Nick Currie more popularly known under the artist name
Momus (after the
Greek god of mockeryMomus or Momos was in Greek mythology the god of satire, mockery, censure, writers, poets; a spirit of evil-spirited blame and unfair criticism. His name is related to , meaning 'blame' or 'censure'. He is depicted in classical art as lifting a mask from his face.-In classical literature:Hesiod...
), is a
songwriterA songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
,
blogA blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger and former journalist for
WiredWired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
. Most of his songs are self-referential and many could be classified as postmodern.
For more than twenty-five years he has been releasing, to marginal commercial and critical success, albums on labels in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan. In his lyrics and his other writing he makes seemingly random use of decontextualized pieces of continental (mostly French) philosophy, and has built up a personal world he says is "dominated by values like diversity,
orientalismOrientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
, and a respect for otherness." He is fascinated by
identityCultural identity is the identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as one is influenced by one's belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics....
,
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
,
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, the
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
,
time travelTime travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
and
sexIn biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
.
Musical
Momus began by recording
post-punkPost-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
material with various ex-members of
Josef KJosef K were a Scottish post-punk band, active between 1979 and 1982, who released singles on the Postcard Records label. The band was named after the protagonist of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial...
in a group called The Happy Family in the early '80s, and was associated with the musicians around
Postcard RecordsPostcard Records is a Glasgow-based independent record label founded by Alan Horne in 1979, as a vehicle for Orange Juice and Josef K releases. The label's motto was "The Sound of Young Scotland", a parody/tribute to the Motown motto; its logo featured a cartoon cat beating a drum...
(although he never recorded for that label). His debut solo album
Circus Maximus (1986,
él Recordsél Records is an independent record label from the UK founded by Mike Alway. Alway, who cut his teeth in the late seventies working with The Soft Boys and promoting clubs and concerts in Richmond, south-west London, joined Cherry Red Records in 1980 to work alongside the company's founder, Iain...
) explored biblical themes in dark, almost Gothic acoustic style, and his debt to the influence of Gallic pop was clear from a subsequent, sardonically self-referencing cover of Jacques Brel's "
Jacky"Jacky" is a song written by Jacques Brel. He recorded the song on 2 November 1965, and it was released on his 1966 album Ces Gens-Là. The song was translated from French into English and retitled as "Jackie"....
" and portraits of himself in the style of early 60s
Serge GainsbourgSerge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...
.
In 1987, by which time he lived in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, he signed to
Creation RecordsCreation Records was a British independent record label headed by Alan McGee. Along with Dick Green and Joe Foster, McGee founded Creation in 1983. The label lasted until its demise in 1999. The name came from the 1960s band The Creation , whom McGee greatly admired. McGee, Green and Foster were...
, and began to record the hyper-literate, quirky pop songs for which he is best known. A trio of albums,
The Poison Boyfriend,
Tender Pervert and
Don't Stop The Night blended accessible dance-pop with such heavy lyrical themes as paedophilia, necrophilia and adultery. The latter album almost yielded a hit in the UK with "The Hairstyle of the Devil". Subsequent albums on Creation included
Hippopotamomus, a scatological tribute to Gainsbourg, as Momus continued to push boundaries of acceptability within accessible pop structures. By 1994, however, when Creation signed
OasisOasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
, his music started to sound out of place on the newer, more 'laddish' and commercial sounds Creation then started to produce, and he moved to Paris and signed to
Cherry RedCherry Red is a London-based independent record label formed in 1978.-History:Cherry Red grew from the rock promotion company founded in 1971 to promote rock concerts at the Malvern Winter Gardens...
records. Since then he has lived in various countries and, whilst less popular in Britain, has had a reasonable level of commercial success in a number of countries, especially
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, where he wrote and produced records for successful singer
Kahimi KarieKahimi sings in English, French, and Japanese with whisper-like vocals.-Albums:* 1997 - Larme de crocodile * July 15, 1998 - K.K.K.K.K. * May 24, 2000 - Tilt...
, including the hit single "Good Morning World".
He has been sued twice. The first time was from
MichelinMichelin is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone. In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal tyre brands...
