I saw Duncan Sheik at Schubas in Chicago... a perfect little venue should you ever get the chance.

So there I was, basking aurally in Duncan's liquid, melodious strains...and after concluding A Mirror in the Heart, it was quiet...so very quiet that as he was selecting a guitar to begin tuning for the next piece I suddenly uttered, 'Thank you, Duncan.' I was only about ten feet away from him...and my voice obviously carried as the ripples of laughter and then clapping moved through the room...

Duncan replied 'You're welcome,' smiling.

It was so intimate... There we were, a hundred or so devotees and an artist. And I was thinking, wow, how fortunate to get the chance to do such a simple thing as thank a musician that affects you, someone who contributes to the soundtrack of your life. A person capable of making you relive every centimeter of your pain, or revel in the elation of love without even knowing you.
Duncan Scott Sheik was born on November 18th 1969 in Montclair, New Jersey. At age five, he was already learning to play the piano and became increasingly interested in the guitar as a teenager. His grandmother, a former student of Julliard, encouraged his musical talents while he grew up in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Sheik attended Brown University where he started writing songs. There he joined a band called Liz and Lisa, which included Lisa Loeb. A year later, Sheik left the band to persue a career on his own. Sheik signed with Atlantic Records.

In 1996, Duncan Sheik came out with his self-titled debut, produced by Rupert Hine. Rolling Stones called it " a defiant debut- beautiful and benevolent of spirit." The album included singles She Runs Away and Barely Breathing, which can still occasionally be heard on the radio. However, the record went mainly unnoticed until 1997 when an advertisement for the music video of Barely Breathing became more agressively used, bringing it to the public eye. Sheik spent two years touring with this record. He toured with Jewel and Jars of Clay among others, and also had this own North American club tour. The second song on the album In the Absence of the Sun was used for the movie The Saints. The album showed Sheik to be a promising singer, with gentle songs the way of Nick Drake and others.

Humming, Sheik's second album, was released in the fall of 1998. This album intertwined more drum with better orchestration than the first album, with help of the London Orchestra. Alibi, Humming's fourth track, was used in the movie Three To Tango. Earlier that year Sheik's single Wishful Thinking was found on the Great Expectations' soundtract.

Towards the Closing of 2000, Duncan Sheik put out a third album, Phantom Moon, which again links Sheik's closeness to Nick Drake (one of his albums was titled Pink Moon.) The songs from this album were writen in collaboration with Steven Sater, a poet and playwrite. As one song ends, the next seems to pick up where the other left off, a great technique for the soothing tracks. Different instruments are used in this album, such as the glockenspeil, the double bass and the harmonium.

Daylight, the title of Sheik's forthcoming album, is tentively scheduled to be released in August 2002.

discography
Duncan Sheik 1996
1. She Runs Away
2. In The Absence of Sun
3. Barely Breathing
4. Reasons for Living
5. Days Go By
6. Serena
7. Out Of Order
8. November
9. Home
10. The End Of Outside
11. Little Hands

Humming 1998
1. In Between
2. Rubbed out
3. Bite Your Tounge
4. Alibi
5. Varying Degrees of Con-Artistry
6. That Says It All
7. Everyone, Everywhere
8. A Body Goes Down
9. Nothing Special
10. House Full of Riches
11. Nichiren
12. Foreshadowing: Over and Out

Phantom Moon 2000
1. The Wildreness: Prelude
2. Longing Town
3. Mr. Chess
4. The Winds That Blow
5. Mouth on Fire
6. Sad Stephen's Song
7. Time and Good Fortune
8. Far Away
9. This Is How My Heart Heard
10. A Mirror In The Heart
11. Lo and Behold
12. Requiescat
13. The Wilderness

Humming Along Date released unknown. (These are all covers so the original artist's name is to the right of the title)
1. River Man - Nick Drake
2. Blasphemous Rumors - Depeche Mode
3. Reel Around the Mountain - The Smiths
4. Orpheus - David Sylvian

sources http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Akrkxiklabbf9
http://www.duncansheik.com/
http://www.hiponline.com/artist/music/s/sheik_duncan/
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Cabaret/8172/ http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/default.asp?oid=198

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