There are singing hairdressers, singing waiters, singing tailors, singing soft toys, singing toilet seats even. Everything / everyone has the chance to sing nowadays. That includes models as well. After some brainstorming I came up with a couple of names high up there in the modeling business who managed to get themselves relatively high even in the music industry.

Generally I am quite apprehensive towards multitasking celebrities, because although possible, I think it is rather difficult to be truly good at more than one thing at a time. Because they have to split their time between acting/ presenting/ modeling/ what-not they are not able to focus properly on each of these things in order to make them 100% flawless. To me, multitasking celebrities are just activity collectors trying to see how many areas of showbiz they are able to get themselves into, so that they can race each other.

I had the exactly same approach to singing models. I thought that because they are pretty, no one would deny them the pleasure of recording a song if they only fancied it. And probably in some cases it is true. However, Carla Bruni broke my prejudice. After listening to some of her songs from the new album “Comme si de rien n’était” I was really surprised. I was quite blown away by her soft, a bit husky, ever so soothing voice and the warm guitar lines. I respect her more as a musician after finding out that she quit the modeling career to devote herself to music. This to me is honest musicianship, worth listening to.

Then again there are other personas such as Tyra Banks, who apart from having her own TV show, modeling and what-not decided to do some singing. Her recording are not too inventive to me and sound like a rip off of J-Lo or Sugababes. Who, however, is able to say NO to some extra cash flow? Obviously, she is having fun an I’m pretty sure by that she is able to make the listeners have fun too, which in many cases is enough in showbiz.

An other example is Agyness Deyn, who recorded a song with Five O’clock Heroes. I had a careful listen to this song and her vocal skills and I have to say she is not one of the best vocalists I’ve heard. She seems to be aware of that, though, and I could sense it in her voice. She sounds a bit hesitant and quite careful when she’s singing, which makes me think that she has respect for what she is doing. Also, she doesn’t try to pretend to be someone she’s not, because the song and the video are perfectly compatible with the image she always stuck with. Quite punky and rough. Also, the song itself is honestly rather enjoyable and has the potential to be a commercial success.

Here is a couple of videos of above mentioned singing models I found on Youtube, so that you can assess yourself if multitasking models are worth anything as singers:

AWrzos

Agyness Deyn is a covergirl extraordinaire with her own sense of style, plenty of edge, and quirkiness.

Deyn isn’t afraid to be herself and buck the traditional spoils of model stardom. While most covergirl models await the arrival of a fancy town car to deliver them to their shoot, Deyn prefers pedaling her bicycle to her appointments if she is in New York or London. She doesn’t necessarily think of herself as a model. This down-to-earth sense of modesty appeals to many women who find her trademark platinum bleached cropped hair, fun loving spirit, and androgynous style alluring; a femininity with style, punk rock style.

In 2001, Deyn (pronounced “Dean”) signed with top agency Models 1. In 2006, she scored the cover of Italian Vogue before gracing covers all across Europe. According to Jo Crave from British Vogue  (Vogue.com UK), “She has the all important X-factor which is her own beatnik sense of style – a bit mod, or a bit punk – it’s all a bit new and different.” Glamour Magazine dubbed Deyn the “Glamopunk princess of modeling.”

This 25-year-old hip supermodel is a music aficionado who digs the Clash, Sex Pistols, and Oasis. She has been romantically linked to rock star musicians, Josh Hubbard, guitarist with the Paddingtons , and Albert Hammond, Jr. of The Strokes. Deyn has even embarked on her own music venture providing vocals for the single Who by Five O’Clock Heroes.

Deyn’s range of interest goes beyond modeling, parties, karaoke, fake tattoos, and music. She has started a jewelry line with London designer Henry Holland of the House Of Holland, known for his popular slogan t-shirts. She has also written articles for i-D magazine, a British magazine about fashion, music, art, and youth culture.

This versatile model has big shoes to fill since she has been hailed as the next Kate Moss. After being dropped as the face of Burberry, Deyn is showing everyone she’s not done yet. She is the new face for MA DAME Fragrance by Jean Paul Gaultier. (Gaultier’s first women’s fragrance, since the launch of Fragile in 1999) A new catchy commercial may just be the ticket to help catapult her to stardom in the U.S. and show her critics that she is no flash in the pan and has real viable staying power.

Deyn lives in New York’s East Village since relocating from London in 2006. According to Maureen Callahan of the New York Post, Deyn dwells in a “modest railroad apartment on the second floor of a walk-up with no sink in the bathroom.” Also stating, “Deyn had a preference for dive bars, rock shows, and Trash and Vaudeville” (on St. Marks). She is a natural fit in the East Village scene where she can most likely be seen sporting her logo t-shirts, listening to music, or pedaling to her next gig.

