Duncan Sheik Releases New Album 'CLAPTRAP'

Duncan Sheik releases his newest album Claptrap via AntiFragile Music. The project is his long awaited return to pop songcraft. Earlier this month Sheik released the single and video for "There's No Telling" view the clip below.

The idea for the stirring video clip came to Sheik while in Houston working on his new musical NOIR. He explains, "I thought it would be cool for the music video to be purely choreographic. Graciously, the amazing Karla Puno Garcia (who choreographed NOIR) agreed, and she and another cast member from NOIR, Morgan Marcel, performed the amazing moves. I felt it was important for the protagonists of the video to be female as a counterbalance to the stereotypical male energy of the lyric. I especially love not having to be in my own music videos, so also a bonus!"

These songs were quite literally therapy, salvation. "As the pandemic came into our lives. I was in the middle of a spiritual crisis," says Sheik. "I didn't have any theater homework, because of everything being put on hold, and I wasn't really up for the idea of making a new Duncan Sheik record....I just started experimenting-it was very unfocused, and I was almost starting over, learning how to put sounds together in some meaningful way."

He continues "Once that came into focus, it was like, 'Oh, I'm gonna write a song about my journey into the world of non-duality,' as somebody who's trying to widen the aperture of ways of looking at being a contented, somewhat happy human being in the contemporary world. After I wrote that lyric, I wouldn't say it was easy, but at least there was a path-here's the essence of what this record is going to be about. Now let's go unpack the whole thing."

If the concepts he's addressing seem ambitious and daunting for a pop record, he comes back to what these songs truly meant to him. "Through the recording, and through the deep dive into the ideas and the themes in the lyrics, it really did get me to the other side of some mini crisis, or midlife crisis-call it what you want, but it did help me get through it all."

Duncan Sheik launched his career as a singer/songwriter with a gift for literate pop songs on his 1996 self-titled debut album which featured his chart topping hit "Barely Breathing." That song racked up 55 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned him a Grammy Award® nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

In the years since, Sheik has been celebrated for his work in musical theater, including the groundbreaking success of Spring Awakening, which won eight Tony Awards and a Grammy and is also the subject of the just released HBO Documentary - 'Spring Awakening: Those You've Known.' Sheik has released eight full-length solo albums which have been praised by both critics and his discerning fans.

Watch the new music video here:

Listen to the new album here: