Adrian Belew
Robert Steven "Adrian" Belew is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a guitarist and singer, he is noted for his unusual approach to the instrument, his playing cited as fluid, expressive, and often resembling "animal noises or mechanical rumblings".
Widely recognized as an "incredibly versatile player", Belew is perhaps best known for his tenure as guitarist and frontman in the progressive rock group King Crimson between 1981 and 2009. He has also released nearly twenty solo albums for Island Records and Atlantic Records in various styles. In addition, Belew has been a member of the intermittently active band the Bears, and fronted GaGa in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Belew has also worked extensively as a session, guest, and touring musician, including periods with Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, and Nine Inch Nails, as well as contributing to hit singles by Paul Simon, Tom Tom Club, and others. His 1989 solo single "Oh Daddy" was a top ten hit in the United States, and his 2005 single "Beat Box Guitar" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Belew has also worked in instrument design and multimedia, collaborating with Parker Guitars to help design his Parker Fly signature guitar, and designing two iOS mobile apps.
Biography
Early life (1949–1977)
Robert Steven Belew was born into a middle-class family in Covington, Kentucky, on December 23, 1949. Initially known to friends and classmates as "Steve", he played drums in his adolescence, playing with the Ludlow High School marching band and later with the high school cover band the Denems. Inspired by Jimi Hendrix, he took up guitar while bedridden with mononucleosis. At the age of 17, he was further inspired after witnessing a live performance by Lonnie Mack, who later became a close friend.Not inclined to formal music study, Belew primarily taught himself guitar by listening to records. He was not aware of the studio sound manipulation used to create particular guitar lines, and so found ways of replicating them himself manually using unusual playing techniques and effects pedals. While maturing as a player and mastering various playing styles, Belew became increasingly preoccupied with ways to avoid "sounding like everybody else". He eventually found his own sound and style by learning how to make his guitar mimic sound effects such as car horns, animal noises, or industrial sounds.
In the mid-1970s, Belew began using the first name "Adrian" and moved to Nashville to pursue a full-time career as a professional musician. By 1977, he was playing with the regionally popular cover band Sweetheart, but wondered whether he had missed his chance to make a living with original music.
Work with Frank Zappa (1977–1978)
In 1977, while playing with Sweetheart at Fanny's Bar in Nashville, Belew was discovered by Frank Zappa, who had been tipped off regarding the band's talents by his chauffeur. Zappa approached Belew and discussed auditioning him for an upcoming tour, although Belew did not receive an official invitation to audition for the better part of a year. During this time Sweetheart split up. Once the formal invitation came, Belew flew out to Los Angeles and found himself auditioning alongside more formally trained musicians. Believing that he had performed poorly, Belew persuaded Zappa to give him a second audition, a more intimate experience which took place in Zappa's living room. Zappa was impressed enough to hire Belew as a guitarist and vocalist for a year.Belew toured with Zappa in 1977 and 1978, and appeared on Zappa's 1979 album Sheik Yerbouti and concert film Baby Snakes. While with Zappa, Belew was mostly credited as a rhythm guitarist, although he also played lead, melody, or noise lines, and sang lead vocals on the songs "Jones Crusher" and "City of Tiny Lites". According to Belew, "Frank either played or sang, never both at the same time, so ultimately my role became covering his parts. When he sang I played his guitar part. When he played I sang his vocal part." He also took on the role of band clown, performing impressions, wearing unusual clothing, and performing visual stunts.
Belew has described his year in Zappa's band as a "crash course" in music theory, due to Zappa's rigorous rehearsals and often technically demanding music; he has stated that he "went to the Frank Zappa School of Rock."
Work with David Bowie (1978–1979)
On the recommendation of Brian Eno, David Bowie approached Belew after a Zappa concert in Berlin with an offer to hire him as a member of his touring band. Belew accepted the offer, as Zappa intended to spend the next four months editing Baby Snakes. Belew served as lead guitarist and backing vocalist on Bowie's Isolar II world tour in 1978, as documented on the live album Stage, and also contributed to Bowie's 1979 studio album Lodger. Twelve years later, he returned to working with Bowie, acting as musical director on his 1990 Sound+Vision Tour.Talking Heads, GaGa and the Tom Tom Club (1979–1982)
In 1980, Belew formed a new band, GaGa, for which he served as the singer, guitarist, drummer, and primary songwriter. By now a frequent visitor to New York City, Belew had also befriended the New York-based new wave band Talking Heads. After being invited to join the band onstage for a performance of "Psycho Killer", he became an occasional guest performer at their concerts. Around this time, Belew also met King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp at a Steve Reich concert. In July of that year, GaGa was invited to open several New York City-area concerts for Fripp's band the League of Gentlemen.Talking Heads and Brian Eno subsequently hired Belew to add guitar solos to several tracks on their 1980 album Remain in Light. He then joined an expanded nine-piece Talking Heads live band which toured in 1980 and 1981. These concerts were documented on the second disc of the band's 1982 live double album The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads. Belew also played on Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison's solo album The Red and the Black and frontman David Byrne's The Catherine Wheel.
