Making it as a musician is a pipe dream for many a young small-town kid. This documentary takes that well-worn story and pushes it up to a whole new level of baroque deceit and intrigue.
It starts out with an audition in London and a new hip-hop duo from a tiny town in Scotland, Arbroath, trying to get noticed as 'the next Eminem'. Instead of success, however, they meet with derision and are laughed out of the studio with the phrase 'the rapping Proclaimers' ringing in their ears.
It starts out with an audition in London and a new hip-hop duo from a tiny town in Scotland, Arbroath, trying to get noticed as 'the next Eminem'. Instead of success, however, they meet with derision and are laughed out of the studio with the phrase 'the rapping Proclaimers' ringing in their ears.
Determined to try again and make the music industry executives sit up and listen, they call around venues in London and put on fake American accents, pretending to be a hip-hop duo from California, 'Silibil 'n' Brains', looking to build up a presence in London. They were booked on the spot and signed to a record label within days of their first gig.
What I love about this story is the surreal hilarity of two young guys from a town that is know for not much more than a variety of smoked fish, taking on the music industry and duping seasoned A&R executives into thinking they were 'street' and 'real'.
Listening to these guys, I'm amazed they ever took anyone in as their American accents are not that convincing and not very Californian either. At best, they sound Canadian. If they had ever encountered even one real American in their escapades, especially a Californian, I imagine their cover would have been blown very quickly.
They kept up the pretense for a matter of years, however, and were set to release an album and single until the pressure of the lie got to them and they broke up. 'Silibil' aka Billy Boyd went back to Arbroath to get married, have children and work on a oil rig. 'Brains McLoud' aka Gavin Bain, stayed in London and continued to try and make it big as a musician but went through many dark nights of the soul along the way.
The documentary itself isn't that great. It is a po-faced and deeply sincere about the entire saga, painting it as a tragic story of big ambitions gone awry. To me the real value of this story is the humor in it. It's absolutely hilarious that two kids from the middle of nowhere conned senior music industry types into thinking they were actual real live Americans from the 'hood. It is a classic American fable of self-made dreamers who turn fantasy into reality through nothing more than chutzpah and initiative. Their story is more American than Silibil 'n' Brains ever were.
I'm not sure why the documentary-maker took such a serious angle on the story. Possibly it may be down to the suicide attempt of one of the duo, Gavin McBain, who struggled to adapt back to reality once the Silibil 'n' Brains fantasy was exposed. Perhaps she felt a duty to keep a serious tone to the story to recognize the hardships faced by Gavin.
The music industry is built on fakery. Lady Gaga, Lana del Ray, Rihanna, even the Great White Rappers, Eminem and the Beastie Boys, have built their careers on fake personas. I had mistakenly always thought that The Beastie Boys were from some urban ghetto in Pittsburgh or somewhere so I was very surprised to read this article in the NY Times and discover that the members were in fact nice middle-class Jewish boys from nice New York suburbs.
Nothing about the industry is authentic. There are musicians who have achieved mainstream success who live true to their values like Björk and Arcade Fire but the mainstream pop artists are just playing a role. Who really knows the truth about who they are and where they're from? At least these two guys managed to turn that superficiality of the industry to work in their favor. Good luck to them for that.
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