Gnarls Barkley is Crazier Than I Thought

I interviewed Cee-Lo Green from Gnarls Barkley last week. You can read the article that resulted from it here or below in it's entirety.

Despite dressing as Stanley Kubrick's “Clockwork Orange” characters in promotional photos or their “Star Wars”-inspired performance at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, Gnarls Barkley is a band not to be taken lightly.

They hit No. 1 on the U.K. pop singles charts without selling a single CD — a first time feat for digital sales alone. Success for Gnarls Barkley followed in the United States when they released their debut album, “St. Elsewhere,” which debuted at No. 8 on Billboard's Top 200.

Even though the duo — producer/DJ Danger Mouse and Goodie Mob member Cee-Lo — like to play dress-up for live performances, it doesn't mean they want to do the same in their videos.

“A show is for the moment, and a video has much more infinite possibilities. We concentrate more on the sentiment of the album,” says Cee-Lo, who will perform with Danger Mouse 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 15, at the Showboat's House of Blues in Atlantic City. “The video for ‘Crazy'was pretty damn appropriate for the song.

“I don't think any video has to be funny. Amusing maybe. Am I clowning around in big shoes for people? Because I'm not.”

Cee-Lo (born Thomas Callaway) went on to explain when the promotional photos for Gnarls Barkley were first taken, the duo didn't think they were going to be a touring band. Even though Cee-Lo admits they weren't taking themselves too seriously in the beginning, the dressing up for live performances stuck — especially for the fans.

“It prolongs the interest and the mystique and the enthusiasm, and they can't wait for us to come back through and wonder who we are going to be next time,” says Cee-Lo.

Gnarls Barkley's fan base is wide due to the variety of songs on “St. Elsewhere” — an album recorded for the majority without a record label attached to it. Cee-Lo also points out: “We started this album before Danger did the Grey album (mash-up of Beatles'”White Album” album and Jay-Z's “Black Album”) or (producing) Gorillaz.”

Cee-Lo describes Gnarls starting out as “an experiment to see what we could end up with.”

The result included tracks such as the soul freak out “Crazy” and the Violent Femmes'cover of “Gone Daddy Gone,” providing a crossover appeal for indie rock, R&B and hip-hop fans alike.

The varying factor fans cannot agree about is where the name Gnarls Barkley originated. Cee-Lo says he is not necessarily a sports fan  — elminating the Charles Barkley theory.

“Gnarls Barkley started out as something we tossed around,” says Cee-Lo. “We thought the sound (of Gnarls Barkley) was unique and peculiar and we decided to put a peculiar name on there.”

Another curious thing about Gnarls is Cee-Lo's vocals on “St. Elsewhere” are mainly singing, not rapping as he displayed in past projects.

“With rapping or emceeing … I'm going to deny harmony to do hip-hop,” says Cee-Lo. “Harmony is the first that comes to me. I do believe that the possibilities are just much more with harmonies. There are so many shapes and variations. …(It's like) just sitting there with just some Play-Doh or something. …I heard melodies through (Danger Mouse's) music.”