At this time, the internal relationships in Talking Heads were becoming strained. The band's rhythm section, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, allegedly approached Belew with the suggestion that he should replace Byrne as the band's frontman, an offer which Belew immediately but politely turned down. Belew did, however, go on to work with Weymouth and Frantz in Tom Tom Club. Joining them for recordings at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, Belew played guitar on the sessions for the band's self-titled debut album, including the hit single "Genius of Love". However, recording engineer Steven Stanley erased the majority of Belew's solos during the mixing sessions, and Weymouth stopped talking to Belew after he asked to receive songwriting credits on the album. Belew did not play live with Tom Tom Club or contribute to any further recordings, and instead focused on other projects.
Beginning of solo career (1981)
Belew's rising profile gained him a solo record contract with Island Records. During the recording of the debut Tom Tom Club album, members of GaGa joined Belew at Compass Point and backed him on a set of parallel sessions which would result in Belew's first solo album, Lone Rhino. The album provided a home for GaGa material and blended various elements of Belew's work over the past decade. It also included an instrumental duet between Belew and his four-year-old daughter Audie on piano.King Crimson (1981–2013)
Adrian Belew was the frontman, second guitarist, and occasional drummer for King Crimson from 1981 to 2009, one of the longest tenures in King Crimson by any member other than founder, bandleader, and sole constant member Robert Fripp. He maintained this position despite several splits or hiatuses in group activity, notwithstanding a brief period in the early 1990s when Fripp unsuccessfully asked singer David Sylvian of Japan to front a new version of the band.Belew's involvement with King Crimson began while he was still involved with Talking Heads. Having been impressed by Belew's work with GaGa and David Bowie, Fripp asked him to join a new four-piece band, at that time called Discipline. While Belew was busy with Talking Heads and associated side projects at the time, he chose to leave and join Fripp's band due to the deteriorating relationships within Talking Heads. One of his conditions for joining the new band was that he would be allowed to continue his solo career, to which Fripp agreed.
Former King Crimson and Yes drummer Bill Bruford and New York session bassist and Chapman Stick player Tony Levin completed the Discipline lineup. During initial touring, the members of the band discussed the possibility of renaming themselves King Crimson, which they ultimately agreed to. This made Belew the first guitarist to formally play alongside Fripp within King Crimson on an equal footing. He was also the first King Crimson singer to write most of his own lyrics.
The renamed band released and toured the album Discipline later in 1981. The follow-up, 1982's Beat, proved harder to record. Finding himself responsible for the bulk of the band's songwriting and dealing with the extra pressures of being the frontman in a high-level group, Belew argued with Fripp over the group's approach and sound. Disagreements were mostly resolved and the band continued to find success as a live act. However, writing and recording 1984's Three of a Perfect Pair proved yet more difficult, and Fripp opted to split the band following the conclusion of the Three of a Perfect Pair tour later that year.
Despite these tensions, the members of this King Crimson incarnation maintained enough camaraderie and mutual respect to reunite in 1994, forming a sextet with the addition of drummer Pat Mastelotto and Warr guitarist Trey Gunn. This lineup toured successfully until 1997, releasing the 1995 album Thrak and several live recordings. From 1997 onward, Belew participated in several of the ProjeKcts, a series of King Crimson side projects active during the band's hiatuses, in which he predominantly played electronic drums.
King Crimson was then reduced to a quartet with the departures of Bruford and Levin, subsequently releasing the albums The ConstruKction of Light and The Power to Believe. After a further four-year hiatus, the band returned to active work in 2008 as a five-piece, with Levin returning to replace Gunn and Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison joining. From 2000 through 2008, King Crimson used Belew's home studio in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, as a rehearsal space and studio.
In September 2013, Fripp announced the formation of a new King Crimson lineup which did not include Belew.