Scott Williamson Transforms into Dub Shine & Forms A New Songwriting Partnership

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Monday, 30 November 2020 16:02

Written by Brad Balfour

On the surface, music creator Delon Scott Williamson might not seem like someone to be making hot dance music. While he inherited his computer programmer dad’s work ethic, this former Tallahassee, Florida, native re-directed it towards a readiness to make his dreams of music business success come true.

So when he’s pushing out the music he makes, he goes by the moniker Dub Shine. And why Dub Shine? As he explained, “Dub equals sparse vocals and Shine means bright tracks.”

As Dub Shine, he’s becoming a new voice on the scene, forging a bright example of a recent trend in music — a cool sound that's chill and hot simultaneously, the blend of house and deep tribal techno genres. Currently, he produces mix shows for East Coast Energy Radio, USA Dance Radio, and mix93fm. 

Said Williamson, “My Dad did computer programming so we had computers around the house and I was into gaming. He worked on PCs. These days I’m on PC and Mac.

Thanks to him, I got interested in technology and computers, so electronic music was a natural fit for me. Around age 15 -- 1983 — I also got into sci-fi movies such as “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “Alien,” etc. and they used futuristic technologies and sounds as well.

“Early on I was influenced by electronic producers and discovered that music is my passion. I got into deejaying since I was always fascinated by electro, house and hip hop music.”

Thanks to Mike Greenly, a former corporate exec who just happens to be a lyricist, Dub Shine moved on to another level in creating a collaboration of sound and words. 

But long before that, he developed a career as a live deejay. “I got interested in radio mix shows. We used 12” vinyl back then. In my early performances, I did regular block parties with my futurebrother-in-law, Kevin Sheridan, when that kind of thing was in vogue in the mid to late ’80s. Kevin had the sound system and I had the two turntables, mixing console and my crates of records. We would throw down every summer at my apartment complex on the southside of Richmond or get hired to do parties and weddings all over the place.  

“Later on I performed at club venues (listed above) in the late 80's through the early ‘90s. At the time, separated from my first wife, my parents were living in Germany. I went to visit for a few weeks, and got job there with a German I.T. firm contracted with NATO.

“So I moved to Germany in the late ‘90s and performed as a deejay at various outdoor German festivals with German rap artists like Down Low, Freestyler, Fruendeskreis and Absolute Beginner. 

I teamed up with my brother Shaun (who’s four years older and became lead singer for a Southern Rock band) and super guitarist Kai Portolano and cut demos for a rap/rock project called Silver Bullet Theory. The sound was along the lines of Rage Against the Machine. We neverreallygot it off the ground but it was fun bonding with my brother, and having a great friendship with Kai who taught me so much about recording with Pro Tools and mixing instruments to sound clean and beefy in the mix.”

He continued, “I met my future wife Fiona in Heidelberg, Germany, a Kenyan-born entrepreneur. She was into the import export business and had a few clothing boutiques in Italy and Kenya at the time. We eventually got married and relocated back to the states where I soon got in contact with Curtis Urbina for releasing music on his Quark Music Group label. My first release with Curtis was ‘Disco Bitch.’Fiona has been an inspiration and helped co-produce tracks such as ‘I Am Who I Say I Am’ and ‘Egyptian Spirits’ — both of which hit the number one spot on different record pools and deejay portals.”

All of that, in and of itself, might not warrant any special story other than as a footnote, but their work together has become a perfect example of the state of music creation today: these two are doing all their production remotely. They’ve never met in person, pressed the flesh or jammed in the same room. 

Dub is now based in Los Angeles; Mike is here in the heart of Manhattan. Explained Greenly, “I was introduced to Scott by Curtis Urbina, a friend and business exec now heading the Quark Music Group. He connected us in the belief that we might discover synergy, which is exactly what happened. I’ve now written lyrics to three Dub Shine tracks.”

Williamson takes up his part of the tale. “I would create original dance tracks early on with my little setup. I began collaborating with longtime musical friends and partners on a variety of projects. Eventually, I put out my first 12” record with Pacific Time Entertainment, headed by Urbina — a legend in the dance music world in his own right. This record was called ‘I Want Luv’ and was produced by myself and Tony Fernandez, a DJ/producer. We called ourselves Deep South since we were producing Deep House music tracks. 

