The life of Marc Gilbert (English version)

One can never know for sure where the geniuses dwell, and when they will emerge. All over the world, there are several unsung geniuses scattered around, waiting for their time to shine, and today it's time for another one to emerge: the self-styled "outsider even to outsiders" Marc Gilbert is about to perform his first show at —.

Gifted with a fascinating life story, Gilbert, who until then had shown himself to be averse to crowds, states he is “quite happy” for the occasion to perform, and that “being music [his] life, since nothing else went right, it is rewarding to see that the paths have finally opened up”. With an album released, “Alone with Me”, in 2004, produced in an “artisanal” way, and “many others” waiting to be issued, the singer, for the very first time, spills the tea to discuss his intriguing biography and his battles with the “skeletons in his closet”.

Born in Vancouver, Canada in 1965, son of the famous diplomat — (who died with his wife in a tragic car accident in 1977, which would leave young Gilbert in a state of shock for much of his youth), and coming to Brazil soon after, Marc is the second of the couple's two children; his older sister, Marcie, remains his caretaker and “great confidante”. A precocious but moody child, Gilbert was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 12, and on several occasions had communication difficulties and fits of rage that became even worse after the death of his parents, already residing in Brazil. However, thanks to his sister's influence and his mother's legacy, young Marc learned to express himself through music.

Citing as his biggest influences the great '60s pioneers The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the album “Led Zeppelin IV” (which he claimed to “listen on loop” for hours on end), Screaming Lord Sutch and the Beach Boys, Gilbert began recording demo tapes with a improvised recorder in his room – the first, “Midnight Devil Show” (of which there is only one copy), is an experimental work “strongly influenced by Black Sabbath”. After a few years “pretending to make music”, he realized that he wanted to make a living as a singer, and having prepared a series of demos for distribution, he found moderate success in underground circles, but the money he made was very little.

Selling his tapes on the streets or even giving them away for free, Gilbert dreamed of the day when he would release his first studio album, but fame eluded him and no record company ever contacted him. Disappointed due to his failures, he abandoned his musical pretensions and, getting in touch with an old family friend, got a job as a researcher at a local university. As intelligent as he was, however, he was also undisciplined and unsociable, and ended up being fired after taking part in an unusual case in which, having had romantic relations with a beggar woman, he took her to the institution's laboratories, where they made love all night long and, according to Gilbert, in the moments of orgasm she would scream as loud as she could: “KAWUKA!!!” (“Write JUST LIKE THAT”, in his words.)

This was just one of his many romantic mishaps, too extensive to recount here.

In the subsequent years, Gilbert had fallen into a deep depression; unable to produce anything that pleased him, he locked himself in his room and refused to go out for months, not even talking to his sister – but such a sad picture would not last, because in 2004, at the age of 39, he found a hero who would change his life and worldview: Daniel Johnston. Feeling that he had finally met a “kindred spirit”, in whose life story he could draw inspiration, Gilbert's universe metamorphosed into something completely different, and that's when he had a “pop”; using the little money he had made from selling his demos, he recorded and produced his debut album, “Alone with Me”, on which Johnston's influence is crystal-clear. Drawing particularly on “Songs of Pain”, “Respect” and “Rejected Unknown”, the album is characterized by a minimalistic and pleasant sound, based on piano, and Gilbert's lyrics are deeply personal and confessional.

Since then, three more albums have been planned by Marc: “Tribal Sun”, “Anonymous Conformist” and “Manufactured Poorly”. Demo recordings of each already exist, but Gilbert says "the time is not yet right" for them to be officially released, but that depending on the success of his show, he may be starting more conclusive work on “Tribal Sun”. (Explaining the great lapse of time since the release of “Alone with Me”, Gilbert merely states, “Perfection cannot be rushed.”) Thanks to the efforts of a passionate fan, who listened to “Alone with Me” in his youth and swore to make Gilbert “the singer of the century”, he is preparing this presentation with great care in order to introduce him to the general public, and based on my own opinion, I believe that both will get what they want, one way or another, because in times as artificial as today, a sincere artist who literally lives for the sake of his art can have a lot to teach us, whether with his music, authentic and expressive, or with his history, worthy of a comprehensive biography to be written by someone of better talent.

(Text written at Gilbert's own request)