remixed versions sound more like the New Age originals than the renditions on his acoustic album.
Sheik said the artists featured on “Covers 80s” are “a pretty good cross section of my influences,” but he cites current artists like Bjork, Elbow and Radiohead as some of his favorites and said his inspiration can be found across the world, “from bossa nova to Indian classical music.”
With such a wide range of influences, Sheik has a hard time defining his sound.
“I’m always looking for the right word,” he said. “It kind of falls between the cracks with genres.”
Sheik has been writing for theater and film steadily throughout the past decade, releasing his concept album “Whisper House” in 2009 — which was later staged as a musical of the same name at California’s Old Globe Theatre — and scoring the feature film “A Home at the End of the World” (2004).
“It’s kept me very busy,” Sheik said.
The musician said composing for the stage and screen has expanded his “sonic palette,” and working in a different medium has influenced his solo writing.
“It adds to your tool belt, so to speak,” he said.
Sheik has a new album in the works, his first non-theater solo project since 2006.
“It’s kind of nice to step away and write a three-minute pop song not related to a narrative,” he said.
Even though he is working on new material for himself, Sheik hasn’t abandoned stage work. The composer currently has two theater projects in the works: a stage version of “American Psycho” and an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s story “The Nightingale.”
In addition to recording his own music, Sheik recently opened his own recording studio, Sneaky Studios, in Garrison, N.Y. Sheik has always had a studio for himself but never opened it up to other artists. The new space features state-of-the-art equipment and an adjacent house that accommodates eight to 10 people.
“A few interesting records have already been made there,” Sheik said. “I haven’t had a chance to record there yet.”
Doors open at 8 p.m. for Friday’s 9 p.m. show. The 5 Points Pub is located at 2020 Devine St.