“I also collaborated with another longtime friend of mine, Scott Baily, on an electronic music project we called Electrosonix. We released a few tracks independently and with IceMedia, plus a few remix projects for other labels in South Florida.”

Later on Urbina relaunched his classic house label, Quark Records. Quark released dozens of dance tracks over the years — including several in which Greenly had authored the lyrics. 

Williamson continued, “Through this venture I’ve met many great artists and songwriters. I have also recruited the production skills of Judd Skinner (known as Dappa Don), who is a great musician, song writer and sound engineer in Vancouver, Canada. He has worked with many huge stars in hip hop and R&B like TLC and other big names.”

Out of that came the Greenly/Williamson song, “You’re The One,” the team’s first collaboration to get released. The international music label, Bentley Records, put it out on November 4th, 2020. 

Headed by award-winning R&B recording artist, singer and songwriter Luca Dayz, this company has the kind of support system which lends the song a possibility of major success.

Once Williamson and Greenly started working together, they came up with tracks which begged for a good vocalist, so they sought her out online as well. Again, in this age of COVID, that work was done remotely. 

As Greenly explained, he had co-written the song with Scott and Audrey Martells, an artist and songwriter who had worked with Celine Dion, Mary J. Blige, Jewel and others. Since she was already committed to other projects, Mike created a video of her initial demo recording with his words and posted it to a private link on YouTube declaring that a singer was needed who could commit time and effort to developingthe demo further.

Rochester-based Deborah Magone saw the post and quickly responded. She fell in love with the song and, in fact, is now a partner with Scott and Mike on other songs in development. This multi-hyphenate recalled, “I was actually rushing to get off the computer for an appointment. But I saw a notification pop up on Facebook from our private Grammy group page and it looked interesting. In a rush, without even thinking, I expressed interest and asked if they could please send me the song so I could give it a listen. Then I ran out the door without giving it another thought.

“I’ve been a professional singer, songwriter, guitarist, instructor for a long time trying to go the usual route in the business. For me as a woman, the barriers can still be great and disappointing, especially in the blues rock genre I was in. So in the past few years, I’ve shifted my focus. I decided I only wanted to work with people who are doing good, positive things globally with their music.”

That decision led to her being invited to play on the soundtrack for “One Little Finger,” a multi award-winning independent film by Rupam Sarma, scored by Quincy Jones and Julian Lennon among a long list of many other talented creatives. Then came an invitation to perform in a weekend concert sponsored by the United Nations Center for Peace.

She noted, “When I heard ‘You’re The One’ I was inspired by the hook, and the positive, empowering energy of the music. I saw in my mind the song’s potential for inspiring others and the overall good feeling the song generated. I contacted them and it was, ‘Game on.’ As I learn more about these two, I discover how much we have similar goals and values. I’m looking forward to a positive, productive collaboration that will have a global impact.”

Added Dub Shine, “When I first started, vocals were sparse and under-tracked. Now working with Mike and Deborah, I enjoy full vocal tracks. I really feel that our project is a winner. It reflects top notch talent and love of the music for sure.”

Dub Shine’s list of recommended dance music makers:

• Kraftwerk
• John "Jellybean” Benetiz
• Arthur Baker and  John Robie
• Mantronix
• Mannparish
• Juan Atkins
• Egyptian Lover
• Pretty Tony
• Maurice Starr
• Tyrone Brunson
• And hip hop artists:
• Afrika Bambaattaa & The Soulsonic Force
• Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
• MC G.L.O.B.E
• Kool Moe Dee
• Busy B
• Eric B & Rakim
• Big Daddy Kane
• Chuck D
• MC Shan
• KRS1

See more Dub Shine at:

https://dubshine.bandcamp.com/

https://deborahmagone.com/

http://www.mikegreenly.com

Star Trek's Dominic Keating Remains An "Unbelievable" Actor Even During This Pandemic

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Tuesday, 11 August 2020 20:43

Written by Brad Balfour

In the Star Trek universe, British actor Dominic Keating established himself as a significant player once he joined the Star Trek: Enterprise — cast as  Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, one of its core members. As the Enterprise’s armory officer, he was in the senior command and appeared in 96 episodes where his presence was felt in this benchmark franchise. And even though it’s nearly 20 years later, his role asa 22nd century Starfleet officer serving on board Enterprise NX-01 under Captain Jonathan Archer’s (Scott Bakula) command — the first Warp 5 star ship — is as memorable as ever.

