What if I was Heathcliff, it's no myth

Thursday music corner: Michael Penn (b.1958), brother of well-known actors Sean and Chris Penn, has performed as a singer-songwriter since the 1980s, initially as part of the Los Angeles band Doll Congress, and since his 1989 debut album March as a solo artist. No Myth was the lead single from the album and reached no.13 in the US pop charts, and the top 30 in Australia. His blend of wryly literate guitar pop proved out of step with the record market of the time, and his peerless 1992 follow-up album, Free-For-All, brought about a showdown with his record company and a five-year recording hiatus. Having released five studio albums, his work has in recent years been focused on film and TV scores, in particular bolstered by his association with director Paul Thomas Anderson, which led to Penn scoring Anderson's films Hard Eight and Boogie Nights. Penn has now scored 15 films, and his TV score work includes Girls and Masters of Sex. In 2020 he released a surprise single, A Revival, and noted in an interview with American Songwriter:

For somebody who has no interest in touring and had a completely naïve notion that I could be some kind of Harry Nilsson character buried in the studio and putting out records without having to tour, I’ve been very blessed to continue to work in music as a composer. Even though that’s the case, I’ve missed songwriting terribly.

Penn has been married to fellow singer-songwriter Aimee Mann since December 1997. The couple live in Los Angeles. 

Michael Penn - No Myth (1989)