Name | Tricky |
---|---|
Background | solo_singer |
Birth name | Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws |
Alias | Tricky Kid |
Born | January 27, 1968 |
Origin | Knowle West, Bristol, England |
Instrument | Vocals, keyboards, harmonica |
Genre | Trip hop, alternative music |
Occupation | Producer, mixer, musician |
Label | Island Records, Domino Records |
Associated acts | The Wild BunchMassive Attack |
Url | |
Past members | }} |
Tricky (born Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws, 27 January 1968) is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop culture. His debut album Maxinquaye was nominated for the Mercury Prize and voted Album of the Year by NME Magazine.
He spent his youth in the care of his grandmother, who often let him watch old horror movies instead of going to school. At 15 he began to write lyrics ("I like to rock, I like to dance, I like pretty girls taking down their pants" MixMag 1996). At 17, he spent some time in prison because he bought forged £50 notes from a friend, who later informed the police. In an interview, Tricky said: "Prison was really good. I'm never going back".
In 1991, before the release of Massive Attack's album Blue Lines, he met Martina Topley-Bird. Some time later she came to his house, and mentioned to Tricky and Mark Stewart that she could sing. Martina was only fifteen years old, but her 'honey-coated vox' impressed them and they recorded a song called "Aftermath" (though The Face '95 mentions that the first song they recorded together was called "Shoebox"). Tricky showed "Aftermath" to Massive Attack, but they were not interested. So in 1993 he decided to press a few hundred vinyl copies of the song. He cut it directly off of the tape, so that the song is basically "just bassline and hiss". (NME 1994). Finally, a white label got him a contract with Island Records and he started to record his first solo album.
Tricky failed to complete a number of lyrics for the Massive Attack album Protection and gave the band some of the lyrics he had written for Maxinquaye instead. Different versions of the same songs appear on both albums - called "Overcome" and "Hell is 'Round the Corner" on Maxinquaye and "Karmacoma" and "Eurochild" on Protection. When Massive Attack were asked, in a radio interview on CFNY (Toronto), about why the lyrics were the same, they jokingly said that it was because he was lazy.
Tricky found it difficult to cope with the huge success of Maxinquaye and he subsequently eschewed the laidback soul sound of the first album to create an increasingly edgy and aggressive punk tinged music that echoed his personality as he became more erratic and unreliable.
In 1996, Neneh Cherry and Björk appeared as guests on his second album Nearly God. The opening number was a cover of the Siouxsie and the Banshees pre-trip-hop song "Tattoo" that had previously inspired Tricky when he forged his style.
In 2001 Tricky appeared on the Thirteen Ghosts soundtrack with the song "Excess" which (briefly) features Alanis Morissette during two of the choruses. In 2002 that song also appeared on the Queen of the Damned soundtrack.
He has also been concerned with racial stereotyping of the media. In the documentary Naked & Famous he explained how photographers want him to frown angrily in photos, because that is how black artists are marketed. He points to a recent cover of The Big Issue, where he has a more ambiguous, confused look on his face, as being more how he feels. In the song "Tricky Kid" from Pre-Millennium Tension, he wrote "As long as you're humble/Let you be the king of jungle." (This lyric is a reference to Goldie and their spat over Björk.)
Throughout his work, Tricky blurs the normally clear sexual definitions found within hip hop. Despite the heavy influence he drew from American hip hop in his debut album, Maxinquaye, he fights against typical sexual representations by, for example, dressing as a woman on the side sleeve of his album cover. As many of his tracks blend elements of varying types of music creating a difficult to define sound, so his lyrics create a more ambiguous and blurry take on sexuality.
Tricky has also acted in various films. He appeared in a significant supporting role in the 1997 Luc Besson film The Fifth Element, playing the right-hand man "Right Arm" to evil businessman Mr. Zorg. He reportedly put off actor Gary Oldman (who played Zorg) because, while he had his back to the camera, he was eating a Twix bar, to Oldman's anger ("He's facking eatin' a Twix!"). "But Gary Oldman took me in, used to make me cups of tea and shit like that. He's got a real deep soul. Y'know, he permitted me to hang out with him and he's up there." He also appears briefly in both the 1997 John Woo directed Face/Off (his single "Christiansands" is also played during his brief cameo) as well as the 2004 Olivier Assayas film Clean, playing himself, and had a large role in the music video for "Parabol/Parabola" by Tool.
