It strikes us as strange that Hollywood renaissance man James Franco hasn’t explored his musical potential more extensively before now. In terms of his creative output as a ‘slashie’ he has always been more then one step ahead of the rest when it comes to diversifying: versatile and awarded actor? Tick. Friend to Spiderman? Tick. Face of successful fragrance? Tick. Published author? Yes. Exhibited multi-media artist? Yes. Soap opera cameo designed around performance art piece? Check. Able to comfortably tick off all aforementioned criteria, Franco can now also remove “launch a music career” from his to-do list.
Yesterday, attendees at American designer Cynthia Rowley’s fashion show at New York Fashion Week received a surprise serenade from none other then Franco and his musical/art partner-in-crime, New York City performance artist Kalup Linzy.
One of three tracks sent in by the musical duo to Rowley, Franco and Linzy’s song called “I Love You” accompanied the stiletto wearing, scantily clad models as they strutted down the runway during the finale of the Rowley show. Linzy, who is a longtime Fashion Week veteran, likens Fashion Shows to another form of performance art, commenting that “just like artists make paintings to go on a wall or perform in a way to fit a space, they’re designing clothes to fit people’s bodies. It’s like watching a moving sculpture.”
With Franco and Linzy’s track being mixed by NY band The Misshapes – the result (which you can hear properly at The Cut) was a rather ambient, catchy pop-house, contextually appropriate foray into the music/fashion world. Just a side note though – does anyone actually care what it sounds like when James Franco can be heard singing the words “I Love You”? [Answer: yes]
So what’s next for this entrepreneurial and multi-talented duo? It is said that their CD (if and when it comes out) will be an extension of their previous performance works, which included a not so forgettable performance of Linzy’s song “Chewing Gum” sung while the two wore bleached blond wigs at Sundance last month. They are also said to be producing videos to accompany their future live performances.
Franco can’t really sing (as you can decipher in the various clips below), but he didn’t really cut his arm off either so there’s that.
“Cruisin’ for Love” by Kursaal Flyers
Image by: Rob Kim via Getty