UK, for the song "Michelin Man", which compared the mascot to a blow-up doll, on
Hippopotamomus (1991). He was also sued by
Wendy CarlosWendy Carlos is an American composer and electronic musician. Carlos first came to notice in the late 1960s with recordings made on the Moog synthesizer, then a relatively new and unknown instrument; most notable were LPs of synthesized Bach and the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick's film A...
for the song "Walter Carlos" (which postulated that the post-sexual reassignment surgery Wendy could travel back in time to marry her pre-surgery self, Walter) on
The Little Red SongbookThe album The Little Red Songbook was released by Momus in 1998. This CD features a number of karaoke versions of the songs that were used for a singing contest. The winners of the contest appear on the CD Stars Forever.The original release of this CD contained a controversial song entitled...
(1998). The case was settled out of court for a fee of $30,000, withdrawal of the song, agreement not to use Carlos's name for any purpose whatsoever and payment of damages and attorney's fees to Carlos. To pay off the debt, Momus wrote thirty songs, one about each person or group who commissioned a song at the price of $1,000, compiling
Stars ForeverStars Forever is an album for which the artist Momus wrote thirty songs, one about every person or group who commissioned a song at the price of $1,000. "Patrons" include artist Jeff Koons and two year old animator/superhero Noah Brill...
(1999). Patrons included artist
Jeff KoonsJeffrey "Jeff" Koons is an American artist known for his reproductions of banal objects—such as balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror finish surfaces....
, Japanese musician
CorneliusCornelius is a Japanese recording artist and producer.-Career:Oyamada's first claim to fame was as a member of the pop duo Flipper's Guitar, one of the key groups of the Tokyo Shibuya-kei scene...
, and three-year-old animator/superhero Noah Brill.
Stars Forever also features the winners of a
karaokeis a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
contest started on
The Little Red Songbook (1998).
In 2000, he performed "As You Turn to Go" (written by
Stephin MerrittStephin Merritt is an American singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles , best known as the principal singer and songwriter in the band The Magnetic Fields...
) on
The 6thsThe 6ths is a band created by Stephin Merritt, also the prime mover behind The Magnetic Fields, The Gothic Archies and Future Bible Heroes.One story has it that the band was conceived when Merritt, observing that there was no tribute album dedicated to him, decided to make one himself...
' album
Hyacinths and Thistles and "Mnemorex" (his own lyrics) on Kreidler's self-titled third album. He has continued to release Momus albums, as well as contribute to other artists' records since.
As author and other activities
Momus has written for
WiredWired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
,
ViceVICE is a free magazine and media conglomerate founded in Montreal, Quebec and currently based in New York City.Vice is available in 27 countries...
,
Index MagazineIndex Magazine was a prominent New York City based publication for art and culture. It was created by Peter Halley and Bob Nickas in 1996. The publication featured a mix of interviews with famous arty folks like Björk with not so-famous New York personalities like Queen Itchie or Ducky Doolittle.It...
,
AIGA Voice,
032c032c magazine is an English-language, bi-annual contemporary culture magazine that covers art, fashion, and politics. The magazine is published in Berlin....
and
Design ObserverDesign Observer is a website devoted to a broad range of design topics centered on graphic design, communications arts, print, typography and criticism. The content of the site is composed of short essays and articles...
. Momus has also been a kind of guest instructor working on sound-art projects with students first at
Future Universityis a public university in Hakodate, Hokkaidō, Japan.-External links:*...
in Hakodate,
Hokkaidō, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
,
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
during the early months of 2005, and then again in September at Fabrica, the
Benetton GroupBenetton Group S.p.A. is a global luxury fashion brand, based in Treviso, Italy. The name comes from the Benetton family who founded the company in 1965. Benetton Group is listed in Milan....
"research centre" near
VeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. In 2006 he was a featured artist in the
Whitney BiennialThe Whitney Biennial is a biennale exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, USA. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932, the first biennial was in 1973...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, serving as an "unreliable tour guide" to visitors of the exhibition. He also kept an online blog, documenting his everyday experience, philosophies and fetishes. Momus is an
atheistAtheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
.