Recently, as one of those incredible alumni opportunities of being part of the greatest franchise in history is that actors from the original Star Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise found themselves working with Snoop Dogg in the parody/comedy “Unbelievable!!!!!.” When it made its first appearance it featured 40+ actors who have been in some version of Star Trek — and it was created by the husband and wife team of director Steven Fawcette and producer/co-star Angelique Fawcette .

The film has been screened several times on the convention circuit and recently enjoyed day long virtual premiere/Star Trek con on Agust 1st, 2020. For more info go to Archangel Films’ website.

A long time veteran of film and television, Reed first made his name in England starring in Desmond’s, a hit Brit series. Born in Leicester, to an Irish father; his grandfather, a brigadier, was awarded an OBE. From primary school, he started acting; to obtain his Equity card, Keating worked in a drag act called Feeling Mutual. He went on from “Desmond’s” to a role in Inspector Morse, as well as other guest-starring roles.

Once he moved to the States, he became the demonic warrior Mallos on the short-lived 2000 series The Immortal. He also made guest appearances on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, G vs E and Special Unit 2 as well as on several other series prior to his role on Star Trek: Enterprise. Since then he had guest roles on other series such as the hit show Heroes for its second season playing an Irish mobster in a four episode arc. He also did three episodes on the Fox TV series Prison Break. In 2010 Keating guest starred in the FX original series Sons of Anarchy. But this list is eclipsed but his four year stint from 2001-2005, in Enterprise — a tough experience to replicate but certainly life changing and  full of insight.

Q: Doing a weirdo parody like this gave you an opportunity to play more with humor.  When you were doing “Enterprise,” you enjoyed doing a little bit with humor there as well. Was this fun, to get an opportunity to exploit your humorous side?

DK: Yeah, God bless. My first big job was a sitcom in England.  I did five years in a show called “Desmond’s” which was a huge hit there in the end. It was set in a West Indian barber shop. I played one of the “pokin' honkies.”  

Q: That must have been fun. 

DK: It was a lot of fun.  It was the time of my life, actually, and that show was the first of what was called a “black show”.  It crossed over into just the general lexicon of British TV viewing.  I was just as likely to have two white lads in a white van screaming out the window at me “Hoy, Tony!” -- which was my character's name on the show, as I would a group of black kids [doing the same].

The day after that show aired, I was in Brixton at the time.  I used to go swim at the Brixton reck every morning after being on TV the night before. I went down to the pool, took a swim and was in the shower when a bunch of school kids, mostly black -- and in Brixton they were in the showers. They all turned to me and went, “You were on last night!” 

Q: So you racked up some props even before hitting the ST universe. But that provided you a platform to work from. 

DK: Yeah, no kidding. The power of TV. I'm quite a funny fellow, so I let that come through quite quickly. 

Luckily, I recognized that playing Malcolm Reed to the three-line characterization in the bio that they gave you was going to get pretty dull quite quickly. So I think it was by the end of the second episode of the pilot, I thought, you know what, I should let a lot of Dominic come through into Malcolm -- you know, within reason, because obviously I'm not him. And I did, and you know what, it worked out.  

I think the writers saw that quickly; they loved the conflict and the contradiction that he was this buttoned-down, stiff-upper-lip Brit, but he had a right sense of humor in the end. They started writing for that and they loved it. So they gave me a lot of leeway. It was fortunate for me as a British actor on an American TV show that I could ring up the writers and go “A British guy would never say that.”  They gave me quite a lot of free rein to just be Malcolm. I actually  rewrote quite a lot of my sections.  Yeah, I wrote quite a few of my little speeches myself, and they were very cool about that. 

They weren't so cool with some of the others. {one guy] didn't get any leeway. They wrote what they wrote and he had to say it. 

Q: There was some good interplay between you and Tripp, Commander Charles Tucker (Connor Trinneer), for example. 

DK: Yes, we got on straightaway. We're still very dear friends.  We hang out a lot together -- some 20 years -- I can't believe it. It will be twenty years next year that the show opened.  We started in 2001. Imagine that.  

