Here artist, author, musician and filmmaker Issa Ibrahim sits for an intimate and indepth conversation with geo geller about his relationship to music, from his childhood in jazz and blues infused Jamaica, Queens New York in the later 1960s, through his career as a one man song machine born from inspiration and desperation in the bowels of a New York State mental hospital, and beyond.
Featuring intimate acoustic performances of the songs:
Paranoid
One To One
Living In An Incubator
Doggy Doo
Issa Ibrahim, bringing his act out of Latrine Studios, performs for the Institute for the Development of Human Arts launch event at East Village Access in NYC. Q&A with documentarian Geo Geller.
The setlist: Room With A View
Accidental Life
Substitute
The Nearest Faraway Place
Yale University’s inaugural REBPSYCH: Rebellious Psychiatry conference where mental health meets social justice presenting “Confessions of a Zombie Savant”, a 12 song 52 minute live performance featuring artist, writer, musician and filmmaker Issa Ibrahim in story and song. Thursday, April 20, 2017, at 6:00 pm Yale Afro-Am Cultural Center New Haven, CT. Hosted by the Yale University Department of Psychiatry.
Music Videos Playlist
Enjoy this playlist of Issa’s Top 20 music videos
Purchase select Limited Edition, limited quantity collector’s item Issa Ibrahim audio CDs in Store
DSM5- The Living Museum Band
Insanity Never Sounded So Good!
DSM5 formed in January 2000, nurtured by The Living Museum, an artist’s asylum in Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, Queens N.Y. The band rose out of the depths like the Phoenix. Taking its name from the next phase of the psychiatrist’s diagnostic manual and beyond, DSM5 is an eclectic mixture of diagnosed and undiagnosed musicians who use their common sensitivity, vulnerability, and fragility as their weapon. This joint venture of outpatients, volunteers, and hospital staff, cleverly dubbed by Museum director Dr. Janos Marton, indicates the next step in mental health, “Requiring extreme creativity as a symptom of mental illness.”
DSM5 is fortunate to include NYU alumna and music therapist Mary Beth Pepe, who co-writes, sings, plays keyboards and deftly keeps the band as tight as they can be. The band is blessed with TWO drummers, Harold Hanna and Spiros Arnakis, though they are never in the same place at once. Tim Noe brings Brooklyn hipster cred via neo-jazz blaring on his 24-carat sax. Philip Velazquez's fleet-fingered fretwork makes him a worthy guardian of the Gibson. Tim Quinton anchors the din with rock solid bass. Erin Armstrong is a fine Irish lass who sings with plenty of moxie and heartbreaking tenderness. DSM5's front man, principal songwriter and musical glue is Issa Ibrahim. Though he conjures the image of Johnny Mathis on amphetamines, he is pleased to have been called 'Chocolate Elvis.' A devotee of pop song-craft, he brings British Invasion beat music by way of Black America by way of Bedlam into the mix with a healthy dose of introspection, social consciousness and mental health perspectives.
Please enjoy this playlist of DSM5 history, live performance, documentary footage, official videos and tracks from their album Insanity Never Sounded So Good!
DSM5's Insanity Never Sounded So Good! was recorded in Creedmoor in summer 2011 by engineer Ben Harson with additional production by Oliver Hoffmann from original recordings by Issa Ibrahim. The CD was released in spring of 2012 followed by a brief NYC tour culminating in a 6-month residency at legendary Greenwich Village club Kenny's Castaways.
Purchase Limited Edition, limited quantity collector’s item DSM5 audio CD Insanity Never Sounded So Good! in Store
Discography
Self-recording since 2004 and boasting a discography of over 15 full-length CD releases, my music is an intriguing set of dreamy folk, psychedelic blues, and moody, melodic pop with a flair for the absurd.
click on album art for music playlist
The Savage Breast- 2024
White Trash in the Ghetto is a protest song having a dig at colonialism, gentrification, housing inequity, structural racism, and cultural appropriation. It had been kicking around for several years until I finally felt it was time to commit to tape.
Pop Music Voodoo vol. two- 2024
Unreleased gems, alternate takes and re-dos. Glorified demos of naïve charm, stripped-down acoustic stylings, drunken, off kilter a cappella, pseudo sexy R&B, hardcore street vibe ersatz Hip Hop, and the history of Black America in a neat, if raucous, 3 minutes.
