Kimbra on Prince

If you were put at gunpoint, what is your favorite Prince song or the one you wish you’d written?

The Cross…. or… The Beautiful Ones

Off the top of your head, what’s your favorite Prince period?

Being born in the 90s I first discovered Prince in the Musicology era, and have worked my way back into his discography since then. I will always have a love for that record especially as it marked a bit of a new sound for him and the first album to be recorded outside of Minneapolis in many years. I guess that era will always be special for me as it was the first Prince I knew!

You covered I Wanna Be Your Lover live – was there a second choice?

So many choices!! I’d love to cover Thieves in The Temple or Controversy.

How would you sum up the enduring appeal of Prince?

He is an artist who has continually managed to stay relevant, genre defying, boundary pushing and prolific beyond measure while also staying outrageous sexy and strange.

Photo by Dan O’Brien for Secretly Excited

via Redefine Mag

After a brief run obsessing over the miniature puppets from Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s stop-motion animation, Team America: World Police, Seattle’s Troy Gua took it upon himself to begin building miniature models of things and people that he loved, from his wife to Michael Jackson and Salvador Dali. His biggest accomplishment with these miniature buddies, though, has come with Le Petit Prince — his polymer clay rendering of the man, the artist: Prince.

What began as a playful nod to a man that has inspired Gua since his youth has since turned into a joyous and involved production, thanks to momentum generated by word of mouth and Prince fan sites and blogs around the world. In this interview with Gua, we discuss techniques, memories, and inspirations, and tie it all together with an eleven-track mixtape full of Gua’s most loved Prince songs. Put yourself in Gua’s universe for just a minute, and envelop yourself with all things bizarre, all things decadent, all things foxy, and all things Prince.

A Personal History With Prince

You mention that Prince changed your life and your view of life at an early age. Could you maybe touch on how?

Prince was introduced to me by my sister right at the moment when puberty began to work its magic on me. With hormones a-raging, I was immediately transfixed by this ultra-sexual, androgynous, other-worldly creature’s equally alien and ambiguous music, message, and indeed his entire aesthetic. He was so confident, so self-assured, so astoundingly talented, so… weird. He taught me that it was cool to be different, cool to express myself with my clothes and my hair, cool to be… weird. It was exactly what I, as a skinny, awkward pubescent boy who always felt different, needed – a hero that I could relate to and aspire to be like. I wasn’t a musician, but I was always an artist, and Prince’s musical virtuosity has always inspired me to be the best I can be at whatever I choose to do artistically. And his eclecticism showed me that I didn’t have to stick to one thing, one style, one type of art – that it was ok to explore as many ideas and ways of expressing myself as I saw fit. And I do. He’s been the single biggest influence on my life and work.

Would you like to share an anecdote where Prince played a role in your life?

Back in the day, I was hanging out at my buddy’s apartment listening to the latest Prince release. A girl who I heard had a crush on me was my buddy’s neighbor, and he had told her that I was bringing over the new Prince tape. My pal told me she had gotten all excited and told him she loved Prince and asked if I would copy the tape for her. I hadn’t really been interested in her before that, but when I heard she was a Prince fan, my view changed. I ended up marrying her, but in the end, being a Prince fan wasn’t enough. ;)

Prince’s music has been my personal soundtrack for as long as I can remember, and he serves not only as a vital component of my inspirational, creative, and stylistic DNA, but also a social measuring stick. A few years back, on my first date with a beautiful woman I had met online, I wore my 1985 concert tee (which is my lucky shirt) to gauge her reaction to it. She dug it. It was true love. We married two years later to the day. I’m not gonna say it was the lucky Prince shirt that got her, but I’m not gonna say it wasn’t, either.

The Days Of Le Petit Prince

Was there a particular moment of inspiration that led to your wanting to undertake this insanely intense project?

I’ve been fascinated with Gerry Anderson’s work since I was a kid: Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet — those odd sci-fi marionette films from the 1960s that inspired Matt Parker and Trey Stone’s Team America: World Police. Well, when Team America came out, my buddy and I went to see it every Friday for 6 weeks, and we decided to try to make our own miniature likenesses out of Sculpey, a polymer clay. We did, and in the years since then I’ve made 1/6 scale versions of my wife, Catherine, Salvador Dali, and Michael Jackson. I always knew that I was eventually going to make a little Prince, but I knew I was going to have to make it absolutely perfect, and that was daunting, so I just let it simmer on the back burner. At the end of 2011, Prince came to the Tacoma Dome and Catherine and I went, of course. It was my 6th Prince show, and it hit at the end of a long year full of hard work. I had been making and thinking about work that was cynical, art world-referential, and less than fun. I was feeling a little lost and unsure about the future of my art career in Seattle, and I just wanted to make something fun that didn’t have anything to do with the contemporary art world. It was just good timing.

