Mick Karn
Karn in November 1982
Background information
Birth name	Andonis Michaelides
Born	(1958-07-24)24 July 1958 Nicosia, British Cyprus
Died	4 January 2011(2011-01-04) (aged 52) London, England
Genres	Avant-garde experimental rock post-punk new wave
Instrument(s)	Fretless bass guitar saxophone bass clarinet oboe
Years active	1974–2010
Labels	Virgin CMP Medium Productions
Formerly of	Japan Dalis Car
Website	mickkarn.net

Andonis Michaelides (Greek: Αντώνης Μιχαηλίδης; 24 July 1958 – 4 January 2011), better known as Mick Karn, was an English-Cypriot musician and songwriter who rose to fame as the bassist for the art rock/new wave band Japan. His distinctive fretless bass guitar sound and melodic playing style were a trademark of the band's sound.

Early life

Karn was born Andonis Michaelides in Nicosia on 24 July 1958. When he was three, his Greek Cypriot parents moved with him to London, where he was raised. In his youth, he began playing mouth organ at the age of seven and violin at the age of eleven, before he took up playing bassoon for the school orchestra. As a bassoon player he performed with the London Schools Symphony Orchestra in a concert in October 1972 which was broadcast by Radio 4. However, when his bassoon was stolen and his school refused to buy him a new one, he bought a bass guitar for £5 from a school friend. At school he became friends with David Sylvian and his younger brother Steve. As an escape from their south London environment, they began to play music together, and in June 1974 they made their first public performance.^[1]

Career

Japan

Japan in Toronto, 24 November 1979

Main article: Japan (band)

Initially with Karn as lead vocalist, their band christened themselves Japan in 1974. Joined by keyboardist Richard Barbieri and guitarist Rob Dean the following year, they signed a recording contract with German disco label Hansa in 1977, with whom they recorded three studio albums and became an alternative glam rock outfit in the mould of David Bowie, T.Rex, and The New York Dolls. They switched to Virgin Records to record their subsequent albums Gentlemen Take Polaroids and Tin Drum.^[2]

As the band started to achieve commercial success with the release of Tin Drum and specifically the single "Ghosts", which reached the top five in 1982, tensions and personality conflicts between band members arose. Tin Drum was to be the band's final studio album. Long-simmering differences among the band members came to a head when Karn's girlfriend, photographer Yuka Fujii, moved in with Sylvian, and the individual members forged ahead with their own projects.^[3][4] Karn said in an interview that as tensions with their record company had abated following Japan's commercial success, band members began focusing on personal differences rather than on the common enemy.^[5]

Musical style

Karn was essentially a self-taught musician, stating, "I rely very much on my ears. If it sounds as if it's the right thing, then I'll keep it—even if it may not be."^[16] His first musical instrument was bassoon, with which he attended and passed an LSSO audition. After his bassoon was stolen from him, he purchased a bass guitar for £5. It was then he joined up with David Batt (Sylvian), who played acoustic guitar.^[17]

Karn was principally the bassist within Japan, but also played all the wind instruments, including the saxophone; on Tin Drum, he played the Chinese suona (credited as "dida") for the authentic oriental sound. Karn's use of the fretless bass guitar, a relatively unusual instrument in modern popular music, produces a distinctive sound and playing style, which makes his playing immediately recognisable.^[10]

Karn played an aluminium-neck Travis Bean bass on all Japan albums up to Gentlemen Take Polaroids. In 1981, he moved on to Wal basses, purchasing two Mark I instruments, one with rare African tulipwood facings, the other a cherry solidbody. Karn recorded Japan's last studio album Tin Drum with the Wal and had continued to use these, along with a headless Klein K Bass.

Sculpture and painting

Karn was a self-taught sculptor working mainly in clay, although he explored other mediums. He held several exhibitions. He also painted in oils and experimented with using ceramic on the canvas to create a 3D effect. He was photographed in the early 1980s by Steve Jansen. Several of his paintings were used as sleeve covers for his music including, "Buoy" and "The Concrete Twin". His sculpture "Mask of Confidence", combining his hands with the arms, upper torso and face of photographer Yuka Fujii, was used as the inner sleeve cover for Kajagoogoo's Islands album. Karn, influenced by Chinese edible folk sculpture dating back thousands of years, also experimented in designing and creating edible life size portraiture, some of which were showcased at his restaurant "The Penguin Cafe". Karn said, "There was a definite change in style when I stopped using self-hardening clay in the mid '80s and began sculpting with more conventional clay. Finding it much more malleable, the pieces could be worked on a larger scale and needn't be focused, as was the case previously, on small detail." He continued to sculpt throughout his life and eventually learned to fire his own pieces.

Personal life

Karn had two diplomas in psychotherapy from a West London college, entitling him to call himself "Member of the Associated Stress Consultants, Psychotherapy, and Regression & Hypno-analysis".^[18]

Illness and death

In June 2010, Karn announced on his website that he had been diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer, though the specific type of cancer was not mentioned. Although singer Peter Murphy said during an interview that Karn was suffering terminal brain cancer, this has not been confirmed.^[19] According to David Torn, Karn's cancer had already spread, and he was undergoing chemotherapy.^[20] The website announcement stated that Karn had been struggling financially for some time and appealed for donations to help pay for his medical care and provide financial assistance for his family. In addition, several people Karn had worked with, in particular Midge Ure,^[20] Porcupine Tree,^[19] and Masami Tsuchiya,^[12] announced concerts in support of the appeal. According to a website update, dated 3 September 2010, the funds raised by the appeal enabled Karn and his family to move back to London, where Karn received treatment.^[19] However, the cancer had spread beyond the possibility of treatment, and he died at his home in London on 4 January 2011.^[9][21][22]

Discography

Written works

• Japan & Self Existence publisher: MK Music. Biography, covering his life from 1958 to 2006.

References

• "Mick Karn: Honorable tension", Interview by Anil Prasad, Innerviews.org
• Rymer, Paul "History of Japan", Nightporter.co.uk

Footnotes

External links

• Mick Karn.net
• Mick Karn discography at Discogs