Article: TRADE

April 21. Lee's Palace, Toronto. 10pm. Kelly casually takes to the stage with a drink in hand. As soon as he puts the drink down, Kelly and the Kellygirls belt out the first song of the evening. The audience is captivated by Kelly's haunting baritone voice; the rich diversity and obvious talent of the Kellygirls doesn't seem to hurt, either. Clad in a fitted powder-blue military-inspired shirt, low-slung white pants, and white kid gloves, Kelly prowls the stage, straddles the speakers, and addresses the audience with his soulful performance. With his enviable physique, high cheekbones and intriguing tattoos, it's hard to look away. Both queer boys and queer girls alike gush about his inherent sexiness, his feline ways. But wait, he's talented too.

Since childhood, Kelly has been involved in the arts. After he wrote his first play in 1990, trash (the age of consent), he's gone on to write five more, and produce all of them. He's an accomplished hairstylist with a reputation of having saved many a head from L.A. to Berlin to Hogtown. He's been involved in no less than six bands (People in Glass Houses, the existing, My Dear Heretic, Caustic Chevy, Merkury Burn, Kelly and the Kellygirls), and has acted alongside Kate Hudson in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Kelly's photography is eye-candy for the queer-eye. You've probably seen his work without realizing it. One of his photos graces the cover of the Arsenal Pulp Press anthology Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity; he has also shot promotional pictures for Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and for Xtra! Magazine. Meet R. Kelly Clipperton - unstoppable arts-multitasker.

We first met at Signal to Noise recording studio where Kelly and the Kellygirls were recording the tracks for their debut album Swing, Swing.

A week later, in the beginning of April, I met up again with Kelly, this time at the Rivoli on Queen Street. After he rode up on his bike, we went upstairs, had a few drinks, and talked about his newest musical incarnation and how he would be perfectly content to listen to Annie Lennox sing the alphabet.

TRADE: You have been described as everyone from Peter Murphy to Iggy Pop. My favorite description of you is "Bowie, but funnier." How do you see yourself?

KELLY: I think I'm rather like a sponge in a lot of ways. I store what has affected me during my life. I think of my teen-hood - I was absorbing all of the influences of people I really liked and admired in music. It made sense to me, and probably had a huge effect on me. So, I think I am a combination of all those things; I think they're all accurate. Bowie is a musical genius and I wouldn't fool myself to think that I'm nearly as talented as him; I'm different. I think that most of the comparisons that I get are from people who see the eclecticness...

T: And they need to define it?

K: Yeah, and they see me as an eclectic male so they look to other eclectic males to compare me to. Peter Murphy is just because the tone in my voice and because in bands that I've been in before, we've performed "Bela Lugosi's Dead". I tend to get the same ring and same tone as he does. Iggy Pop I never really got. I've never really understood that, other than I usually perform without a shirt on and Iggy Pop does that. Maybe that's where that came from. But I think that I'm a better singer than Iggy Pop - with all due respect to Iggy. How do I see myself? Hell, I don't know anymore. I'm certainly not lost in an image that I've created for myself; I just see myself as a passionate person, and I think that comes across when I perform. These days, a lot of music is watered-down with presentation, concept and marketability. I think it really takes away from the passion, and passion is something that has always stayed in my work. So, whether you like or hate what I do, I think that almost anyone would agree that I'm pretty passionate about what I'm doing.

T: How did you make the transition from the glam-punk style of Merkury Burn, to the bluesy rock pop-style of the Kellygirls?

K: I'm happy that it happened the way it did because I just wanted to sing. I wanted to stop shouting. There were complicated reasons as to why Merkury Burn ended but when it did I just thought, 'I'm tired of yelling overtop of everything.' I've worked a long time-and quite hard-to figure out what my voice does and how it sounds good. People have always said in the past, 'I really like that song, but it isn't the right key for you. It doesn't really show off your voice.' There were all of these different criticisms that I thought were totally honest, and I realized that I needed to focus on my singing; and if that meant singing in a genre where my voice could actually flourish a little bit more, then I wanted to do that. I've always loved swingy, bluesy music; I just never thought that I could do it. I sat down after I left [Merkury Burn] and thought, 'What can I add to the mix that will really excite me, and will flourish in a different direction?' And that was the horns: the trumpet and the saxophone. I just didn't want the guitar, bass, drums set-up anymore; I wanted something else. Also, I've always been shy of playing piano and keyboards on stage because I felt that I wanted to run around a lot-and I still do-but I'm playing a lot more now...I'm playing live and it's great.

T: Who are the Kellygirls and how did you bring the band together? Are they people you worked with before?

