Who Weekly, 9/11/95
Submitted by Niella
Musically, Jeff Buckley is confident and daring. On his debut album, 1994's Grace, the US singer-songwriter-guitarist moves easily from ear-splitting (albeit carefully controlled) feedback assaults to an ethereal, unaccompanied rendering of Benjamin Britten's "Corpus Christi Carol". But when he's not performing, Buckley, 28, is much less self-assured and the plaudits heaped on Grace by the critics leave him faintly troubled.
"I feel like they're crazy," says the New York based musician, who last week played three sold-out concerts in both Sydney and Melbourne. "It just feels flukish." Flukish or not, the album made its way on to numerous best-of-the-year lists, including that of British music magazine Mojo, which placed it first.
The other thing that's unsettling him is the amount of attention that has been focused on his looks. This year, WHO WEEKLY's US sister magazine, PEOPLE WEEKLY, named him one of its 50 most beautiful people. "I have the body of a f--king 8-year-old," Buckley says. "It's not enticing."
In fact, possibly the only topic Jeff wants to ponder less than his looks is the connection between his music and that of his late father, experimental 1960s folk rocker Tim Buckley, who died of a heroin overdose in 1975. In response to a Paris audience's request that he perform his father's material, Buckley "began to sing something-doing an impression of him, in his style. And then I OD'd (in mine)." The crowd, he reports, didn't get the message, which was, "I just want my (music) to stand on its own."
After 18 months on the road trying to assimilate such experiences, Buckley wants a break. Australia marked the tour's end and now it's time to re-group. "I'm going to disappear," he says, adding with a faint laugh, "then come back-maybe."
Submitted by Niella
Musically, Jeff Buckley is confident and daring. On his debut album, 1994's Grace, the US singer-songwriter-guitarist moves easily from ear-splitting (albeit carefully controlled) feedback assaults to an ethereal, unaccompanied rendering of Benjamin Britten's "Corpus Christi Carol". But when he's not performing, Buckley, 28, is much less self-assured and the plaudits heaped on Grace by the critics leave him faintly troubled.
"I feel like they're crazy," says the New York based musician, who last week played three sold-out concerts in both Sydney and Melbourne. "It just feels flukish." Flukish or not, the album made its way on to numerous best-of-the-year lists, including that of British music magazine Mojo, which placed it first.
The other thing that's unsettling him is the amount of attention that has been focused on his looks. This year, WHO WEEKLY's US sister magazine, PEOPLE WEEKLY, named him one of its 50 most beautiful people. "I have the body of a f--king 8-year-old," Buckley says. "It's not enticing."
In fact, possibly the only topic Jeff wants to ponder less than his looks is the connection between his music and that of his late father, experimental 1960s folk rocker Tim Buckley, who died of a heroin overdose in 1975. In response to a Paris audience's request that he perform his father's material, Buckley "began to sing something-doing an impression of him, in his style. And then I OD'd (in mine)." The crowd, he reports, didn't get the message, which was, "I just want my (music) to stand on its own."
After 18 months on the road trying to assimilate such experiences, Buckley wants a break. Australia marked the tour's end and now it's time to re-group. "I'm going to disappear," he says, adding with a faint laugh, "then come back-maybe."
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