Joseph Arthur Busy With Three New Albums And Paintings
Tuesday February 21, 2006 @ 06:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Joseph Arthur

Singer/songwriter/artist Joseph Arthur may not have a North American label, but he's sure acting like he does. The Ohio native is currently working on three new studio albums as well as an exhibit of his artwork.

After spending 10 days recording 11 tracks in a Berlin studio, Arthur has completed an album titled Invisible Parade. There's no release date for the self-produced disc as yet.

"I'd been working on a bigger production record in Los Angeles for a while, but I just wanted to do something really minimal," Arthur told Billboard.com about Invisible Parade. "I've never done that before; something totally stripped down."

As for the L.A. production, Arthur hopes to finish it in March while also completing an instrumental album.

Despite having garnered recent attention thanks to his fundraising collaboration with R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe on a recording of his "In The Sun," Arthur is still in search of U.S. representation. The singer parted with Vector Records after the release of 2004's Our Shadows Will Remain. He was formerly signed to Peter Gabriel's Real World and Universal's Enjoy labels.

"There's a couple of indies we're talking to, but I'm thinking about just going completely indie and putting [new music] out myself," said Arthur. His U.K. label, 14th Floor, released Our Shadows Will Remain across the pond and issued "Devil's Broom" as a seven-inch vinyl single backed with a live cover of The Smiths' "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" on February 13.

Arthur launched an art show featuring 20 large paintings in London, England's Vertigo Gallery on February 9. He also hopes to publish a limited-edition coffee-table art book that will be available via the internet or boutique retailers.

—Phil Villeneuve