Q: It's been a pretty amazing turn. Scott Bakula has a charm -- he has helped some shows take off in some way. 

DK: Yeah, I can't say enough about him.  He's a charming, lovely, generous -- we couldn't have hoped for a nicer [person].  Hollywood sets cannot always be -- how should we say -- friendly places to hang around. They're like armies, you know: a lot of it comes from the leader.  If the leader, the No. 1 on the call sheet, is twitchy or egocentric -- or an asshole [laughs], that all trickles down through the ranks. 

I've worked on many a set where I cannot wait to get in the car and drive home. But luckily, thank God, he made those years at Paramount -- and being at Paramount for that time, you know, when they were still very much a “studio”, the last of its kind, really -- they were joyous years.  They really were.  I am so lucky and fortunate to have that experience here in Hollywood.  I just watched that show “Hollywood” on Netflix -- I don't know if you've seen it...

Q: No, but I've been meaning to see it. 

DK: Oh, it's delightful.  It's an absolute joy. They show a lot of Paramount, so it was doubly joyful to see that place so beautifully portrayed on screen. I recommend it. It's one of the best things I've seen on TV in, frankly, years. There's “The Crown,” there was “The Night Of,” which was that wonderful thing that John Turturro did with Riz Ahmed.  But I'm very picky about my viewing pleasures. I recommend “Hollywood” wholeheartedly, it's a treat.  It really is.  

Q: I've been watching a channel — Heroes & Icons — that has all the different Star Trek series. When you start to watch them consistently, you understand what they've done to create this ultimate universe.  It's a complete universe.  

DK: Oh yeah, I've heard of that. CBS has now got their own streaming channel, they've let these episodes go. Do you see the Next Gen episodes?

Q: I have. It's fascinating because you see how these producers and show runners had to conceptualize this thing so it all makes sense and fits together. You have to remember certain histories. With the JJ Abrams’ produced movies, it's in an alternate universe so it doesn't have to be subject to those things. But all the TV series somehow fit together in various ways.  

DK: Yes, God bless Brannon [Braga] and Rick Berman, but particularly Brannon. Rick was the overlord, as it were.  But Brannon was very much the day to day -- writing, show running, the harpy for that show, really, for seventeen years. I think he began there as an intern. It's a feat in televisual history which I don't think will ever be repeated. Quite a remarkable thing they had; four hit shows, back to back.  

Yeah, it's a shame we didn't go the full seven [seasons]. Perhaps they'd gone so well one too many times.  It's hard to say.  There was a desperation, bad blood started to creep in between Viacom and CBS when the UPN, the network, looked like it was changing, and it was.  We were still a flagship show, but then Viacom put Les Moonves in charge to get UPN up and that's when the rot set in, when Rick started getting notes from Dawn Ostroff at UPN via Les Moonves, who had no interest in our show. He didn't commission it, he didn't watch it, he wasn't a Star Trek fan.

We started getting some pretty dumb notes, apparently. That's when the pissing match started. Behind the scenes, I guess Les just dismantled UPN and came up with the CW and there was no room for us on that network.  So where were we to go? A shame -- we definitely had at least another two or three years in us. We were just really finding our stride. 

No disrespect to Brannon, but they let Manny Coto come on as staff writer in mid-season three and I remember reading his first script and I thought “That's good”. I rang up the writers' office and “Can I speak to Manny Coto?”  Of course his career has catapulted into the stratosphere since then.  What a great job he did running the show in the fourth season, and we were really finding our stride and… It's just too bad. 

Q: Well, that's the nature of TV.  But the good thing is for you, you created an iconic character, you end up now -- you're in history.  You can do any comic con…

DK: I know.  I have to say, I pinch myself often.  I introduce face pistols into the whole damn story. I have the immortal line “I have two settings, Captain: stun and kill.  It would be best not to confuse them.” That's pretty iconic stuff, yeah. 

I say to Conor from time to time, “We had years on that show, and we've had our careers. I had a career before Star Trek.  But those years were definitely the cherry on the bloody cake, you know? They still color my whole experience of having come to Los Angeles and frankly, yeah, getting a piece of the pie -- with the cherry on top. 

Q: So now, “Unbelievable”.  Crazy idea, 40 different Star Trek actors, did you get to meet people you never met before? Did you hang out with any of them?

