Duncan Sheik, Las Vegas Sun, April 11, 1997

Rock spotlight a bit hot for mellow Sheik Lisa Ferguson Friday, April 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m. It would come as no surprise if Duncan Sheik was gasping for air these days. The singer-songwriter has hardly had a chance to catch his breath since his first single, "Barely Breathing," hit the modern rock and pop airwaves and soared up the music charts. It recently reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. If only he could have seen it coming. "It's too much, isn't it," said Sheik, reflecting upon his newfound stardom during a recent tour stop in St. Louis. He'll play The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel April 17. "I was a record buyer and not a radio listener as I grew up," he explains, "so I never thought radio was going to embrace (the song), and I'm thrilled it has." Problem is, the soft-spoken Sheik, 27, feels "a bit odd" about being thrust into the spotlight after spending the last eight months opening for Jewel, Primitive Radio Gods and former Bangles singer Susanna Hoffs. During his days as a semiotics major at Brown University, he played in a band behind songstress Lisa Loeb for a year before going solo. "I'm not very comfortable with the limelight in terms of my personality," he says. "I'm not very comfortable with the whole cult-of-personality thing. (The focus) should be on the music." Especially since none of the other songs on the New Yorker's self-titled debut -- recorded in a 150-year-old French chateau -- sound anything like the popish "Breathing." Admittedly, he's much prouder of the CD's "super-mellow" offerings, such as "Days Go By" and "November," which is "in some ways closest to who I am" musically. "I'm not this depressed person, but I know that there's a certain sameness to a lot of the music I made and for me, that's the beauty. "'Barely Breathing' is fine. It's a good introduction," Sheik says, "but in some ways it has less personality. 'She Runs Away' (the next single) is much more original. It'll be a much more reactive song." The second tune on the disc, "In the Absence of Sun," is also featured on the soundtrack of the Val Kilmer flick "The Saint." "I'm the reaction against what alternative (music) has become -- this monolithic, heavy-rock kind of thing. It just became so ubiquitous," he says. "You need another aesthetic point of view for there to be more subtle music out there in the alternative-pop context. I don't think I fit in all that well, but that's why people are enjoying it." Chances are, Sheik's next record will be "in a very similar vein sonically and aesthetically." As a pet project, he'd like to produce a "more esoteric" electronic album heavy on the synthesizers. "I have this very modern side to me, as well," he says. "There are other ways to approach making music. It's just a fun thing to do."