Matthew (The Fleeting Ends)
SPB: What is your favorite book about music?
Matthew: My favorite book about music would have to be Starman -- a David Bowie biography that paints a fascinating portrait of someone that I'd quite confidently call a complete original. I love reading about his complete refusal to give up on his long and hard fight for success and, just when he captures the world's attention with his creation of the Ziggy Stardust character, he kills him off and moves on to a number of other sounds and images. I especially loved reading about his creation of "Plastic Soul" with the "Young Americans" album which he recorded in my hometown of Philadelphia. Most artists would savor the success he had with that number one album, but he continued to recreate his sound, moving to Berlin to create Low, Lodger and Heroes. Then comes most people's favorite "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps" which, in my opinion, gave birth to bands like the Pixies. The man just continued to recreate himself with albums like "Let's Dance". It seems that every time he had himself a hit sound or image, he would go and fearlessly reinvent himself and I think that's the type of bravery that musicians these days could learn from.