DK:  Not really. We've all met each other. I was the first out the gate on our cast to go do the conventions.  I had seen that documentary “Trekkies” and went “Oh, yeah. There's another financial appendage to this job.” I drove my Porsche onto the lot with “Paid for with Cash”. Get in line.  

We're all one big family. We've been hanging out at these conventions for twenty years, pretty much. So no, there really wasn't anyone that I hadn't met. Obviously I had acted with Max Grodénchik (Rom from “Deep Space Nine”) before. But it was a real treat. It was like a convention, frankly, but on a film set. It was just lovely hanging out. 

Q: And how was Snoop Dogg? 

DK: I never met him, unfortunately, because they shot him after. We had Gilbert Gottfried.

Q: Gilbert Gottfried, he's a character. 

DK: They recast him. Apparently he didn't test well, or something. Somehow they got Snoop to do this. I take my hat off to Angelique [the co-producer]. She is a powerhouse. This film could easily have gotten left behind, and she has never given up on it. And here it is. So I doff my cap to her. 

I would love to have met Snoop.  What a treat that would have been. 

Q: Do you know what county your family is from? 

DK: Oh absolutely, yeah.

Q: Have you been there?  Did your parents tell you stories?

DK: Yeah, but they are both gone now. My dad was full Irish, and grew up mostly on Valencia Island.  My grandfather was a lighthouse keeper -- quite a renowned one, back in the day.  He and one other guy looked after the lighthouse on Skillick. You know little Skillick, that looks like Cruella De Ville should live there, those islands off the Kerry coastline?

Q: I know of it but I've never been to Kerry. 

DK: Well, it's very beautiful down there, you can see them on a clear day. There was a monastery there in 1120 or something. Anyway, they looked after the light there, and depending on the weather, they would be there for three to six months, God bless.  And the family all lived in the lighthouse keeper's dwellings on Valentia Island, which is where the first telegraph wire came in from the States to Europe. That's one of the famous pieces of Valencia.  

So I've been down there, I've seen the dwelling, the cottage that my dad lived in as a kid. He had a very rural background, he didn't wear shoes until he was about fifteen, God bless.

And my mother's family, funnily enough, right across the Causeway is a town called Cahersiveen.  The Keatings, which is my mother's [name] -- my real name is Power, my father's name was Lawrence Power.  There was another Dominic Power in Equity, in the union, when I became an actor, some thirty years ago. So I had to change my name, and I took my mother's maiden name, Keating. So when the Keatings, oddly enough, left Bletchly, you can throw a stale crusty bread roll across the Causeway from Cahersiveen to Valentia Island. 

My mum and dad met in Leicester after the war, which is where I was born and grew up.  My mum and her mother were kind of dumped by her father. My mother's -- the other side of her family are very quite posh and well-to-do. My grandfather on her side was a brigadier, OBE, fought in two world wars. and after the [2nd World] war, buggered off to Kenya to go and live with an heiress in Nairobi. 

My mother was in Leicester and my father had arrived in England to find his fortune, as it were, and good Catholic lad, went to the church there, Holy Cross, every Sunday and eyed my mother for many a service.  Eventually, he plucked up the courage, and here I am, forty, fifty years later.

Q: So you played an Irish gangster at one point in one of the TV shows…

DK: “Heroes” that’s right.

Q: Are there things that you want to do? Produce, write, direct, based on any of this background…?

DK: You are the first person that has said to me, Wow, what a story that would make.  Yeah, I have thought about sitting down to write it. I'm not a writer.  I do think writers are born, and it would be a task for me.  Nothing would frighten me more than siting in front of a blank screen, going “Well what's the first scene? What does the first person say?”  I don't know, maybe I'll get to it.  

I have to say that the more days the coronavirus leaks on, the longer I am sitting here twiddling my thumbs, trying to be productive and staying fit and reading books and eating well, and meditating. But unless we get back to work soon, I've got to start thinking of doing something other than sitting around. 

