Man Parrish is a New York City composer, songwriter, vocalist and producer. During its heyday, Man was a member of the extended Studio 54 family and was soon appearing regularly in Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine. Hobnobbing with the elite ....... His premier release was "Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don’t Stop)" issued in 1982, which was featured in the film Shaun of the Dead, the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and was sampled in Sway & King Tech's 1991 song "Follow 4 Now" from their second album "Concrete Jungle."
I really became aware of Mr. Parrish throughour mutual friends Manoush, Cherry Vanilla, Donna Destri and Paul Zone. They all admire his work and love him as a person.. I know that he has been trying to get a book deal and recently had began releasing tantalizing tidbits of his life on You Tube . So I decided to interview him. I hope you enjoy my interview with the iconic Man Parrish
Punk Globe: Man can you give us some background on your long illustrious career?
Man: Wow… Let’s see… Illustrious? Well some of it has certainly been in the pits and some of it has been fabulous! I’m so old I’m actually celebrating 45 years of the music business LOL. Since I was the only guy in New York City that had several synthesizers and a small recording studio, basically all of downtown New York whelmed up asking me to do music. I work with amazing people like Cherry Vanilla, Klaus Nomi, John Sex and had a band called Shox Lumania. Joey Arias was my lift mate! Joey was working at the legendary Firorucci store in Manhattan with his red hair. They did an anniversary party at Studio 54 and I had my Hip Hop Be Bop song out, So Joey recommended that I be the main performer For their massive celebrity attended event. If it wasn’t for Joey, I wouldn’t have the costumes and make up that people associate with my live shows. I came down from the ceiling at studio 54 to a pack house of celebrities, and madonna was my opening act! Since then… I’ve worked with many greats like boy George, Michael Jackson, Gloria Gaynor, Crystal Waters, Steve Bronski, Steve Strange and Visage. I even managed a village people for six years and toward the world with them. Recently the prestigious Museum Of Modern Art (MoMA) Included me in one of their exhibit at the museum. It was a downtown retrospective that included other downtown or just like Keith Harring, Jean Michel Basquat, and others. They also included three of my pieces of music into their permanent collection! That’s kind of unheard of so it’s a big honor for me! Recently I did a remix of a track with Roberta Flack doing vocals… My God… Now that I’m writing all this down it seems like a lot! And funny… I often feel like I’ve never even gotten quite started yet!
Punk Globe: Tell us about some of people that you have collaborated with in your career?
Man: There’s been so many but I think the previous question covers most of the household maintenance. I’ve worked with a lot of independent and unknown groups to and smaller less established artist. I’m not a musical “snob” and if I think music is good I’m open to ideas and collaborations!
Punk Globe: When did you decide to write a book about your life?
Man: I know… I’ve been telling stories to my friends all my life. People kept telling me you have to write this stuff down. About three years ago I tried to do it. I’m a terrible, terrible writer. So I asked other people to help me call write a book. One of the big things I wanted to make sure of is, when I write a book and you collaborate, I didn’t want my “voice” To be edited. So after three writers , and a agent (that did the Barack Obama book) Kept telling me “you can’t say this” “you can’t do that” I decided instead, to do my book as a YouTube video series. Now you can hear it directly from my mouth, on edited, etc.
Punk Globe: Had you already penned the book or were you going to be writing from your memories, diaries, notes etc?
Man: Once I decided to put a book together, I kept a little digital notepad going in my phone. Different things with trigger memories and no matter how small or big I would write them down. Sometimes I would go back and remember deeper details on a particular subject and I just expanded my notes. I had a huge list! I started to realize that some of the stories are good and if I put him in a book in physical form, the book would be 500 pages long. The YouTube video series “Man Parrish Stories” Allows me to get more words in and that compact format, still tell my stories and not drag a reader through 10 pages of text.
Punk Globe: Did you work with an agent who was shopping your book?
