A charlatan and a crackpot have gotten together to record an album. Yes, that’s correct. Charlatans U.K. frontman Tim Burgess and unpredictable jackass actor Joaquin Phoenix have teamed-up together to write an album for the actor who wants to turn musician.
Apparently after Phoenix learned to play guitar for his role as Johnny Cash in “Walk The Line,” he found that it was therapeutic to sing about the frogs in his hair eating his brain.
However, whether the album actually comes out remains to be seen. “Once he learned guitar, he found that he had quite a lot of demons inside himself that he wanted to expel through music,” Burgess said – the Charlatans frontman now lives in Los Angeles where he and Phoenix met. Burgess is mixing the album with obstreperous Creation Records owner Alan McGee.
But Phoenix’s notoriously difficult, fussy and agitated approach to work seems to be onhand once again. “All the tracks that me and Alan worked with him on were brilliant,” says Burgess. “But I think he just keeps scrapping everything or redoing everything. I’m sad to say that I think it’s one of those records that may never come out, to be honest with you.”
“It’s an ongoing thing,” he continues. “I’m trying to get Alan to force him to put it out at the moment, but I don’t know whether it will (get released).”
Phoenix has been getting closer to rock in the last few years having directed videos for Ringside, She Wants Revenge, Albert Hammond Jr., Silversun Pickups and other indie bands.
“I always say that he’s crazy and mental, but I mean it in a very positive way [ed. suuuuure you do]. He’s very excited. He was just so into it, sometimes he’d just shout things. He was really, really focused,” said Silversun frontman Brian Aubert.
Watch: Silversun Pickups – “Little Lover’s So Polite” (directed by Joaquin Phoenix)