Cultural Icon/Singer/Actor/Writer Jane Birkin Present A One-Time Concert — Gainsbourg The Symphonic

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Thursday, 05 March 2020 09:32

Written by Brad Balfour

Interview and polaroids by Brad Balfour

Jane Birkin & Guests —Iggy Pop and Charlotte Gainsbourg
Gainsbourg The Symphonic Live
the Beacon Theatre
New York, NY
Friday, March 6

In the mid-’70s, a French song, “Je t’aime moi non plus,” came out that stirred both controversy and accolades as well as becoming an international pop hit — even getting considerable American airplay in the very uptight 1970s  USA. As sung by Jane Birkin, with her hushed, breathy, half-whispered vocals, it prompted explicit sexual fantasies — just as Serge Gainsbourg, its creator, and her lover, intended.

The late Jewish singer, songwriter, pianist, film composer, poet, painter, screenwriter, writer, actor and director has been regarded as modern France’s  most important pop music figure, renowned for often provocative and scandalous releases which caused uproar everywhere, often dividing public opinion. His diverse output — he wrote over 550 songs, many of which have been covered more than 1,000 times — range from jazz, chanson, and yé-yé to  efforts in rock, funk, reggae, and electronica. Though his varied but individualistic compositions made him hard to categorize, his legacy has been enshrined and he’s become one of the world’s most influential musicians. His lyrics incorporated wordplay, with humorous, bizarre, provocative, sexual, satirical or subversive overtones, prompting critics to regard Gainsbourg and a French literary treasure.

In ’69, the 20 year old met the 40-something Gainsbourg while co-starring with him in Slogan, which marked the beginning of years-long working and personal relationship. The duo released their debut Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg in 1969, and Birkin also appeared in the controversial film Je t’aime moi non plus (1976) under Gainsbourg’s direction.

Their story was little bit romantic, a little bit tragic. It contained lots of drama and emotion — and it made a huge impact on both their lives.Though they parted ways –she separated from Gainsbourg in 1980 — Birkin continued working as both actress, singer, and writer, appearing in indie films and recording numerous solo albums. But her time with Serge was always present in her life.

Since his surprising death from a second heart attack in 1991, Gainsbourg’s attained legendary status, and is regarded as one of France’s greatest musician and an endeared national figure. He has also gained a cult following in the English-speaking world with chart success throughout the United Kingdom and the USA (something no other Francophone artist has managed) with “Je t’aime… moi non plus” and “Bonnie and Clyde” respectively.

The 70-something Birkin now comes to New York’s Beacon Theatre to pay tribute to her late husband with “Birkin Gainsbourg The Symphonic” on Friday, March 6th at 8 pm. Birkin will be joined by rock legend  Iggy Pop and actress/daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Arranged by Emmy Award-winner Nobuyuki Nakajima with by Philippe Lerichomme’ artistic direction, the concert offers symphonic versions of classic Gainsbourg songs ranging from his career beginnings in the ’50s to those written especially for Birkin, such as “Jane B” and “Baby Alone in Babylone” — penned after the legendary couple’s separation.

I’m glad that I, at least, got a chance to spend two days with him. I had gone to Paris and started working for Metal Hurlant. I was sent to interview Serge. When I came to the house, he showed me everything there and then we went out to his studio.  He took me to Le Palace to see Ingrid Cavan perform and then to Elysee Matinot for a late dinner with a film producer, fashion designer and actress. When I came back I visited him a second time. I wish I had written more about him, but I’m hoping through this conversation I’ll be able to do so.

Born December 14th, 1946, Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE achieved international fame in part due to her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. She also had a prolific career as an actress in British and French cinema. This London native first achieved notoriety thanks to Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 thriller “Blowup” where Birkin has a minor but surprising scene in which she plays a model who romps topless with photographer Terence Stamp. Birkin would establish acting credits in Antonioni’s Kaleidoscope, as well as Agatha Christie’s films "Death on the Nile" (1978), and "Evil Under the Sun" (1982).

In 1991, she appeared in the Red Fox miniseries and in an American drama, "A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries", in 1998. After she starred in  2016’s Oscar-nominated short La femme et le TGV, she said, at the time, it would be her final film.

Birkin has lived mainly in France since the ’70s, raising her children; she’s been mother to late photographer Kate Barry (d. 2013), with her first husband John Barry; actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, with Serge; and model Lou Doillon, with Jacques Doillon. Additionally, she lent her name to the popular Hermès Birkin bag. shortly before making it to NYC for this show, Birkin spoke about her life and Serge.

