Vincent D'Onofrio – the actor perhaps best known for his scene-stealing work as Pvt. Lawrence in Full Metal Jacket and as the Detective Robert Goren in the show Law & Order – looks set to have a busy year ahead of him.
The veteran actor will be featuring in four major productions this year (including the hotly anticipated Jurassic World), as well as the debut of Netflix' first Marvel series, Daredevil.
But in amongst it all, D‘Onofrio has managed to quietly sneak in time to work on a ’spoken word punk record’ which is scheduled to drop on March 3.
But you won’t have to wait that long to get a glimpse of what’s in store. The first track – I Am a Hamster – is now on Soundcloud, and it’s every bit as eccentric as the title suggests:
https://soundcloud.com/slimboneheadvolt/im-a-hamster/s-R5Nrd
D'Onofrio’s lighter side, particularly in the musical sphere, may come as a surprise to fans of his acting work.
His long filmography includes titles which have seen him typically playing hard-boiled detectives and gangster-type roles; notable performances include his roles in Happy Accidents, Men in Black, The Player and Kill the Irishman (produced by film school graduate Tommy Reid).
The album is being published under the name Slim Bone Head Volt, a collaboration between D'Onofrio and violinist Dana Lyn. Lyn herself is an accomplished musician in her own right, having progressed from piano lessons in NYC in the early 2000s to performing Bach and writing numerous string arrangements for quartets in the city.
So far, the duo have performed one show at Joe’s Pub in NYC (on 12/20) in support of the project, with the help from an ensemble of as-yet unnamed musicians.
One clip of ‘I Am a Hamster’ being performed live has surfaced on YouTube, but has virtually unlistenable-to audio quality. One other video, however, shows D'Onofrio and the group offering an entirely different track which gives further clues as to what to expect from the album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Vi8-FlA-A
It’s not the first foray into music for the Brooklyn-born actor, who has previously played under the comedic guise of ‘George Geronimo Gerkie’, his country alter-ego. A possible mockumentary centered around the character may be in the works, though plans for this were shelved back in 2011.
D‘Onofrio married Dutch model Carin van der Donk in 1997 and have two sons. He recently hit out at the media for speculating on the couple’s marital status, with some outlets going as far as reporting one or both of the couple actively using online dating sites, which D’Onofrio has vehemently denied.
In a far from clarifying statement regarding the Slim Bone Head Volt collaboration, D'Onofriohas declared: ““My private journals read by me in a private way in order to change the world and stuff. When I read them to myself, my mind – the mind in my head – fills with music, yet I can’t find the source of the music because I refuse to look around me. It is below me to look around. Around, below. Yet the music plays for you on stage, for you. I refuse it while you listen. I refuse to look around. You.”
The album, entitled SBVH Vol. 1, will be released on 03/03 via Buddhabug Records.
Image: LOCInumber1fan via Flickr