After working with Little Prince for so long, did your view of his “character” change?

It’s really only been since the New Year; I’ve just been working with him non-stop. The different looks and sets and such have really let me reexamine some of the reasons that I fell in love with this guy in the first place – his ability to pull off the most bizarre and outrageous stylistic choices with a straight face and complete confidence, and with the hot ladies by his side. So, in other words, the project has just reiterated what I already knew and felt. It’s been very nostalgic and cathartic for me going through all the different styles and eras and reliving those feelings again, remembering where I was, who I was, who I was with when I heard this or that album for the first time, saw this or that video or movie, attempted to emulate this or that look. It’s really been an amazing stroll down memory lane.

Which pieces were the most challenging to create?

Some of the intricate clothing during the Purple Rain era, with the ruffles and buttons and such, were pretty difficult. I had never used a sewing machine before this project. I made the figure, and then began asking around to find someone who could make me a tiny Purple Rain outfit. I got some high quotes and my wife encouraged me to do it myself. She helped me make the Purple Rain coat, and I’ve pieced together some outfits from other sources, but for the most part, I’ve made everything myself. The motorcycle was the single most-difficult item. It’s a 1/6 scale Tamiya model, but they don’t make a model of his particular bike, so I modified it the best I could to make it look like Prince’s movie bike. I fabricated the front windshield fairing and seat assembly myself. Some of the hats and jewelry were tough, too. But it’s all so much fun, really. It’s problem-solving, trying to figure out the best way to recreate these things in 1/6 scale. Problem solving is what most of my work tends to be, anyway; I get visions of completed works in my head and then I go about the work of realizing them.

Anything else you would like to add?

This project really has taken on a life of its own. I made Le Petit Prince and posted a couple of pictures on Facebook and my website, and those got picked up by a big Prince fan site. From there it was picked up by other fan sites around the world, posted on countless blogs, shared all over Facebook and Twitter, and I began getting tons of hits on my website and so many requests to buy the doll I couldn’t keep up with them (he’s not for sale and there’s a note on my site that addresses this issue and hopefully answers other frequently asked questions). I’ve made so many new friends and been showered with so much praise for this little guy that I’m humbled beyond words. It started as a tribute and a fun project and it has really turned into something much bigger. I hadn’t planned on making all the different looks and photoshoots – I was simply answering requests and working off the energy from the tiny dude’s new fans! It has been a blast, an honor, and I can’t thank everyone enough for all the positivity and love that I’ve received for the past two months. I’m still in the lab, conjuring up more images, and when the time is right, I’ll unveil them. Until then, I plan on dropping some bonus pics here and there. Le Petit Prince makes people happy, and making people happy is addictive. I can’t just quit cold turkey.

For more pics and info head over to Troy Gua’s website.

And as a bonus check out this real life Petit Prince below!

As the sun cut through the curtains early on Saturday morning like a knife through butter I was awoken by the shimmering reflection of the sun dancing off my $15 Prince pendant, Alone yet fully clothed with my purple handkerchief and a pink carnation in the top pocket of my blazer…

Prince had gone, and for a moment, I felt used like one of the many beautiful women seduced by his music and his moves, it was a one night stand he had left in the night and I knew that he would be performing somewhere else by the time I had fallen asleep and I wasn’t invited.

There was no walk of shame and no regrets, just a shuffle over to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and throw on ‘Raspberry Beret’ while I sat down and pondered on the night before. Prince had always been the one in the pack I was dying to see, not just to hear the songs live, but to watch him dance, switch instruments, the presence, the chat, the improvisation. I was concerned before the show because there was an all you can eat buffet of songs, dream set lists, covers and versions that I wanted to hear and he was the first musician I was going to see that could quite easily, If he fancied.. play purple rain backwards with a pez dispenser and a wood block for a 2 hour set and is genius enough to actually pull it off.

Wanted: A sold out arena seeks a man who can dance in heels to a insanely high standard and navigate round a misty, poorly lit male/female hybrid symbol shaped stage, who can play guitar and piano like he invented it and vocally make doves cry! There was only one reply that night and luckily that man was Prince.

