Warren Defever (first name often spelled Warn; born September 21, 1969) is a musician and producer from Livonia, Michigan. He is most known for his chameleonic project His Name Is Alive,[1] though he is active in numerous other circles. He produced, engineered, and or remixed recordings by Iggy and the Stooges, Blanche, Low, Ida, Michael Hurley, Califone, Yoko Ono, Thurston Moore, the Gories, the Go, Nomo, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Faruq Z. Bey, the Von Bondies, Destroy All Monsters, Jenny Toomey, Slumber Party, John Sinclair, Elizabeth Mitchell & Lisa Loeb, as well as HNIA offshoot Velour 100.
Defever was born in Livonia, Michigan to Charles Defever, who is American, and Grace Kloschinsky, who was a Canadian citizen.[1][2][3] Defever was raised in a strict religious household along with his brothers, Johnny and Matt. He grew up a music fan. His grandfather, John Kloschinsky, was a musician from Saskatchewan and had taught Warren and his brothers how to play various musical instruments.[2] Defever has spoken of him often in interviews saying, "I was so young I can barely even remember, but I have a hazy vision of having to hold a giant accordion on my lap when I was only two. It's one of my earliest and worst memories. That's probably why I hate music." The Defever family spent many years travelling back and forth between the U.S. and Canada before eventually settling outside of Detroit near the Canadian border. Defever's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies; he suffered collapsed lungs twice, had pneumonia 4-5 times, a burst appendix, a cyst on his tonsils and asthma. This served to isolate him from other children at school because, as he claims, he was in the hospital so often that no one knew him well enough to befriend him. He has revealed recently in a radio interview in Detroit on WDET that his health finally improved, however, once the family settled in Livonia.
Defever began recording while still in high school, and toured as the bassist of psychobilly rock band Elvis Hitler. He attended Eastern Michigan University for one year, but dropped out to concentrate on music. His classmate Karin Oliver provided vocals for His Name Is Alive until 1998, and on Velour 100's second album.
For many years Defever recorded in the basement of his parents' house, which he later bought from them. There he produced a number of bands, including Godzuki and Tarnation.
In 2003, Defever opened his own recording studio, Brown Rice, in the Detroit area, where he works as a producer. Along with Davin Brainard, Defever runs a home record label, timeSTEREO.
In 2007, Defever opened a new studio in Detroit called THE UFO FACTORY. Everything inside is spray painted silver.
Defever is known for manipulating unsuspecting interviewers with clever fabrications..
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