K: Yes, Amer the guitar player is an old friend of mine who I went to university with, and he was in My Dear Heretic with me, one of my old bands. I've known him for a long time. We've worked together; we've written songs together. Michael J. is a good friend of Amer's, who I met through Amer. Jen Gillmor I knew from My Dear Heretic and Merkury Burn. She was in a band that we played with on the same bill. Shane, the sax player, is an old friend from Buddies in Bad Times: we worked there together. And Jerry was in My Dear Heretic as well, at one point in time. So, yeah, all friends. That was kind of my safety net when I left [Merkury Burn]. I needed support around me from people that I knew. I don't think I had the balls to go out and hire a bunch of strangers. I didn't really feel comfortable doing that, so I just called on my old friends; lucky for me, they said yes.

T: Is the band more of a democracy, or is it based solely on your artistic direction?

K: Absolutely. (Laughs) The latter. Much more. Again, that was one of the reasons for Merkury Burn's demise. I really don't want to sound like I'm a dictator because I really don't think that I am, but I'm a strong visionary. I think that when I work really hard to try and achieve something, I need everyone on my side and that wasn't happening. So I just kind of posed it to all these people and said: 'These are my songs, how I want them to sound, and if you're really not enjoying yourself, let me know, and I'll find somebody else and that's cool.' And it feels good and it's totally like that. That sort of energy is working just fine and everyone is having a great time. Everyone seems like they're having a lot of fun.

T: Yeah, it really seemed like that at the recording studio; everyone seemed like they were really enjoying themselves.

K: Completely. It was an intense process too. We had so little time to get everything done.

T: Do you have a different approach for all of your different artistic endeavours? Are you in the same headspace when you're writing a play, as you are when you're writing a three-minute song?

K: From the same place, yes. I don't think that I'm a particularly technical person in any of the things that I do. I mean, I apprenticed as a stylist, but there's no exam there. It was all observing and learning and going with what felt right. That's not too technical, is it? I'm not technical at all; I just kind of go on an emotional bent. That's how I go about my photographs. As much as I'm trying to teach myself more of the technical aspect - because that's where I feel I need to learn more-I think that the reaction that I get from my photographs is because of the impulse - and again-the passion behind them. And it's the same with songs. If you had asked me five years ago, I would have said that I would have never thrown out a song. I would have worked on a song until it was a dead fucking horse. Now, I'm able to throw out songs that don't work. I realize that I work on a passionate level and when something become passionate, the technical stuff kind of suffers.

T: Do you think that this ability to throw out songs has come with age and maturity?

K: Absolutely. Absolutely. And it comes with being able to be self-critical, which is never easy to do. It's something that takes almost everyone time to learn. People have to get to a point where they can do that. Now, I get it. I know what it is I'm trying to say. If it's not making any sense to anyone else, what's the point of presenting it to them? That was the big lesson I learned. If I just want to sing my songs and think they're all great and that they don't need any work, then I should just stay in my apartment and sing them to myself. But if I'm actually going to have the balls to get up on stage and charge people to come through the door and actually watch me do it, then it better make sense to them on some level. [The songs] should translate on some level or else it's too self- indulgent, and I hate self-indulgence. I think it's boring-so boring. It's really contained and there's no sharing going on.

T: While researching for information about you, I came across a quote of yours that indicated that you were tired of all the angst on the radio. Are you trying to move into a different direction with Kelly and the Kellygirls? Annie Lennox once said: "Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world." Are you working along the same kind of philosophy?

K: I would just like to follow Annie Lennox and breath in her world, frankly. (Laughter) She's so amazing. I think that's true. I think that, again, it's that selflessness. If you get so caught up in your own self-absorption and you don't realize that you could make a little bit of a change here in someone else's life by acting a different way or being a little more generous with who you are, then what's the fucking point? I have been there. I have been in those lonely places where you realize that you've cut everyone out because you're so self-involved. No one wants to do anything with you because you've made it clear that you're all about yourself. Also, I'm a complete mannerist. I don't know where I got that from-probably my parents, because they are incredible, gorgeous, giving people. I hate people without manners. It takes so little time to say 'thank you'. You know it means so much to you, so why wouldn't someone else want to hear it? It's the small stuff... really. It's so important.

T: On a different note, what's the strangest thing that you've ever done for money?

K: Ha! (Laughs). I don't think that there's anything terribly scandalous. Strangest thing I've done for money? Not to shoot my whole rock star persona out of the water, but I have not lived that much of a scandalous existence. I was a go-go dancer at one point in time. That was a really poor time in my life-not poor as in unsatisfied, but I was dead broke. It was circa 1994. The entire summer of '94 I go-go danced in boots, which really was kind of rough because I'm not a trained dancer. I wouldn't really consider myself a great dancer. I was like, O.K., you're going to pay me a really small amount of money to stand up on a box and wear next to nothing and shimmy around to music I really hate. I felt that to be a big compromise in who I was. But failing that, not much. (Laughs) I haven't done that many strange things for money.

T: Lastly, is everything - and I mean everything - about perspective?

K: That's a great question. (Pauses) No. If you don't have all the information, or have the correct information, then your perspective will be skewed, off.

Visit Kelly and find out more about the Kellygirls at www.kellyclipperton.com.

Dani Couture is a Toronto poet and writer.