Only the melancholy?

Chris Isaak is famous for his heartsick music. Can he keep his loneliness in check?

The Tribune
October 29, 1998
By Thomas Bond

Chris Isaak's music is nothing if not melancholy. He's made quite, a career out of playing the lonesome, lovesick soul. "I don't do much writing that's not about myself, but I don't think it should matter to anybody else that it's about me," Isaak says. "My intent is to write things that should ring true for their lives. What do people care about what's going on in my life?

"(A song) should ring true for their own lives and the best way to make it ring true for other people is to make it be as true as you can about yourself."

Given that, the lovelorn laments he's filled seven albums with, including the just-released Speak of the Devil, are mirrored in Isaak's life. At 42, he's a bachelor who has never been married.

"When you love people, you're supposed to want them to be happy, but that really doesn't happen too often," the singer-songwriter says. "Mostly people, when they love somebody, they love you for what they want you to be, not for what you are. They look at you and say, 'You fit some of my fantasy perfectly--now just change the rest.'"

To keep his mind off romantic entanglements, Isaak has long been involved in the film industry. He's acted, albeit mostly in small roles, for such directors as Jonathan Demme, David Lynch, Tom Hanks, and Bernardo Bertolucci. The acting has given rise to a new hobby.

"I've been writing film scripts. It gives me something to do besides watch TV!" Isaak laughs. Though none of them have been filmed to this point,the excerise has helped Isaak uncover a different facet of his creative personality.

"I've written some different ideas for film scripts and all my film script ideas are very upbeat. Everybody is a good guy and they have happy endings," Isaak says. "I was really surprised that for me, a guy who writes music that's very kind of minor key and melancholy or lovelorn, when I'm writing film scripts I think I'm Frank Capra or something !"

Still, the movies are just a sideline for Isaak at this point as his successful recording career has entered its second decade. Since breaking through to the musicial mainstream at the turn of the decade with the single Wicked Game ( and his steamy star turn with supermodel Helena Christiansen in the song's video), has there been a lot of record company presure to deliver another blockbuster tune?

"I'm sure they'd always love to have a hit single and that's why on the album previous to this one (1996's Baja Sessions), I gave them some Hawaiian music and sang some songs in Japanese. I figured that would go right down the middle and knock Madonna off the charts!" Isaak laughs.

He's equally unconcerned with critics who have long claimed he's a nothing more than a Roy Orbison clone.

"The more sophisticated and hip reviewers try to be, the more I think they dislike me. They see me on TV or something and I'm being silly when I'm not singing. There's nothing enigmatic or deep about being silly," Isaak says. "I guess they're looking for somebody who's scowling and smoking a cigarette. Maybe they'd like me more if I was going through rehab or something".

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