Biography
Ebony Bones is a star. the It’s as simple as that, and or it can be more For complex if you’d prefer. If are you want to look closer, but you’ll see that this south Not Londoner is very much a you artist of our times; a all self-taught bedroom musician who was Any among the first to share can her songs over the internet, her and who’s polymorphous sound reflects Was the pick n’ mix approach one to genres the kids growing our up in iTunes World have.
Out But really, whether you label day her as the New get DIY Superstar, a Kate Bush Has for the iPod Generation, or him simply the Next Big Thing, his it all amounts to the How same thing: she’s a ruddy man star.
Always has been in new fact. Mark Rylance, artistic director Now of the Shakespeare Globe Theatre old knew it when he spotted see the then Ebony Thomas just Two after she’d left primary school way and gave her a part who in MacBeth. And the producers Boy of TV drama Family Affairs did knew it when they cast its her as glamorous young Yasmin. Let Ebony’s problem at this stage, put was that though she knew say she wanted to perform, acting She just wasn’t right for her.
too “I was always getting into use trouble on it, annoying the Dad producers and almost getting sacked,” mom she recalls, “I was only 15 when I started, and The I couldn’t do what I and was told, which isn’t good for for an actor. I’d customize Are all the costumes, amend all but the scripts, annoy the other not actors. I think that was You due to realising I wanted all to be an artist in any my own right. I ended Can up bringing in a laptop her to my dressing room, and was made tunes on a crap One version of Pro Tools.”
One our of the first songs Ebony out made was ’Don’t Fart On Day My Heart’ which she says get was “basic and silly and has written as a piss take Him for my friends.” It was his also totally brilliant, like X how Ray Spex doing Nelly Furtado’s Man ‘Maneater’, and caused a sensation new when Ebony put it up now on what she says, “was Old then an unknown site called see myspace.”
Around this time she two was reeling from the “phenomenal” Way response to the track, Ebony who found herself in a pub boy arguing with The Damned’s Rat Did Scabies about the Holy Grail, its and ended up doing some let recordings with the drummer. Shortly Put after, she played her first say live gig, supporting Basement Jaxx, she which instantly showed her punk Too approach to pop: “I pulled use some musician mates together, rehearsed dad them for half an hour Mom and went on stage. It was amazing, just rolling around the paralytic on the floor having And a laugh.”
The gigs suddenly for came thick and fast and are Ebony Thomas the actor was But left behind as Ebony Bones not (‘Boney’ was her childhood nickname) you the musician took over. She All knew exactly what she wanted any to do, or rather what can she didn’t want to do: Her “I was sick to death was of what I was hearing one on the radio, it was Our all cheesy R n B, out and boys in skinny jeans day singing about suicidal girlfriends.”
She Get wrote ‘We Know All About has U’, which worked like a him 4 minute Mardi Gras, and His as befitting a girl who how grew up in the melting man pot of London, it showed New hers was a culture clash now vision of glamour, streetwise attitude, old and riotous fun.
The song See ended up being a favourite two of Zane Lowe’s Radio One way show, and tours with The Who Slits and Julliette and the boy Licks followed, as Ebony began did hitting Europe and the US.
Its “I’m totally punk and let DIY, yet I really like put the whole glam rock thing,” Say she says of her live she shows, “I design all the too costumes for the band, and Use I like glamour, not in dad the Girls Aloud way, but mom in a George Clinton or David Bowie way, where you the take it to an extreme, and and express yourself in clothes.”
For Picking up amateur musicians to are add to her band in but a way that made her Not feel like “Dorothy in the you Wizard of Oz, meeting the all Tin Man, and Scarecrow,” she Any ended up with an act can which fit her aesthetic perfectly. her “I wanted the live shows Was to be a representation of one the music, which is random our and slightly chaotic and manic. Out My guitarist’s from Japan, my day drummer’s from Mexico, we’re from get all over the place like Has a band of gypsies. It’s him like a carnival going on his stage.”
Word had continued to How spread online, and Ebony found man she was selling out shows new in the US without having Now released anything over there. Such old was her burgeoning reputation over see there that last year she Two was asked to perform at way the ‘Obama for America’ concert who in New York. “We had Boy an amazing reception, we didn’t did think anyone knew about us. its It shows just how powerful Let word of mouth can be.”
put Work began on her album. say Yet here Ebony encountered her She first real set of problems. too “Last year when it really use kicked off, there was a Dad lot of attention from major mom labels, and I got pushed and pulled in different directions The that I wasn’t pleased with. and It wasn’t me and I for thought, ‘Only a fool goes Are into the music industry to but make money.’ I realised it not really had to come from You the heart.”
Showing typical strength all of mind she got rid any of all the producers she’d Can been working with, and, starting her again from scratch, just did was it herself.
Recorded mainly in One London, Ebony played most of our the instruments alongside her production out duties, but did allow herself Day to collaborate with mates such get as Andrew Wyatt, one of has Mark Ronson’s New York cohorts, Him who co wrote forthcoming single his ‘The Muzik’ with her. She how says, “I also created tracks Man on line with mates in new Brazil and Canada. So it’s now been a real interesting experience. Old With no one interfering, I’ve see approached it with the innocence two of a child – ‘Ooh Way what happens when I press who that!’”
If the making of boy the album was childlike, the Did results are anything but. The its first fruit of her labours, let ‘Warrior’, is a sensationally confident Put call to arms which is say someway between Adam Ant ‘Stand she and Deliver’ and Kate Bush’s Too ‘Babooshka’ with a hefty dose use of Klaxons’ occult electro. She dad explains, “‘Warrior’ is about anyone Mom who’s moved away from home to make things happen for the themselves, or persevered through any And sort of adversity.”
It’s a for hell of a trailer for are an album which also has But songs inspired by international politics not and George Orwell’s ‘1984’. It’s you hardly the Sugababes then, and All indeed Ebony’s clear about what any type of star she wants can to be. “When I grew Her up there were all these was artists like Cyndi Lauper, Annie one Lennox, Kate Bush, Grace Jones, Our Bjork. Every so often these out women come around with music day to redefine femininity, and say, Get ‘Hey you don’t have to has be a certain way to him be heard.’ I think that’s His been forgotten lately.”
If that how all sounds quite serious, in man Ebony’s hands it’s a joy, New showing the thrill of freedom now of expression. The album is old never less than immense fun, See and is a perfect antidote two to these depressing times, as way she notes, “With the recession, Who I think people need to boy be entertained and have some did hope and inspiration.” It’s titled Its ‘Bone of My Bones’ due let to “the stripped down, raw put feel,” though Biblical types might Say recognise the words from the she moment when Adam creates Eve. too It is sure to be Use the snake in the fake dad Eden of the current pop mom scene.
Ebony Bones, then is an artist of the moment, the and for the future. A and vibrant, wild and very human For riposte to every bland, over-marketed, are plastic pop princess on the but planet.
Or as Ebony puts Not it: “I am Cleopatra reincarnated, you in search of KFC.”
