Sean Taro Ono Lennon
(born October 9, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor. He is the son of musicians and peace activists John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
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Biography
Early life and education
Sean Lennon was born in
New York City on October 9, 1975 (his father's 35th birthday).
Julian Lennon and
Kyoko Chan Cox are his
half-siblings. After Sean's birth, John became a house husband, doting on his young son until his murder in 1980. Sean was educated at the exclusive private boarding school
Institut Le Rosey in Rolle, Switzerland and earlier at New York's private
Ethical Culture Fieldston School and
Dalton School. He later attended
Columbia University, though only for three semesters before dropping out to focus on his music career.
His debut into the music world came at the age of six, reciting a story on his mother's 1981 album
Season of Glass
. From childhood into his teen years Sean continued to collaborate with his mother, contributing vocals and receiving production credit on her solo albums
It's Alright (I See Rainbows)
,
Starpeace
and
Onobox
. At sixteen Sean co-wrote the song "All I Ever Wanted" with
Lenny Kravitz for his 1991 album
Mama Said
. By 1995 Sean had formed the band IMA (with Sam Koppelman and
Timo Ellis) to play alongside his mother on her album
Rising
. Sean also made appearances in film, featured in the cast of
Michael Jackson's 1988
Moonwalker
and portraying a teenager experiencing visions of various
MC Escher paintings in
Sony's 1990 promotional short-film
Infinite Escher
.
Cibo Matto and Into The Sun
In 1996
Miho Hatori and
Yuka Honda of
Cibo Matto were invited by Ono to remix the song "Talking To The Universe" for a
Rising
remix
EP Rising Mixes
. They met Sean and invited him to join them on tour as a bass player. This eventually led to Sean contributing to their side-project
Butter 08
and to his becoming a member of the group. He continued to play with them on tour, joining them on television and providing bass guitar and vocals on their EP,
Super Relax
. Through his association with Cibo Matto, Lennon was approached by
Adam Yauch (of the
Beastie Boys), who expressed an interest in his music and persuaded him to sign a record contract with
Grand Royal Records. Regarding Grand Royal, Lennon has said:
I think I found the only label on the planet who doesn't care who my parents are and what my name is. It's a good feeling to know that I wouldn't have gotten the offer if they wouldn't have liked my songs. That's pretty rare in the music business!
Lennon's solo début
Into the Sun
, was released in 1998. A
music video for "Home", a single from the album, was directed by
Spike Jonze and enjoyed extended airplay on
MTV. The album was produced by fellow Cibo Matto member Yuka Honda, who Lennon claimed was his inspiration for the album. They struck up a personal relationship as well as a creative one.
He would go on to tour (often backed by Cibo Matto) supporting
Into The Sun
. During this period he would appear on radio programs such as
The Howard Stern Show
and
KCRW's
Morning Becomes Eclectic
. He would later recall promoting the album as a bitter experience due to the media focus on his family rather than his own music. In 1999, Sean's EP
Half Horse, Half Musician
was released featuring new tracks such as "Heart & Lung" and "Happiness" as well as remixes of songs from
Into The Sun
. Along with
Half Horse Half Musician
1999 saw the release of Cibo Matto's second album
Stereo Type A
. Sean stepped out of his traditional role as the group's bass player, this time playing a much wider range of instruments (such as drums, guitars and synthesizers). Despite being well received
Stereo Type A
was to be the final Cibo Matto album and the group disbanded.
In 2000 Lennon briefly entered the world of
hip hop, contributing vocals to
Del tha Funkee Homosapien,
Handsome Boy Modeling School and
Jurassic 5. In 2001 on national television, Sean performed
Beatles classics "This Boy", "Across The Universe" and "Julia" alongside
Robert Schwartzman,
Rufus Wainwright and
Moby for
Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words and Music
. In the following years Sean faded out of the spotlight. However he collaborated with various bands and artists as a
session musician and producer.
Return and Friendly Fire
After the demise of Grand Royal Records in 2001, Sean signed with
Capitol Records (whose parent company
EMI has released the vast majority of his father's musical output, group and solo), yet no solo material surfaced until February 2006, when "Dead Meat" was released as the first single from his new album,
Friendly Fire
. A promotional trailer for the
CD/
DVD package of
Friendly Fire
was leaked online in early 2006. The trailer featured scenes from the
film version of the album, a DVD of music videos comprised into a film. The videos were actually screen tests for Coin Locker Babies, another project on which Lennon is working which became a cinematic counterpart to his new album
[1]. The theme of the album is based around love and betrayal and was dedicated to the death of a close friend of his.