Agyness Deyn and Jean Paul Gaultier photographed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino. Gaultier, a French fashion designer, became famous for his focus on pop-culture street wear.

VIDEO

MA DAME Fragrance by Jean Paul Gaultier (below)

VIDEO

Fashion File: Agyness Deyn (below)

PICTURE GALLERY

UK Vogue Cover, June 2008

Linkorama:

• myspace.com/fiveoclockheroes

Who – Five O’Clock Heroes Feat. Agyness Deyn

i am relating every bit of the song to my situation.i think it fits my dear friend’s condition well.too well.

i wasn’t planning to write today.seriously.i think my writing skill has been deteriorated since i wrote my last post.

hence the song for you to enjoy.

who – five o’clock heroes featuring agyness deyn.

let the emotion speaks for itself.

1 Comment For This Post

1. Leslee Says:
   July 9th, 2008 at 7:36 pm Extremely disappointing to hear!! I loved their debut.

Beck Modern Guilt MP3: Chemtrails	Tricky Knowle West Boy MP3: Past Mistake	Black Kids Partie Traumatic MP3: Hurricane Jane

Album of the week is Beck’s Modern Guilt. Both progression and regression from Mr Hansen, as he builds on the success of Guero and The Information, yet strips away many of the superfluous gimmicks that littered his mid-90s albums. Full review later on in the week, but definitely get your hands on this one. Adrian Thaws up next, as Tricky returns with Knowle West Boy. Whilst still not a return to the form of Maxinquaye and Pre-Millennial Tension, this is a marked improvement on 2003’s Vulnerable. An improvement, despite a decidedly unusual cover of Kylie’s Slow. Nevertheless, five years in the making, and a welcome return. Sounding at times like it was five minutes in the making, Black Kids’ debut platter is something of a disappointment. Seemingly rush-released to consolidate their position after the success of single I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend…, this album comes across as unfinished and a bit half-arsed. Which is a shame because when the Floridians get it together, the result can be truly exciting.

Melvins Nude With Boots MP3: Billy Fish	Leila Blood Looms & Blooms MP3: Norwegian Wood	Ratatat LP3 MP3: Falcon Jab

Co-hosts of this winter’s ATP Nightmare Before Christmas, Melvins trot out their 16th LP Nude With Boots. Still garnering influential fans, this is pretty much Melvins on auto-pilot. The last time I encountered Leila was within a booing Björk crowd, now new Warp-signee unleashes her third LP. I’m assuming I’m missing something here, or the record must be a grower, as up to now I’m not all that impressed. Ratatat’s third record, on the other hand, is pretty obvious. Take it or leave it Justice-esque electro stomping.

Eat Static Back To Earth	Crooked Still Still Crooked MP3: The Absentee	Cute Is What We Aim For Rotation MP3: Safe Ride

Three varied releases make up our third tier this week, with some dance from creaking Eat Static, straight-up indie pop from Brooklyn’s Cute Is What We Aim For and a third LP from folky-bluegrass types Crooked Still. The latter two are particularly enjoyable, even if Rotation has the projected lifespan of a mayfly.

Five O’Clock Heroes Speak Your Language MP3: Who	Arms Kids Aflame	Great Big Sea Fortune’s Favour MP3: Long Lost Love

Our last three releases throw up two surprises and one dreadful non-surprise. That comes in the form of Five O’Clock Heroes’ second record Speak Your Language. Way back when, I quite enjoyed the Time On Your Side single, but the following album and recent godawful Why have destroyed any enthusiasm for this kind of turgid nonsense. The suprises are particularly good this week, our second Brooklyner, Todd Goldstein aka Arms providing the biggest. The record is some really sharp songwriter stuff, the highlight for me being the wonderful Sad, Sad, Sad. Fans of Bon Iver’s debut will really enjoy this. And finally, the most bizzare concept of the week is Great Big Sea’s continuing journey into rediscovering traditional Canadian folk songs and sea shanties. This is apparently their 9th release, and it is a record full of vim, a great blast of Newfoundland air.

You can vote for your favourite record of the week using our poll in the left sidebar

Last week’s meagre pickings gave the following result:
=1. Watson Twins – Fire Songs
=1. Dirty Pretty Things – Romance At Short Notice
3. Fonda 500 – J’Mapelle Stereo

In a spur of the moment mood, so a short post today. I wanted to post this up, it’s a great tune, listening to it at the moment.

