BRILEY’S DANGEROUS!
NEW YORK—CREEM’S PROFILES OF DANGEROUS PEOPLE, #9: MARTIN BRILEY PROFESSION: Songwriter, singer, guitarist, bassist, arranger, rock (sort of) star, wearer of berets. AGE: Old enough to have known better, but he did it anyway. NATIONALITY:
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BRILEY’S DANGEROUS!
NEW YORK—CREEM’S PROFILES OF DANGEROUS PEOPLE, #9: MARTIN BRILEY PROFESSION: Songwriter,
singer, guitarist, bassist, arranger, rock (sort of) star, wearer of berets. AGE: Old enough to have known better, but he did it anyway. NATIONALITY: British; knows that Americans can be sucked in by English accents but only took advantage of that fact a few times, “many years ago.”
HOME: New York City, a few blocks from a place called “School for Dogs.”
MARITAL STATUS: Exhausted but undaunted.
CURRENT CLAIM TO FAME: Third solo LP called Dangerous Moments and hit single of the same name that cuts to the guts of the issue by asking “Are you going to be with your loved ones if they drop the big one?” Album features incisive, funny, scary articulate pop/rock songs: “They don’t give advice—rock stars are the last ones who should be doing that. My songs can sound like innocuous love songs but actually can mean a number of things. They sound twisted to me.” Briley may just be one of pop’s unnecessarily hidden treasures. Was nominated for this award over the members of Twisted Sister, all of whom look dangerous but are actually sweet-natured married men from Long Island. Briley, on the other hand, seems harmless. Only at first, however.
PAST CLAIMS TO SEMI-FAME: Tons of studio-session work in U.S. and U.K. Spent two years touring with Ian Hunter and Ellen Foley, and lived to tell the tale. Has written lots of songs for other rockers. Did a first solo LP called Fear Of The Unknown (sold OK); did a second one called One Night With A Stranger (sold really well and featured hit single “Salt of My Tears”).
FAVORITE AUTHORS: Hasn’t had time to read for a while, but has often liked dead ones the best—“I figured if they were dead but still famous, then maybe they were good. Then again, I don’t want anyone to wait to listen to my records ‘til I’m dead.” FAVORITE MUSIC: Generally takes it one song at a time; considers himself very picky; never thinks of examples until at least an hour after an interviewer leaves. FAVORITE MODE OF COMMUNICATION: Triple entendres, delivered with a poker face. DEFINITION OF ROCK ’N’ ROLL, SHORT VERSION: “Music with drums.”
EXPLANATION OF “UNDERWATER” (AN EXTREMELY SPOOKY AND AMAZING BALLAD ON DANGEROUS MOMENTS): ”lt’s about suicide, ambition, losing your privacy, a bit about my sister, a bit about the Gambini family, and some stuff I
was reading in the newspaper while I was down in the Carribean.”
OPINION ON BONDAGE: “I wrote ‘It Shouldn’t Have to Hurt that Much’ about many things, but partly it was about a girl who’d had a twisted childhood and who gets her funnies from beating up her boyfriend once a week. I’m not into bondage myself, but I know people who are. Sure, it’s okay if you mention bondage in the article. But I can never imagine how they do that stuff without laughing, you know?” MOST EXISTENTIALLY DIFFICULT WORK EXPERIENCE: “For ^School For Dogs’ (from Dangerous Moments), we needed barking sounds. So the keyboard player brought in his two dogs. But they didn’t perform—had to pay them triple scale and everything, and it was two hours of studio time up the spout. They were so mikeshy that all we got was the sound of their claws on the floor while they scooted around. In the end, the one that did the barking for the record was me.”
HOW HE GOT HIS RECORD DEAL: “I was touring with Ian and Ellen Foley and I saw that was winding down, so I started to write again. I wrote two suicidal, fiveminute dirges. Actually, they weren’t that suicidal or dirge-like, but Chrysalis Publishing found me and asked if I couldn’t write something a little shorter and a little more cheerful. So I wrote a song that got me working for them, and through them I found my manager, and through them both we found PolyGram. The song was called ‘I’m Just Using You.’ ” SHYNESS: “Yes, very.” PATIENCE: “Yes, extremely. Then again, it depends on what we’re talking about.”
CREEM PROGNOSIS FOR A DANGEROUS FUTURE: Getting more, buckaroos, getting more. Hide the kids, put out the cats, take off your shoes, and wait. The dangerous moments are closer than you think.
Laura Fissinger