Through the ambient thunder came the stunning acoustic ‘Purple Rain’, spinning Prince symbol and purple mist that descended on the stage with a crouching lady of the lake-esque beauty guiding us to a intro crescendo with her dress train sliding of stage it was pure theatrics of the highest order as soon as Prince hit the stage with ‘Gold’ he powered through the classics, and from the off the excitement got everyone out of their seats, but by the time “Let’s Go Crazy’ struck the atmosphere was electric, it was a funk explosion of arena size proportions leading into ‘1999’, ‘Delirious’ and ‘Little Red Corvette’, and instead of being in Homebush I was in a 70’s & 80’s disco palace, Bungalow 8 style with a serious danger of thigh strain due to a pelvic thrust overload. Prince put a spell over the crowd, and personally pulled my heart out of my mouth and stood on it with a killer heel through “Nothing Compares To U ‘ and the haunting ‘Sometimes It Snows In April’… did I cry? Does Prince like women?

My screams and funky dancing dried my dove shaped tears as ‘Cream’, ‘when doves cry’, ‘Sign O The Times’ and ‘Controversy’ came strutting and by the time ‘Purple Rain’ made its 15 minute appearance I was on my knees at the altar of funk, as every note of the solo felt like purple rain drops, causing me trouble and causing me pain in a beautiful and effortless way, all this mixed in with Prince asking ‘how many hits has Prince had?’ and he’s right, and If we didn’t know we knew by the end of the night as he screamed ‘let the old-school, tell the new-school!’. There were times when I felt like I was the new-school, being home(bush) schooled by the old-school it was like watching ‘Little Richard on piano, Hendrix on guitar, James Brown or Otis Redding performing, getting Prince pint sized snap shots, hints of how the greats get down! unfortunately it’s the closest I’m going to get due to my generation, but that night I got closer than I ever would, but without doubt Prince showed me the true sense of the word performer, musician, musical genius and most importantly ladies man.

My pendant may only now be used for the odd Austin powers fancy dress party or recreating the ‘When doves cry video’ when getting out of a hot radox bath and it will never be solid silver…… but that night Prince gave me Gold! . My only disappointment after this concert was that it finished. One thing Prince said that will always stay with me is that ‘ I love music, it’s a gift and I feel incredibly blessed to be part of it’ I left that concert feeling exactly the same.

-Kye Blackett

Photos by NPG Records

*We now interrupt your scheduled Prince themed broadcast here on Cool Accidents to pay respect to a fellow purveyor of all things funky Mr. Chuck Brown*

In a week that’s started with Prince in non-stop jam mood at the Ivy in Sydney it was hard not to reflect on the Go-Go.

Go-Go was Washington DC’s own thing, a localised form of Da Fonk that developed locally, survived being hyped to shit internationally, and then settled back into a DC scene as acid house swept all before it.

Back in the 80s for a minute Island Records hyped the Go-Go scene and its amazing day-glo graphics as “the new style” and for a minute the Washington Sound Attack was it.

They even made a movie – Good to Go - and suddenly those were da breaks as the then king of rap (yes it was a while back) Mr Kurtis Blow went to DC for the freshest grooves.

After you’ve got past Mr B’s wicked Transformers rip you’ll realise Kurtis is riding the freshest of percussion breaks, and yes my friends that’s the sound of Trouble Funk – then the face of the Go Go.

And so you can get it properly here’s Trouble on their own jam Drop the Bomb.

So by now you will have got the Go Go. Mass percussion (Trouble had two drummers and three percussionists), monster bass, keyboards for effects and vocal chants. And if it doesn’t make you move then you are dead probably and as George Clinton would have it…

Call yourself “Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk”… you cant dance!!

(Thanks and respect Pedro Bell)

Anyway so to cut to the chase just at that time DC was scorching hot and records by Trouble Funk, Redds and the Boys, Original Concept (on Def Jam no less), Junkyard Band, Rare Essence, Little Benny and the Masters and EU (Experience Unlimited) were sought after and some even became global hits.

But in the background was the legend, the master and king … Chuck Brown.

Chuck had been playing the funk for years and he danced to a different drum (or three).

Back in the day he and his band had the funk classic LP Salt Of the Earth which included the killer jam Blow your Whistle.

Don’t they look fly? Rocking the Albino.

Blow Your Whistle was sampled a million times and so was the best track “Ashley’s Roach Clip” which had a killer percussion break at 3.31.

Have a LISTEN and see if you recognise it from a million tunes including Eric B, Run DMC, Slick Rick (among others)

Here its used by LL Cool J on Jack The Ripper

Anyway some years in the wilderness passed and Chuck went back to playing Columbia District parties. Slowly he evolved his band into the non-stop percussion jams that became the Go Go. And what came back was a different Chuck with Massive hits. We Need Some Money became a major league party anthem following up the monster jam Bustin’ Loose

A new sound was born as Max Kidds TTED label killed it worldwide and DC was the home of the beat. To The Bridge Now became the worldwide club chant for all of 5 minutes.

Behind the wave of it all Chuck bought the Soul Searchers to town to play. And it was a totally different thing to what we all expected. A slow burning funk woven with the whole history of Black Music from “It Don’t mean A thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing” to “Day-O”, via “Stormy Monday” and “Woody The Woodpecker”. A beautiful jazz funk soul explosion for two and a half hours of steady rocking. And not club at all – the work of a master craftsman doing what he did best.

Chuck Brown may have left us but his memory and his music lives on. Beautifully.

-Tony H

“Prince is an icon, that’s something I’m sure no one would argue. I grew up in and around music. My parents were part of the underground London music scene in the 90’s, this exposed me to a collection of artists. Sunday was a day spent in the record store, you could say music was my religion! My household was a hub for soulful and emotive music. I was raised on Bob Marley not Hannah Montanna! Prince’s albums were on regular rotation in my home, ‘Purple Rain’, ‘Sign of the times’ and ‘Love Sexy, all part of the soundtrack to my life, music that I grew up listening to. People often ask me if this has an influence on my own work? Absolutely… not only my work but my life. The music I grew up on has given me my backbone.

If I had to pick one Prince track it would be ‘Ballad of Dorothy Parker” because it’s sooooooo unique and conversational and clever. And yet the musicality is never compromised by the colloquialism!! lol

So last week when my management called and said “Guess what, Prince wants you to support him on his Australian tour” I was shocked to say the least, almost in disbelief, “he knows who I am???” Two days later I’m at home in London and Prince calls me up, it was slightly surreal but he was really easy to talk to. He tells me he’s heard my stuff and loves my music, he starts explaining how the ‘Love’ show will run, lights, staging the lot! OMG! The excitement was unreal! We chatted for nearly an hour, he was amazing, really supportive & assuring and very down to earth.

How do I feel? Elated, Excited and most definitely honoured, there are so many talented up and coming artists around at the moment, being recognised by a legend like prince is a real honour and I can’t wait!”

- Delilah

Does the track below -

Remind you of this -

?

I just want your extra time and your… song structure?

Prince is finally here and the results speak for themselves with 80 reported pelvic thrust related audience injuries, a 37% rise of couples’ satisfaction in the bedroom, 14 neck injuries relating to self -fellatio and an 70% increase in men wearing bandanas and heels. His majesty has jumped into his little red corvette with the twins, for the next leg of the tour to unleash once again the full purple and gold sonic extravaganza. Here is a selection of videos - ‘the diamonds and pearls’ of Prince covers by other artists. Once again, if it’s your turn for the Royal visit, get stretching because you have now been warned and fellatio isn’t covered on insurance (So I’ve heard… through a friend)!

The “legendary” Barbara Charone truly deserves the epithet “legendary”. In-house PR to Warner Music UK for many years Charone has represented the great and good from Martha Wainwright to Madonna with unparalleled passion, and made more careers than can easily be remembered on multiple sets of fingers. She travelled with the Rolling Stones and wrote a biography of Keith Richards. She now heads market leading and opinion forming independent press agency MBC PR and represents those clients lucky enough to get her as she only does the ones she loves.

For someone that’s gone through life making A LOT of right decisions, she does happen to have one regret that still bugs her to this day -

“Years ago when Prince was about to become the biggest thing on the planet, he played two shows at the Lyceum. I think this was around the time of Controversy. Way before his Purple Reign. Bruce Springsteen was also in London playing 8 nights at Wembley Arena on the River tour. I’ll always regret not going to the Lyceum and missing one of Bruce’s shows!”

What full grown man do you know who gets away with wearing platform/high heel shoes and all in one leotards?

Who wore the famous “Borat” bathers before Borat did?

Who changed music forever?

Who turns down Michael Jackson when he asks you to be in his “BAD” film clip?

Who changes his name to an unpronounceable symbol?

Yeah that’s right - Prince!

No one does it like Prince!

Zoë Badwi