Friendly Fire
was released in October 2006. The night the album was released, Lennon made his first major television appearance in five years, performing "Dead Meat" live on the
Late Show with David Letterman
. Lennon has since appeared on
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
and
The Sharon Osbourne Show
. When questioned about the eight year gap between solo albums in interviews Lennon expressed that he didn't feel like a solo artist during those years and that he wanted to experience music anonymously without the spotlight on him. Since the release of
Friendly Fire
, Lennon has been touring extensively around the world and while in France remixed his song "Parachute" in collaboration with French artist
-M-. The remix is entitled "L'éclipse"
[2] and was featured as a bonus track on the French release of
Friendly Fire
.
Although again establishing himself as a solo artist, Lennon has continued his work as a session musician and producer, lending his talent to the likes of Dopo Yume,
Albert Hammond, Jr. (of
The Strokes) and model/singer
Irina Lazareanu.
[3] In October 2007 Sean joined
Mark Ronson in the
BBC Electric Proms where he sang "
Sail on, Sailor", as well as "
We Can Work It Out" alongside
Daniel Merriweather, and Tawiah. Along with girlfriend Charlotte
Kemp Muhl, Sean premiered the side-project "The Ghost Of A Saber Toothed Tiger"
[4] during a live performance at
Radio City on
Valentines Day, 2008. The duo host their music on MySpace and perform under the aliases of Amatla and Zargifon. Expanding on his musical output even further Sean has stepped into the world of
film scores with
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead
.
[5] With the release of new material and subsequent touring Sean launched a website featuring music, videos and a forum for his fans. Various members of the forum have even created a fan-made cover album tentitled
Truth Mask Replica
. In a Youtube video released for his website (January 2008) Lennon has stated that he is working on a new solo album as well.
Musical influence
Lennon has said that
Brian Wilson and the
Beach Boys are major influences in his music and he interviewed Wilson on a limited edition CD entitled
Words and Music
. During the release of
Into The Sun
, Sean often talked about his admiration for the Brazilian band
Os Mutantes. While in Brazil, Sean performed live with
Arnaldo Baptista (bass guitar player and vocalist of Os Mutantes) and later designed the artwork for the Os Mutantes album,
Tecnicolor
(2000). Lennon has stated that The Beastie Boys album
Check Your Head
was a source of inspiration, with its varied music styles contained in one album.
Discography
Solo
- Into the Sun
(1998)
- Half Horse, Half Musician
(1999)
- Friendly Fire
(2006)
With Cibo Matto
- Super Relax
(1997)
- Stereo Type A
(1999)
With The Ghost of a Saber Toothed Tiger
- The Ghost of a Saber Toothed Tiger
(2009)
Film scores
- Smile for the Camera
(2005)
- Friendly Fire
(2006)
- The Stranger
[6] (2008)
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead
(2008)
- Tea Fight
(2008)
- Moonwalker
(1988)
Producer
- Sean Lennon - Half Horse Half Musician
(1999)
- Soulfly - Primitive
(2000)
- Valentine Original Soundtrack
(2001)
- Esthero - Wikked Lil' Grrrls
(2005)
- Sean Lennon - Friendly Fire
(2006)
- Irina Lazareanu - Some Place Along the Way
(2007)
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Other contributions
- Marianne Faithfull's album, Easy Come, Easy Go
(2008) - "Salvation" (originally by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club)
- Sean contributed vocals to "Son Song", on the Soulfly album Primitive
.
- Deltron 3030's album, Deltron 3030
(2000) - "Memory Loss"
- Sean sang backing vocals on the track "Sandpaperback" on Ben Lee's 1998 album Breathing Tornados
.
- Collaborated to John Zorn's Great Jewish Music tributes to Marc Bolan, Burt Bacharach and Serge Gainsbourg, in 1997 and 1998.
Filmography
- Moonwalker
(1988) - Actor
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Season 2, Episode 1 - "When She Was Bad" (1997) - musician, Cibo Matto
- Smile for the Camera
(2005) - Original Score, Writer
- Friendly Fire
(2006) - Actor, Original Score, Writer
- Coin Locker Babies
(2008 in production) - Actor, Writer
Bibliography
- Part Asian, 100% Hapa
(2006) - Sean is credited with writing the foreword
References
- Taking Friendly Fire with Sean Lennon
- ''Sean Lennon & -M- en duo''
- Irina Lazareanu: Way More Than Karl Lagerfeld's Muse
- http://theghostofasabertoothedtiger.com
- Goldstein, Greg. “Lennon to Score Undead”, ''Hollywood Reporter'', 21 February 2008.
- http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/now-screening-mariacarla-boscono-in-the-stranger/