Q: On the internet, people are always posting your photos. Do you think of yourself as an icon?

Jane Birkin: No, of course not. It’s quite funny. I’m going to a show tonight with Celine and she looks exactly like I looked when I was 20, so it’s pretty sweet. I never think of myself that way. And then seeing some of them, what I see every day, it’s very sweet of people to think of you at all.

Q: How do you manage these personae?

JB: Well, I’m not sure. I’m doing a film in May, June and July. And I’ve got a new record coming out with it; I wrote the lyrics and music. I’ve done the Philharmonic ones in nearly three years and we go to Moscow and then I’ll finish it off with my daughter Lou. I will have done nearly three years with the Philharmonic. I’ve been lucky to have ideas because I’ve found Nobuyuki Nakajima– the orchestrator who’s Japanese. When I went to Japan, they had the tsunami, and I wanted to go there and do a kick-off to cheer people up. I met him and he was a composer and I thought, “Well, if I do it in a Philharmonic way with an orchestra — He writes movie music; I’ve always rather loved movie music — then I knew it wouldn’t be boring and he’d find a place for my voice somewhere. And he did. It’s a magical thing that he’s managed to do.

Q: Is there a thread running through them that’s very Jane Birkin? How would you describe that?

JB: I brought out my diary and some people are surprised because they’re very honest. If I was frightened of anything, it was that people would be disappointed in me and that I wasn’t the courageous or good person that I wanted to be. In the diary it shows, but those diaries are coming out in Russian, Spanish and in Italian and German. Really, who would have thought  that this little girl turned into somebody who kept going for so long? And so in Quebec, I’ll be reading the diaries and then I’ll come over to New York and [present] the Philharmonic and just hope.

Q: Why do you think it works so well?

JB: It’s probably emotional because I’m really singing Serge’s point of view, his pain, his distress, all the beautiful things that he moved in me when I left him. It’s another part of the history, really, a new way of presenting things, of doing his songs. The one concert you saw, which was with Jamil and the North African group, and funny, because they were very particular, they seem to travel very well. So I had a good year for knowing the best people to work with. I think that’s probably my good luck.

Q: Do you find yourself relating first to the lyrics and then the music or the other way around?

JB: I know them all for so long now — these songs I’ve been singing, some of them for over 50 years, but, with this new way of doing it, this is the best way I’ve ever done them. I think you can understand the words when you listen to them even though it’s sort of a Philharmonic orchestra, but sometimes I can’t get over the the beauty of the songs he wrote and just find it so odd that they were never in English and others did versions of them because he’s probably just the greatest writer. People have come to miss him an awful lot because of the extravagance of his personality and, realizing not too late, but even so quite late, the immaculate writer he was. I was just lucky to have him from when I was 20 years old until the day he died.

Q: Some people think of Serge and Leonard Cohen as having a similar emotional connection. Who do you feel Serge was most connected to? Some others think of him as the French Bob Dylan. What do you think of that association; he really has shaped a lot of other people?

JB: He’s influenced the French way of writing since he started. He was a different way of writing, was a different way in rhyming so for the French, he did all that. The ideas of melody, the notes and the ideas that no one ever had done before, doing a whole album on a story that had a beginning and the dramatic end. He’s as great a writer as Dylan and Cohen. Of course, he has the same melancholia that you can feel with them as well. He was such a funny mixture of being Russian, Jewish, terribly dramatic, and funny, always longing to tell the latest Jewish joke or the latest Belgian joke that he had written down in the pocket book, always longing to play a tune on the piano that would move you. Then he would start crying. And yet he was just the funniest man.

I don’t know if it the other two people you mentioned were quite as surprising in real life but [Serge] was the most amazingly charming, funny, and kind man, so I don’t know whether there are many artists who you can say that about. As to his genius side, he was always ahead of his time. It was just lucky that people realized how great he was in time. He was only 63 when he died, but I think he knew that he was about the most popular man in France and he had a complicated beginning with his looks and everything. But at the end, I think he realized that he was the most loved man in France.Thank God. He had just enough time for that.

Q: What’s it like working with your daughter — you did a film together, right?

JB: She was inJane VandKung-Fu Masterwith me. My other daughter, Lou, who was about four, is in it as well. She sang once with me in a concert that I did. So it was fun to be with her and Iggy Pop, who is really very sweet, I can’t wait to be with them.

