Portishead's Geoff Barrow Says Amy Winehouse Was A "Fake" Singer
Posted by Joseph Lee on 09.21.2012
He also has a nickname for her...
In an interview with ElectronicBeats.net about his new project BEAK>, Portishead's Geoff Barrow slammed Amy Winehouse and called her a fake singer. Here are highlights:
On Amy Winehouse: "I think Whiney Shitehouse - Amy Winehouse, by the end of it, had just become a comic character of herself and how she sang. I saw her with an electric guitar in a little pub in Bristol and people were going 'That's amazing,' but it wasn't at all. Then she had the big drug problem and all the tabloids got involved and she would start being Minnie Riperton or whatever it was. It seemed fake, but because there was a massive drug problem you couldn't say it was fake, but her actual voice was fake. She had a real life with a fake voice."
On the music video for "Iron Action": "The idea with that video was that we wanted to show what we did and how we made it – the realities of creation. Usually people don't ever get to see the reality of creation. It's like with paintings exhibited in a gallery – it always shocks me when I see art in white cubes and everything seems so clean and distant. However, see the same paintings in the artist's studio and we've a completely different thing. There's paint everywhere and overalls and records. That is a million times more interesting to me than attending an exhibition opening at a gallery – because it shows the art of creation and the space of creation rather than just a blank white wall. By the way: We eventually decided to stay in that room and did also record our second album there, in this neutral environment. In our environment."
On Portishead: "When Portishead started, Beth (Gibbons) was very influenced by Janis Joplin. She sang in her voice but it was based on singers that she liked."
