Clifton is an amazing musician from Brooklyn. His acid disco fever makes African music a more mystique and wild feeling. It's hard to define him. A pop singer or a post-classy african musician. But I think he wants to combine two in one.
listen to Clifton's latest music from his myspace
here's part of Clifton interview for eastvillageboys:
Richard Welch: Describe yourself in ten words?
Clifton: I am the new. There, I did it in four.
RW: Tell us a little about where you grew up, your family background..
C: I' m from small town called Lusby, Maryland. There' s a sign as you leave that reads “God Bless Y' all Real Good”. That' s pretty much all you need to know about that place. I grew up in the same house my grandfather and mother grew up in. Hated it, always needed to leave, so I did. I' m sure a lot of people are familiar with this story.
RW: Have you always wanted to be a performer? When did you first start performing?
C: Pretty much. I have been doing theater since elementary school. I moved here to New York to go to school for it. But I' ve also been playing the saxophone since the fourth grade. I have always, I guess, wanted to produce something for others to enjoy. I often wish I could draw or paint but I can' t. I' m envious of that skill. That draws on that not-so-nice side of my personality that wants to be the best at everything.
RW: Describe your sound and style of performance?
C: I' d like to think my sound is just like everything you' ve heard and like nothing you' ve heard before.
In the song “Shine”, for example, I went for a very catchy pop tune but by the end of it the three main instrumental melody lines are done by ragtime piano, harpsichord, and sitar. American black, European classical, and Indian sounds all together and it doesn' t sound strange. It' s my musical manifesto. When The Beatles made pop songs, and that' s what a lot of them were, they stretched the idea of what a pop song could sound like. That is what I’m trying to do.
Too much pop music today sounds just alike. It seems like they give it no thought. They give you songs where the chorus is just one word like “Womanizer”. I don' t know about you but I feel like my intelligence is being insulted when I listen to the radio these days.
via Clifton's myspace, East Village Boys ,and Steven Chu's blogSource URL: http://thesoap-box.blogspot.com/2010/02/clifton-photographed-by-steven-chu.html
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