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Biography
Establishing himself in the mid-'90s as a singer/songwriter with a knack for literate adult pop songs with hazy surfaces and a touch of alt-rock grit, Duncan Sheik had a Top 20 hit with the song "Barely Breathing" from his 1996 eponymous debut. He had three more albums land on the Billboard 200 by the end of the next decade, including his fourth full-length, 2002's Daylight. Featuring intricate production and multiple overdubs, it was co-produced with frequent Madonna collaborator Patrick Leonard. After scoring his first feature-length film, 2004's A Home at the End of the World, Sheik's career turned toward Broadway with the success of 2006's Spring Awakening, a hit rock musical. It won him the Tony for Best Original Score as well as a Grammy for Best Musical Show Album, both with lyricist Steven Sater. Sheik continued to juggle adult-alternative albums, film scores, and musical theater in the years to follow, issuing his eighth solo album, the ranging, over-hour-long Legerdemain, in 2015 and moving his musical American Psycho to Broadway in 2016. For that show, Sheik served as composer, lyricist, and orchestrator. Following off-Broadway excursions including 2019's The Secret Life of Bees, he issued the studio album Claptrap in 2022. It sought out a more positive state of mind.
Born in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1969, Duncan Sheik grew up in South Carolina but spent many of his early years staying with his grandparents in New Jersey. Inspired to play the piano while there, he later switched to electric guitar and performed in bands throughout high school. A fan of musical theater from a young age, he also acted in school plays and attended the occasional Broadway show with his mother. While studying at Brown University, he played in a band with Lisa Loeb but began shopping his own demo tape soon after graduation. After moving to Los Angeles, he appeared with His Boy Elroy on a 1993 album for Epic, and spent several years writing songs before he signed a solo deal with Atlantic.