Man: I had a really good agent! He worked on Barack Obama‘s book. When it came to signing the contract, all of a sudden things got stupid. One of the causes which is VERY old-school, is that he wanted to hold all of my money and then pay me after he took his cut. Now while that is old school standard, in today’s publishing you do something called a letter of distribution that goes your publisher. Your publisher is instructed to directly pay your agent, call riders etc. and then send you the difference. This way the accounting is in one place and not spread over several people. The agent flipped out on me and wouldn’t budge. I told him, “if you put my money in your bank account and happen to read model your kitchen that months, and can’t pay it back when I need it, I’m screwed“. A letter of direction to the publisher would solve that. He brought up all kinds of drama about me not trusting him. I told him it was not trust, it was just good business. He shut down on me and told me he didn’t want to be involved. Then I thought… If this guy is wimping out after a 10 minute phone conversation, and how strong would he be standing up against hard-core negotiators in the publishing business, getting me a good deal. At that point I realized this was not the way to go. Hence the YouTube video series.
Punk Globe: If so, how long had that been for?
Man: I’ve been dragging the idea around of my book for three years with many false starts. I got tired of waiting for other people, and waiting for “commission“ from agents, publishers and other riders on whether my story was valid.
Punk Globe: You decided to release your story on YouTube tell the readers about your decision to go that route?
Man: I couldn’t take waiting around. I’m an artist and a record producer and I produce content. Some projects take longer than others, I understand that. But after three years, with no end in sight, I understand that my book project would’ve gone stale. So I basically started a new format… Visual audio book, and posted it on YouTube for free.
Punk Globe: Do you have your own channel?
Man: Yes! It’s my first! It’s called “Man Parrish Stories” as of this writing I have about 25 five minute videos. I’ve put time into “seasons“ to make it easier for view was to digest. Each season has 10 short 5–10 minute videos. I’m currently on season three as of this writing.
Punk Globe: Are you charging any fee to view?
Man: I’m keeping it for free! I’m hoping Netflix, Hulu, Apple or somebody else looking for streaming content might be interested in this. I have a really cool way to break this into individual TV episodes!
Punk Globe: Is there an address for you at YouTube?
Man: Well... You can search Youtube for: Man Parrish Stories
Or this link will show you all the current videos:
https://m.youtube.com/channel/
Punk Globe: Are you doing weekly installments?
Man: Actually right now I’m doing daily installments! There’s so much in my head it keeps me awake at night. I have stories about Michael Jackson, Madonna, Freddie Mercury, how I made music and I just put up a very difficult story about how I was sexually abused by a doctor. That one was real heavy and kept me awake at night for several days before I uploaded it. Wow… I truly am telling it all!
Punk Globe: How has the response been?
Man: I’m very surprised that I check the thumbs up and thumbs down. Right now I have 100% thumbs up so people are really liking it! And getting tons of private and public replacing people are basically telling me “Hey...This stuff is so cool and keep going!” My favorite response was “Netflix, eat your heart out”.
Punk Globe: I am sure you have some killer stories involving some prominent stars. Who are some that you will be featuring?
Man: Boy George, Michael Jackson, Freddie Prince, Madonna, Steve Strange and Visage, Village People, Man2Man, Paul Zone, Steve Bronski, Cherry Vanilla, Roberta Flack, Gloria Gaynor… and More! LOL talk about dropping names LOL!
Punk Globe: Are you using this as a way to attract a publishing company to release your book?
Man: Not only publishers… But I actually see this as a video series filmed in a Netflix or HBO type fashion. I have a great idea how to break this down into individual episodes. But yes, of course, and the publisher, filmmaker or TV person can get in touch with me to my manParrish.com website, or on Facebook via ManParrishArtist.
Punk Globe: Any last words for Punk Globe readers
Man: I know this is normally the section where I think you and I absolutely and hold heartedly with love to! But I also want to let YOUR readers know that you are truly an amazing person! They don’t understand the love and effort that it takes to put something like this together. You work hard for little or no money but you are definitely an important person in our business that are keeping all of our stores alive. And that Ginger my darling, is more valuable than gold. Thank you!
Punk Globe: Thank you so very much for your kind words.... I can't wait for more Man Parrish