Momus is credited with the first documented instance of writing, in 1991, that "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen people", which has evolved into the popular
memeA meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
"On the web, everyone will be famous to fifteen people". The quip is a parody of
Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
's famous prediction that,
"In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes"15 minutes of fame is short-lived, often ephemeral, media publicity or celebrity of an individual or phenomenon. The expression was coined by Andy Warhol, who said in 1968 that "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." The phenomenon is often used in reference to...
.
The Fotolog.Book with texts by Momus on
photoblogA photoblog is a form of photo sharing and publishing in the format of a blog. It differs from a blog through the predominant use of and focus on photographs rather than text...
ging was published in April 2006 by
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
publishers
Thames & HudsonThames & Hudson is a publisher of illustrated books on art, architecture, design, and visual culture. With its headquarters in London, England it has a sister company in New York and subsidiaries in Melbourne, Singapore and Hong Kong...
.
Momus has published several books, most recently
The Book of Jokes and
The Book of Scotlands which have received positive reviews in places such as the LA Times and the Guardian. He is set to publish
The Book of Japans in 2011.
Personal life
In the last two decades, Momus has lived in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
,
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
,
Tokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and
BerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. He has made
Osakais a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
his home since 2010.
He wears a patch over his right eye because he lost the use of it in 1997, after contracting
acanthamoeba keratitisAcanthamoeba keratitis is a rare disease in which amoebae invade the cornea of the eye.-Causes:In the United States, it is nearly always associated with contact lens use, as Acanthamoeba can survive in the space between the lens and the eye...
from a contact lens case washed with Greek tap water.
His cousin is musician
Justin CurrieJustin Robert Currie is a Scottish singer and songwriter, best known as the founding member of the band Del Amitri and, along with Iain Harvie, is one of only two members of the group to be present throughout its entire existence.-Del Amitri:Justin Currie established the band Del Amitri while...
, the lead singer and songwriter of
Del AmitriDel Amitri were a Scottish pop-rock guitar band, formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1983. The band grew out of Justin Currie's Jordanhill College School band and came together after teenager Currie placed an advertisement in the window of a music store asking for people who could play to contact him...
.
Discography
| Album name |
Release year |
| Circus Maximus |
1986 |
| The Poison Boyfriend |
1987 |
| Tender Pervert |
1988 |
| Don’t Stop The Night |
1989 |
| Monsters Of Love |
1990 |
| Hippopotamomus |
1991 |
| The Ultraconformist (Live Whilst Out Of Fashion) |
1992 |
| Voyager |
| Timelord |
1993 |
| Slender Sherbert |
1995 |
| The Philosophy of Momus |
| Twenty Vodka Jellies |
1996 |
| Ping Pong |
1997 |
| The Little Red Songbook The album The Little Red Songbook was released by Momus in 1998. This CD features a number of karaoke versions of the songs that were used for a singing contest. The winners of the contest appear on the CD Stars Forever.The original release of this CD contained a controversial song entitled...
|
1998 |
| Stars Forever Stars Forever is an album for which the artist Momus wrote thirty songs, one about every person or group who commissioned a song at the price of $1,000. "Patrons" include artist Jeff Koons and two year old animator/superhero Noah Brill...
|
1999 |
| Folktronic |
2001 |
| Oskar Tennis Champion |
2003 |
| Summerisle, a collaboration with Anne Laplantine |
2004 |
| Otto Spooky Otto Spooky is the 18th studio album by the avant-garde artist Momus, released in 2005.-Track listing:# "Sempreverde" - 3:53# "Life of the Fields" - 5:49# "Corkscrew King" - 5:26# "Klaxon" - 3:52# "Robin Hood" - 4:17# "Lady Fancy Knickers" - 4:58...
|
2005 |
| Ocky Milk |
2006 |
| Joemus, a collaboration with Joe Howe |
2008 |
| Hypnoprism |
2010 |
| The Thunderclown |
2011 |
| Thunderclown, a collaboration with John Henriksson |
2011 |
External links
Listening