Five O’clock Heores – Who feat Agyness Deyn

I think it’s really well written and catchy to boot. When I wrote the title of the post, I remembered another song though so i’ll post that as an extra for today

Operator Please – Just a song about Ping Pong

Clutching a comforting cup of tea, Anthony Ellis is recalling the first time he met Agyness Deyn. It was, he says enthusiastically, “four or five years ago” in a kitchen in the North of England where he was touring with his band the Five O’Clock Heroes. “She had longer hair,” he remembers, leaning over to signal just how long with his hand, “and she was very sweet even then.” As he continues to describe the encounter, which came some time before Deyn was proclaimed by fashion critics as the next Kate Moss, Deyn chats away obliviously to the man beside her. That man is Sam Embery, the band’s drummer – someone with whom she shares a sibling like bond.

As they giggle at a private joke, Ellis glances at them like a proud father. “You crazy kids,” he says, as if right on cue, before returning to his story. “I remember it very well and then when she came to New York, Sam was actually there at the time and those two would hang around a lot.” Seemingly, invigorated at the mention of her comrade, Deyn switches conversations. “We used to run around New York together,” she enthuses, in her sweet Mancunian accent, “we’d be like the kids and he’d be like go play, go play.”

All three are gathered together on an uncomfortable sofa in East London to talk about Deyn’s collaboration on Five O’Clock Heroes new single ‘Who’, a task that is made harder by the fact that all are nursing hangovers of differing intensities. It has, after all, been a heady few days. “It’s been so much fun though,” says Deyn, who has taken a break from her modelling career to help the band promote the single. “It’s felt like a month, this week, because we’ve been so busy.”

‘Who’ is the first song to be taken from the bands new album ‘Speak Your Language’, which, by Ellis’s own admission, is a far fuller record than their debut ‘Bend To The Breaks’, which was released in 2006. The guitars rhythms are more complex, the drum patterns steely and infectious, and the experimentation with brass has given Five O’Clock Heroes a far greater depth. Of course, it’s Deyn’s collaboration that for the moment has garnered all the attention, however. Which is something that, until this week, hadn’t even crossed Deyn’s mind.

“No because we were always like…I’ve been learning guitar for like a few years already and Anthony’s always been helping me with my music anyway, you know, so that was never really an issue,” she says. “But, I think, in the last week it’s been like shit – this is a bit crazy. Especially how fast it’s happened – from us messing around in the studio, having a laugh doing it and then how fast it’s gone from then to now, and now we’re here playing gigs and it’s kind of like a bit unbelievable, it’s really crazy.”

‘Who’ was never consciously written with Deyn in mind. It was originally the produce of a writing session that Ellis had with a French friend and it was only after Deyn heard the original version at his apartment in New York that Ellis decided to translate it. Already it’s proved to be a wise move. On the night before we meet, the band, and Deyn, pre-recorded a performance on Channel 4’s Sunday Night Project. A slot they could have only dreamed of in the past.

“We, the band, we’ve never had anything like that and that’s amazing,” admits Ellis, sincerely. “It was really special, I thought it was a really special moment actually.” Deyn and Embery start chuckling at Ellis’s sensitivity, in the way that children find it hard to grasp that parents can be sentimental. “It was emotional for my manager, she’s been with us for a long time,” he adds. “The thing is, because we’ve come from such an organic sort of start, it makes it so much more…” Ellis is clearly struggling for words now. “Everybody was there backstage, it was really nice. It was a really fun night actually.”

Anthony Ellis was born in England but moved to New York when he was nineteen. His arrival in 2000 came on the eve of the city’s most recent musical renaissance, which saw the emergence of bands like The Strokes, The White Stripes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Having moved to the city with the intention of developing a music career, Ellis suddenly found himself right in the middle of it. He was there, for example, when The Strokes played their infamous residency at the Mercury Lounge, and like everyone else present, he knew we was witnessing a significant cultural and musical moment. “They were all good looking,” he recalls, to Deyn’s obvious approval. “And they were setting up their own equipment and I was like, all I saw was their drums and I thought, ‘that’s a cool logo’, you know, and then they started. They had some serious energy in those days, they had energy, real energy, and were hugely influential on every New York band – it goes without saying.”

Inspired by what as happening around him, Ellis established Five O’Clock Heroes with similarly like-minded and enlightened people who also found themselves in New York at the right time. Although they eventually recorded a debut album, albeit with no money and therefore no studio time, the band have as yet failed to capture the same success as the bands that were so influential in their formation. Spend time with Ellis, who has a hint of the Julian Casablancas about him in the flesh, however, and it’s clear he has no intention on giving up.

Deyn shares his belief as well, that’s why the model isn’t concerned by claims that the band are using her profile to further their own career. “It brings a different dynamic to it as well, do you know what I mean?” she says, rhetorically. “And it is what it is, people can say stuff, whatever, but if you listened to all that stuff then you’d never do anything in life. You shouldn’t think maybe I shouldn’t do that because you know somebody is gonna be like, ‘that’s no good’.”

