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Kahimi Currie
The FreeFind robot has just delivered its weekly report on what people are searching for on the Momus website. This week, as every other, the most popular term, with 76 searches, was 'kahimi'. In the number two slot, with 16 searches, was 'karie'. After that came 'lyrics', 'you', 'mp3' and 'naked'.
So I thought I'd write something about Kahimi Karie, mentioning her name in every other sentence, so that when Kahimi fans search my site in future they'll land here. Because I'm aware that I could have said a lot more about Kahimi than I have done. Gomenasai!
So irrashai masu, fans of Kahimi Karie! Click Opera is a blog site where I write whatever's in my mind. Today I'm writing about Kahimi Karie. As you probably know, I'm one of Kahimi's many collaborators. She's worked with some incredibly talented people: Cornelius, Arto Lindsay, Philippe Katerine, Add N To X, Konishi... Most of those collaborators made only a couple of records with her, but somehow I lasted for four or five, from 1994's Gainsbourgian I Am A Kitten to 1999's prog-medieval Journey to the Centre of Me, which I still think is our masterpiece. (I was really pleased when last year photographer Mika Ninagawa chose a track from it -- or rather, my demo of a track from it -- to feature in her first film, Cheap Trip.)
Anyway, domo arigato for voting so consistently for my songs on the poll page of the We Love Karie website. This week, as every other week, about half of the top 20 most popular Kahimi Karie songs, according to you, are ones I wrote, co-wrote or produced. I'm very proud of that, and I still think those songs are some of the best things I've ever written.
I'm sure there are lots of things you want to know. What's Kahimi Karie really like? Well, what can I say? You already know a lot from reading interviews with her. She's really beautiful, that's for sure. She had a hard childhood, because her mother died when she was two. She prefers holding hands with her boyfriend to having sex. Some people find her an 'out of sight, out of mind' sort of person. Well, that's true. When I first met her I couldn't put her out my sight or out of my mind!
Back then she was living in Roppongi with Keigo Oyamada. I couldn't take my eyes off her, although I tried not to be rude. She was tiny and had sort of Mickey Mouse eyes, slightly crossed, as if a butterfly had just landed on her nose. I fell in love with her, of course! But I was already in love with someone else, so nothing happened. I got married. On my honeymoon in Paris with Shazna I wrote I Am A Kitten. There was some pressure in the early weeks of our marriage because I was off in Bastille all the time recording with Kahimi. Shazna took revenge by spending a lot of time with film director Leos Carax!
In 1997, when my marriage broke down (nothing to do with Carax!) and I went back to live in London, Kahimi (her real name is Mari) came to visit me. I had a really beautiful 'space age bachelor pad' in Clerkenwell thanks to all the money I'd made from her records. Usually Mari was surrounded by all her management people, or in a relationship with some fashion model. But this time it was just her, and she was single. I bought orchids and vodka. After I'd shown her the view from the roof -- St Paul's Cathedral, Smithfield meat market, the Barbican -- we climbed back down the ladder to my big balcony overlooking Barbican tube station. Back inside, we sat drinking vodka beside the big white orchids. When I'd had enough of the throat-scorching stuff to blur reality a little, I leaned forward and kissed Mari on the lips. Gently and kindly she said 'No.' I cried, and to console me she told me that when we first met she'd decided to be my lover, but that it had never happened because of Shazna and Keigo and now it never would.
There's a strange footnote to that story. Last March, when I first moved to Berlin, Kahimi wrote me an e mail saying she missed me. I wrote back saying 'I miss you too, Mari. Why don't we get married?' She replied 'If you want to marry me, I am okay.' I was surprised and very happy. I wrote a very serious letter saying 'Okay, how shall we arrange it? What's the next step?' But Mari never wrote back.
I'm glad Kahimi Karie is now a solo artist who writes a lot of her own stuff. Ever since I wrote her the lines 'I'm going to tear my playhouse down' and 'a porcelain girl in a porcelain world, is that all you ever wanted me to be?' and 'you gave me life, I give you death, pig!' I've seen her as a bird which would and should fly the nest some day. Now she's done that. It's great to see the birth of a fully-fledged artist.
This month Kahimi Karie has a new single out. It's called Nana and you can hear 44 seconds of it here. Serge Gainsbourg's dog was called Nana and Mari loves dogs more than anything. (Except perhaps sleeping and smoking. I like cats, clean air, and being awake, so it's unlikely our marriage would have been a very successful one.) Apparently Kahimi's new album, Montage, will follow in May. On the evidence of the 44 second clip, this new stuff is more poppy than her last album. It's not really my cup of tea. To me it sounds sort of slick and tidy and over-produced, with Kahimi's voice slithering through its shiny gaps. Maybe she should go to Sweden next and work with Britney Spears' producer Bloodshy.
Sweden is where I'm headed now. I play Stockholm on Saturday. I think it's sold out already, but check here just in case. There'll be lots of Kahimi songs in the show. For ten years now I've been singing Kahimi songs on albums and in live shows alongside my own. Is it strange for a man to sing songs with a woman's point of view? I don't think so. I wrote them and I feel completely comfortable playing what is, if not my greatest role, certainly my most googled.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome... the one and only... Kahimi Currie!