The Holy Buddy Collection- 2020
Within A Crystal Glass and I Was Trash When You Met Me are from an aborted project where my partner in art crime and love Susan and I banged out a batch of punk/pop confections comprised of teenage poetry and raw asylum angst in one weekend in 2011, intended to be released as fictional hipster duo Luscious & Brown.
Pop Brut- 2017
All You Need Is Weed was written and recorded quickly in 2017, just as it was becoming apparent that weed would be not only decriminalized but legalized, thus opening up a Pandora's box for all of society to contend with. Gets streamed all over the world so I guess I’ve got a minor hit...hope you enjoy!
Pop Music Voodoo vol. one- 2016
Getting over a brief cold and nursing sore vocal cords I still had to get this song about the impending apocalypse recorded. I believe When The Shit Hits The Fan is one of my best vocal recordings and an overall successful track.
Outside Man- 2016
"Pepsi for breakfast, Honey Buns for lunch, Doritos for dinner...doesn't that sound fun?" Very many thanks to Leadbelly, Conrad Birdie, Brian Wilson, Iggy Pop and The B-52's for sonic inspiration.
Patient’s Rites- 2014
It was a blast enlisting members of DSM5 to help make a good CD great. DSM5’s new co-lead singer Erin Armstrong rose to the occasion beautifully to deliver a winning performance of Head Case.
Time To Be Black- 2014
Most of these songs were inspired by a fleeting ill-fated affair with my now departed co-lead singer in the band DSM5. Time To Be Black and Mid-LIfe Crisis were ripped right from the pages of reality.
Greetings From The Latrine- 2014
This is probably my most “rock” oriented album, with plenty of poorly strung, out of tune and feedbacking electric guitar bits after years of recording in an asylum bathroom with little resources and having no choice but to make my acoustic guitar a sort of lead instrument.
Heaven In My Head- 2013
Recorded in my then-new Richmond Hill, Queens, NY studio apartment in a whirlwind 12-hour session. The super’s wife, who lived next door, heard me stomping and singing all night into the morning and thought I’d lost my mind…and perhaps, for a moment, I did.
Cheap Love Songs- 2013
A true to life song cycle about an ill-fated affair. Welcome to the milftastic adventures of life loving Katie. Kicking ass when she has to. Loving hard cuz she wants to. Making art cuz she needs to. Art sales maven and instigator, saving the world one man at a time.
The Asylum Years- 2012
As an African American weaned on popular music and British Invasion rock the ironic juxtaposition is not lost on me, imagining myself a black man pretending to be a white man pretending to be black. I feel it is my right to engage in this rock and roll reclamation.
Insanity Never Sounded So Good!- 2012
Shining Down On Me was written as a hymn during a reflective moment and turning the corner on the way I thought about life. Featuring Queens’ own Spiros Arnakis tastefully propelling the rhythm and the amazing Hyera Kim on piano.
Missing Links- 2012
Bum On The Street (Pimp In The Joint) began as intimidation, insults, and threats overheard while detained at Rikers Island. My favorite layered put down was "you'll see many a Soul Train" suggesting one stupid enough to take a bad plea and get served, do a lot of time, and wind up in front of that damned TV...watching Soul Train.
The Black Beetle- 2012
Hurt And Desperate was inspired by the 60’s chestnut Bobby’s Girl by Marcie Blane and Nine Inch Nails’ Head Like a Hole though it sounds nothing like either. Being an inpatient in Creedmoor hospital provided a great deal of inspired grist for a young songwriter to chew on. Pretty proud of that outro.
Zombie Savant- 2010
Institutionalized is a-day-in-the-life of a mental patient. The Dumping Ground was written after a few years in the asylum and finally understanding where I was, especially after my brother-in-law let me know during a visit, giving me the title.
The Cosmic Knockout- 2008
The Devil Incarnate was written in 1995, imagining if Satan had a signature tune. The song was also a meditation on my inappropriate sexual relationship with my elderly therapist, the ward social worker. The bloom was coming off the rose and I was disenchanted but only allowed to express it artistically, in song.
Square Roots- 2004
The Nearest Faraway Place was imagined as The Beatles singing It’s a Small World After All. Written on a psych ward in 1995 on the onset of a traumatic psychotic break. Thanks to Ian Yeager for the mandolin solo, dropped in during a clandestine session in the visitor’s room for the price of a sandwich.
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