Q: Is this the first gig you’re doing with Iggy and Charlotte together or you’ve done it with Charlotte but not [with Iggy]?

JB: No, no. It’s the only time.

Q: I can’t wait to see it. I’ve saw you do your music at New York’s Alliance Francaisa few years ago. And you did that show before,Arabesque, with the Middle Eastern/Arabic stuff. You cover this sort of global expanse of sound — do you feel that each style touches on different aspects of you?

JB: I don’t really know that. I realized at the end of this concert that says I had given myself a comedy/music gallery for one person and there were funny songs and sad songs and ones with the scope that nobody  could make. We  often have the sound from the piano before the whole 60-piece orchestra comes in. It’s just a fabulous feeling like flying and you have to be pretty careful about not tripping yourself up. If you make a mistake with the 60 people, they aren’t going to follow me, I’ve got to follow them. So, it’s a journey I did slowly, you always think, “It’s good to be the last time you do it.”

Q: There’s that other side of you, the visual side. Your scene inBlow Up, it was a very unconscious, natural thing. Then you developed a fashion identity, the Birkin bag and the modeling — you become a fashion icon. Were you conscious or unconscious of it? Did you realize that you had such a visual presence; did it affect you in giving you another medium to play in?

JB: I had absolutely no idea. The only thing I probably didn’t have was this sort of arrogance of coming into this in the 60s and therefore wearing short skirts and my basket and sort of thinking that whatever we did was right, ’cause I mean that’s the way we wanted to do it. So that was by the fact of being English, and a little bit more daring than the French were. Especially at 20 years old and when all the fashion is in England. Everything was happening in England, the fashion and the music. I mean, when I popped over from England, we were in a fairly good place there. So probably that had something to do with it, just wearing the things that I wanted. And if I didn’t think they would put it the right way around, then I turned the wrong way. In all this I was egged on by Serge’s gospel who thought it was all great.

In those days we weren’t icons of any kind. But I didn’t get anything free from anybody. It was just great fun. We picked up things that we thought were fun and I found things that I thought Sarge would look great in and I found his body pumps so he didn’t have to wear uncomfortable shoes and jewelry around his neck and his blazer and jeans and that. And suddenly it’s become everybody’s fashion to look like that. But it was, he who started it,

Q: How did you meet Iggy Pop — another pop culture icon? How did you become friends with Iggy?

JB: I wasn’t friends with Iggy, but he just seemed to be the most fantastic performer that I could possibly ask for. And when I did ask if he’d be free then, I was astonished that he knew Serge’s work so terribly well and was so modest and sweet and willing to come on this adventure with me. But I didn’t know him at all. Anyone who’s worked with him said that he was such a lovely person to work with, so I mean, he’s got the reputation of being a sweetheart and very loved by the people that I love. I’m sure it’ll be fun to meet him.

Q: When will Charlotte’s documentary be done?

JB: I’m just doing it little by little frankly. We did a couple of days in New York and we did a couple of days in Tokyo and so it’s probably take years, I hope so. And then it’s worth looking up someone who is, when I started writing my own record just now, I remember to close on the person who was absolutely wonderful and worth looking up is, is my brother’s son calledAnno Birkinand he was in a group called Kicks Joy Darkness and they all got killed in Milan in 2001. But his words, which you can find on the internet, are just wonderful. Perhaps the most beautiful modern poetry that I know.

Q: This is the one show you’re going to do of this. And then you’re going to come back and you’ve got your album to finish.

JB: I finished all the words and all the singing, but we’ve got to do the quotes in Abbey Road and then do the rest next week and then it’ll be the Children’s Chorale and things like that. But it’ll be finished by May. Then I start the film May, June, July, and then the record comes out in September. So I have my work cut out [for me]. It’ll be quite nice.

Q: And in the middle of all this, Charlotte’s shooting the documentary?

JB: She’s just doing a couple of days in New York.

Q: Oh, I see. Any books from you as well? Or is it’s pretty much the recording?

JB: Well, the last two books I’ve just brought out and the first volume is coming out in England at the end of September, and in France both volumes have come out, so I’ve been wandering around promoting that and doing readings and things.