So I thought I'd write something about Kahimi Karie, mentioning her name in every other sentence, so that when Kahimi fans search my site in future they'll land here. Because I'm aware that I could have said a lot more about Kahimi than I have done. Gomenasai!
So irrashai masu, fans of Kahimi Karie! Click Opera is a blog site where I write whatever's in my mind. Today I'm writing about Kahimi Karie. As you probably know, I'm one of Kahimi's many collaborators. She's worked with some incredibly talented people: Cornelius, Arto Lindsay, Philippe Katerine, Add N To X, Konishi... Most of those collaborators made only a couple of records with her, but somehow I lasted for four or five, from 1994's Gainsbourgian I Am A Kitten to 1999's prog-medieval Journey to the Centre of Me, which I still think is our masterpiece. (I was really pleased when last year photographer Mika Ninagawa chose a track from it -- or rather, my demo of a track from it -- to feature in her first film, Cheap Trip.)
Anyway, domo arigato for voting so consistently for my songs on the poll page of the We Love Karie website. This week, as every other week, about half of the top 20 most popular Kahimi Karie songs, according to you, are ones I wrote, co-wrote or produced. I'm very proud of that, and I still think those songs are some of the best things I've ever written.
I'm sure there are lots of things you want to know. What's Kahimi Karie really like? Well, what can I say? You already know a lot from reading interviews with her. She's really beautiful, that's for sure. She had a hard childhood, because her mother died when she was two. She prefers holding hands with her boyfriend to having sex. Some people find her an 'out of sight, out of mind' sort of person. Well, that's true. When I first met her I couldn't put her out my sight or out of my mind!
Back then she was living in Roppongi with Keigo Oyamada. I couldn't take my eyes off her, although I tried not to be rude. She was tiny and had sort of Mickey Mouse eyes, slightly crossed, as if a butterfly had just landed on her nose. I fell in love with her, of course! But I was already in love with someone else, so nothing happened. I got married. On my honeymoon in Paris with Shazna I wrote I Am A Kitten. There was some pressure in the early weeks of our marriage because I was off in Bastille all the time recording with Kahimi. Shazna took revenge by spending a lot of time with film director Leos Carax!
In 1997, when my marriage broke down (nothing to do with Carax!) and I went back to live in London, Kahimi (her real name is Mari) came to visit me. I had a really beautiful 'space age bachelor pad' in Clerkenwell thanks to all the money I'd made from her records. Usually Mari was surrounded by all her management people, or in a relationship with some fashion model. But this time it was just her, and she was single. I bought orchids and vodka. After I'd shown her the view from the roof -- St Paul's Cathedral, Smithfield meat market, the Barbican -- we climbed back down the ladder to my big balcony overlooking Barbican tube station. Back inside, we sat drinking vodka beside the big white orchids. When I'd had enough of the throat-scorching stuff to blur reality a little, I leaned forward and kissed Mari on the lips. Gently and kindly she said 'No.' I cried, and to console me she told me that when we first met she'd decided to be my lover, but that it had never happened because of Shazna and Keigo and now it never would.
There's a strange footnote to that story. Last March, when I first moved to Berlin, Kahimi wrote me an e mail saying she missed me. I wrote back saying 'I miss you too, Mari. Why don't we get married?' She replied 'If you want to marry me, I am okay.' I was surprised and very happy. I wrote a very serious letter saying 'Okay, how shall we arrange it? What's the next step?' But Mari never wrote back.
I'm glad Kahimi Karie is now a solo artist who writes a lot of her own stuff. Ever since I wrote her the lines 'I'm going to tear my playhouse down' and 'a porcelain girl in a porcelain world, is that all you ever wanted me to be?' and 'you gave me life, I give you death, pig!' I've seen her as a bird which would and should fly the nest some day. Now she's done that. It's great to see the birth of a fully-fledged artist.
This month Kahimi Karie has a new single out. It's called Nana and you can hear 44 seconds of it here. Serge Gainsbourg's dog was called Nana and Mari loves dogs more than anything. (Except perhaps sleeping and smoking. I like cats, clean air, and being awake, so it's unlikely our marriage would have been a very successful one.) Apparently Kahimi's new album, Montage, will follow in May. On the evidence of the 44 second clip, this new stuff is more poppy than her last album. It's not really my cup of tea. To me it sounds sort of slick and tidy and over-produced, with Kahimi's voice slithering through its shiny gaps. Maybe she should go to Sweden next and work with Britney Spears' producer Bloodshy.
Sweden is where I'm headed now. I play Stockholm on Saturday. I think it's sold out already, but check here just in case. There'll be lots of Kahimi songs in the show. For ten years now I've been singing Kahimi songs on albums and in live shows alongside my own. Is it strange for a man to sing songs with a woman's point of view? I don't think so. I wrote them and I feel completely comfortable playing what is, if not my greatest role, certainly my most googled.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome... the one and only... Kahimi Currie!
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Greetings from Clerkenwell, by the way.