In 2001 Tricky appeared in online advertising for the web series We Deliver, about a marijuana delivery service in New York. Though he did not actually appear in any episodes, in the advertising it appears as if he is a customer of the service.
Tricky's 2008 studio album, Knowle West Boy, was released in the UK and Ireland in July 2008 and September 2008 in the U.S. The first single was "Council Estate". In an interview with The Skinny in July 2008, Tricky mentioned that it was the first time that he had decided to let someone co-produce an album with him, the person in question being Bernard Butler, ex-Suede guitarist. Less than enamoured by Butler's technical prowess, Tricky finished by totally re-recording all of the material.
On 8 December 2009, Tricky's 1995 debut album Maxinquaye was reissued with a bonus 13-track CD featuring B-sides, out-takes and 7 previously unreleased mixes including three new mixes of "Overcome", "Hell is Round the Corner", and "Black Steel".
On 10 December 2009, Daddy G. revealed that he met Tricky in Paris and asked him to work on a future Massive Attack project. Tricky agreed.
During an interview on 1 July 2010, Tricky stated that his new album, titled Mixed Race, was scheduled for release on 27 September 2010. The first single from the album became available on 23 August. The album included contributions from Franky Riley, Terry Lynn, Bobby Gillespie, Hamadouche, Blackman, and Tricky's youngest brother Marlon Thaws.
On December 13, 2010 Tricky's tour bus was caught in a blizzard near Sarnia, Ontario, Canada (near the U.S./Canadian border). The band was scheduled to play Tuesday night in Minneapolis, but had to cancel because they didn't make it out on time. A local farmer, John Prins, came to their rescue. The farmer reported that "they were sitting in their tour bus for 30, 35 hours, without any food", and said, "They said they were surviving on Jack Daniels."
In early 2011, Tricky was booked to headline Blissfields Festival.
The new single from the "Mixed Race" album "Time To Dance" being released featuring remixes by Maya Jane Coles, Doorly and Fifi Rong internationally on 18 July 2011.
On 26 June 2011 Tricky appeared on stage during Beyonce's headline slot on the pyramid stage at Glastonbury for the track "Baby Boy".
!Year | !Song | UK Singles Chart |
|
!Album | |
"Aftermath" | |||||
"Ponderosa" | |||||
"Overcome" | |||||
"Black Steel" | |||||
The Hell E.P. | |||||
"Pumpkin" | |||||
"I Be The Prophet" | align="center" | ||||
"Poems" | |||||
Grassroots EP | align="center" | ||||
- | |||||
"Christiansands" | |||||
"Tricky Kid" | |||||
"Makes Me Wanna Die" | |||||
1998 | "Money Greedy" / "Broken Homes" | Angels with Dirty Faces | |||
1999 | "For Real" | Juxtapose | |||
2000 | Mission Accomplished EP | align="center" | |||
- | |||||
2001 | "Evolution Revolution Love" | align="center" | |||
2002 | "You Don't Wanna" | ||||
"Antimatter" | |||||
"How High" | align="center" | ||||
"Council Estate" | align="center" | ||||
"Slow" | align="center" | ||||
2009 | "Puppy Toy" | align="center" | |||
2010 | "Murder Weapon" | align="center" | |||
2011 | "Time to Dance" | align="center" | |||
Category:Electronica musicians Category:English film actors Category:English rappers Category:English television actors Category:Trip hop musicians Category:Living people Category:Music from Bristol, England Category:People from Bristol Category:1968 births Category:Black British musicians Category:Black British actors
bg:Трики cs:Tricky da:Tricky de:Tricky es:Tricky fr:Tricky it:Tricky he:טריקי ka:ტრიკი (მუსიკოსი) lt:Tricky nl:Tricky ja:トリッキー no:Tricky pl:Tricky pt:Tricky ro:Tricky ru:Tricky simple:Tricky fi:Tricky sv:Adrian ThawsThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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