Having appeared on the cover of both the British and American editions of Vogue and been heralded as the face of her generation all before her twenty-sixth birthday, Deyn knows this better than most. She is very clever, for example, on the occasions that I enquire about her modelling career. With an innocent flicker of her eyelids and ruffle of her peroxide hair, she’ll answer the question for as long as she needs to, which is usually a sentence on fashion followed by three about music. But then Deyn loves music. Having been groomed by her brother in the history of Manchester bands – The Stones Roses, Oasis, Happy Mondays – she’s already got her own band in the pipeline and is often at Ellis’s apartment playing him her new material. “In a strange way she’s going through a phase of writing, like I was a long time ago and she’s always really excited to hear it back, to play it to people,” Ellis says, sounding slightly parental again. “Some of it’s weird and some of its great. No matter what it is it’s interesting because she is just a generally creative person.”

As talk turns to the rest of the year and the series of shows that Deyn will play with the band over the summer, I ask her how her initiation week in the world of music has compared to her modelling career. “Yeah, I kind of like it better,” she replies, sounding a little shy about her admission. Why? “I suppose it’s more manly,” she says, laughing loudly. It’s clear that, despite claiming to be “no Whitney Houston”, Deyn doesn’t want this to end when she boards the plane back to New York. “She definitely wants to go on the road,” Ellis says. “She can handle it, she’s proper hardcore. It’s just a question of time because she’s really, really busy.” Deyn nervously pulls at her dress. “But I’m prepared to be unbusy.”

The original article, published on Monday 16th June 2008, can be found here.

Tundub, et kedagi müstiline link eriti ei kõigutanud. Keegi vastuseid ei nõudnud ega pakkunud, aga ikkagi. Tegu Five O’Clock Heroes‘i uue looga ‘Who’. Blondiin muidugi modell Agyness Deyn. Ilmselt ta siis laulab kah. Nendespeiss kah, sest küll küllale külla läks.

Järgmises kandes Babyshamblesi kontserdist ja võibla midagi veel Londonist.

Een videootje dat ik ontdekte dankzij Girlscene/Fashionscene is er eentje waarin Agyness Deyn zingt samen met de groep Five O’Clock Heroes!

Het stemgeluid van zanger Antony Ellis vind ik erg aangenaam, zeker in combinatie met de frêle stem van Agyness. De man heeft dus veel potentieel als duetzanger. En Agy? Slecht zingen doet ze niet, maar de echo die op haar stem zit, verraadt dat er te veel met de computer aan geprutst is. Als ik het voor de Five O’Clock Heroes te beslissen had, dan zou ik een clip bouwen rond de Britse schoonheid en de vrouwenstem overlaten aan iemand die geen computer nodig heeft om mooi te kunnen zingen. Het liedje op zich is catchy en blijft lekker in m’n hoofd hangen!

Deze fijne video toont Agyness die een prijs uitreikt op de NME Awards USA aan de Arctic Monkeys (Best British Band):

Voor Agyness fans: check op Youtube ook haar Fashion Diary.

Já se foi a era da modelo-atriz. Agora é a vez da modelo-cantora. Ou da atriz-cantora. Ou as três coisas. A tendência na verdade não é nova, mas vem se reforçando e ganhando adeptas de peso (de pouco peso, na verdade).

Veja você. Scarlett Johanson acaba de lançar todo um álbum com suas músicas, do qual já falamos aqui e aqui. Juliette Lewis resolveu representar o papel de musa do rock, mas só provou que, como cantora, é uma ótima atriz. Recentemente foi a vez de Agyness Deyn, a britânica que andam chamando de “nova-kate-moss” (discordo!), cantar e aparecer num vídeo dos nova-iorquinos Five O’Clock Heroes.

Five O’Clock Heroes – Who

Okay. Tipo fraquinho. O que só mostra que Kate Moss é Kate Moss e ninguém substitui a mulher. Nesse vídeo do Primal Scream não só a música e a banda são muito melhores. Ela também canta (um pouco) melhor e não fica parecendo uma emo chata que nem a Agyness:

Primal Scream – Some Velvet Morning

E também tem a produção nacional. Calma que a Gisele – ainda – num começou uma banda não, socorro. É a Geanine Marques, musa do Herchcovitch, ex-vocais da Motel e atual Stop Play Moon. O vídeo não é oficial e nem é muito bom, mas confira a música:

Stop Play Moon – Huhu

Achei digno. Voz bonita, muito potencial pra banda crescer: já estão com shows na gringa e tal. Porque, me desculpem as bonitas, mas saber cantar é fundamental.

Renata Chebel

Agyness Deyn sings and stars in a music video with Five O’Clock Heroes.

Apa perasaan awak?