Or maybe Farringdon? I am just back from a stroll down Exmouth Market, which is now gentrified beyond all belief.
x
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(Anonymous) 2004-03-03 06:19 am (UTC)(link)no subject
interesting
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My favorite paragraph is:
"In 1997, when my marriage broke down (nothing to do with Carax!) and I went back to live in London, Kahimi (her real name is Mari) came to visit me. I had a really beautiful 'space age bachelor pad' in Clerkenwell thanks to all the money I'd made from her records. Usually Mari was surrounded by all her management people, or in a relationship with some fashion model. But this time it was just her, and she was single. I bought orchids and vodka. After I'd shown her the view from the roof -- St Paul's Cathedral, Smithfield meat market, the Barbican -- we climbed back down the ladder to my big balcony overlooking Barbican tube station. Back inside, we sat drinking vodka beside the big white orchids. When I'd had enough of the throat-scorching stuff to blur reality a little, I leaned forward and kissed Mari on the lips. Gently and kindly she said 'No.' I cried, and to console me she told me that when we first met she'd decided to be my lover, but that it had never happened because of Shazna and Keigo and now it never would."
I really hope you'll continue with this live journal - it must be an awful lot of work. It isn't much, but I'll contribute 10 euros per month to keep it going. Maybe some others with a steady source of income can do similarly :)
While I'm trying to help people doing great things for too little money, perhaps I can persuade a couple people to give Scarlet's Well (http://www.bid.clara.net/swell/) a listen. The Scarlet's Well project develops at the direction of Bid, who was in a band called The Monochrome Set (http://www.bid.clara.net/mset/) in the eighties and more recently appeared on the original Songs for the Jet Set compilation as half or so of Wallpaper. Music from the three existing Scarlet's Well albums can be heard at Siesta of Madrid (http://www.siesta.es/pags/banda_discos.asp?codBanda=94). I think a new Scarlet's Well album is due out in April, making it ideal for purchase alongside of the Momus/Anne Laplantine "Summerisle" collaboration. I believe both albums take place within imaginary seaside worlds, as well - is that correct?
best,
Clay
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(Anonymous) 2004-03-04 08:33 am (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2004-03-04 08:36 am (UTC)(link)In researching an essay recently on junya watanabe i came across this which you may have seen before but might possibly interest you, apologies if you have seen it before:
http://www.rebeccamead.com/2002/2002_03_18_art_shopping.htm.
Also Rei Kawakubo described some of her work recently as 'playful formalism'. Do you think she's been on the momus website ;)? Is there any kind of release dat yet for summerisle? Do you know if it will be the start or the end of April,
thanks, michele x
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I'm a fake, I'm actually a sort of musician.
Best wishes.
SB
Stockholm
(Anonymous) 2004-03-04 03:17 pm (UTC)(link)...and I missed (forgot about) The Hidden Cameras yesterday! Damn!
Well. Good like to you
/JESPER - from Sweden
Re: Stockholm
(Anonymous) 2004-03-04 03:20 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
her photos are some of the most beautiful i've ever seen, i can't even begin to imagine her imagery in motion!
also, your star-crossed kahimi tale is pure heartbreak... sigh.
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(Anonymous) 2004-03-07 12:10 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
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(Anonymous) 2004-03-12 12:32 am (UTC)(link)let's not converse, alright? i'd prefer to snipe at you anonymously and then use your sassy-sally reply to prove all the nasty things i've come to think about you and your public private-lifestyle.
i'm a former fan of yours, but have come to find you, your writings and your music rather repulsive as you've aged. i found the caustic comment noted earlier (Q:How old is too old for "youth culture"?--- A: well, how old is MOMUS?) to be a spot-on summation of my current feelings about you. i won't be a bother any longer, and will retreat from your online journal. i suppose a slight part of me still haunts your various online forums hoping that you'll say or write something that isn't slathered with your patented fetishizing-sukebe musings and your insular and revolting egotism. but you never do-- and your music/singing is no longer exciting enough to forgive your personality.
not sullied enough to discard my old momus records, but departing from your written word for good.
-an anonymous former-fan
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I have a healthy ego, sure. A certain basic self-confidence keeps me cheerful and spares my readers from any tendency to whining and self-pity. But I think insular is an absurd charge. I'm constantly moving around the world and writing about what I see. I've always deplored rock stars who fail to learn anything about the places they play in, or who think only about their own careers. I actually write rather little about my own work and my own life, and a huge amount about what inspires me in the work and lives of others. If anything I'm getting more interested in the world and less interested in myself as I get older. What I mostly do is curate and enthuse over and draw attention the work of others. Save your charges of insularity for Vincent Gallo, please!
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(Anonymous) 2004-03-15 12:23 am (UTC)(link)nearly. you are so cordial in response to my rudeness, and i have to thank you for it. good luck, and perhaps when we both come around your (new) music and (new) writings will agan entertain me and i can give you my money.
sounds lovely, no?
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*
(Anonymous) 2004-03-26 07:36 pm (UTC)(link)nuts
(Anonymous) 2009-01-07 01:48 am (UTC)(link)