Jherek Bischoff

Jherek Bischoff

Bischoff performing with Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra at the Roxy Theater, West Hollywood, California.
Background information
Born Sacramento, California
Genres Alternative, Classical music
Occupation(s) Composer, Musician, Songwriter
Instruments Bass Guitar, Ukelele, Vocals, Cello, Violin, Keyboards, Drums, Trombone, Clarinet, Guitar
Years active 2000–present
Labels Brassland (US), The Leaf Label (UK)
Website Official website

Jherek Bischoff is an American musician, composer, arranger, producer and songwriter, currently living in Los Angeles.

Background

Bischoff was born in Sacramento, California. When he was a young child his parents decided they wanted to move aboard a sailboat, and eventually sailed up the coast to the Pacific Northwest. Bischoff spent his early years on the boat and when he was 14 years old, the family departed on a two-year sailing trip to Central America, through the Panama Canal and into the Caribbean. [1]

The family eventually returned to their home on Bainbridge Island, Washington, where Bischoff learned to play a wide variety of instruments. Bischoff has some fluency on a number of woodwinds (saxophone, clarinet), brass (tuba, trombone, trumpet) and stringed instruments (electric bass, guitar, ukulele, banjo, stand-up bass, cello, violin). As a composer, Bischoff is largely self-taught having attended part-time college classes on the topic and gaining experience by writing arrangements and compositions for fellow artists in the Seattle music scene. Music was also a family tradition. His father, who had studied music at the University of California, Davis with John Cage and Stanley Lunetta, had been in avant garde and experimental bands throughout the 1970s.[1]

Early career

Bischoff first emerged as a sideman, co-writer, and accompanist in several bands. In the first decade of the 2000s, he was a member and collaborator with Parenthetical Girls, Xiu Xiu, Degenerate Art Ensemble, and The Dead Science. More recently, he was a member of Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra, and has collaborated with The Wordless Music Orchestra, yMusic and Contemporaneous.

Composed and Scores

Bischoff gained attention as a solo performer upon the 2012 release of Composed and a related instrumental album Scores. The album features nine orchestral pieces with a different vocalist on eight of the nine tracks. Many of the vocalists are well known, and included David Byrne, Caetano Veloso, Mirah, Carla Bozulich (Evangelista, Geraldine Fibbers), Craig Wedren (Shudder to Think), Dawn McCarthy (Faun Fables), Zac Pennington (Parenthetical Girls), Soko and more. Guest soloists included Greg Saunier (Deerhoof) and Nels Cline (Wilco).

The album was first composed by Bischoff on a ukulele. He then orchestrated, engineered, and mastered the album, achieving an orchestral sound at a low cost by recording the instrumentalists one at a time using a single microphone and a laptop computer recording set-up.

Critical reception

Bischoff has also been called a "pop polymath"[2] (The New York Times), a "Seattle phenom" (The New Yorker), and "the missing link between the sombre undertones of Ennio Morricone and the unpredictability of John Cale"[3] (New Musical Express).

In 2013, Bischoff was interviewed by Terry Gross for her NPR show Fresh Air, where he spoke largely about his unique childhood growing up on a sailboat, and the unconventional process by which he recorded his album Composed.[4]

Awards and Nominations

Bischoff was a finalist for The Stranger's Music Genius Award in 2013[5] and was named Seattle's Best Collaborator by the Seattle Weekly in 2014.[6]

Discography

As Jherek Bischoff

As Ribbons

As part of Parenthetical Girls

As part of Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra

As part of Jason Webley

As part of Led to Sea

As part of Degenerate Art Ensemble

As part of The Dead Science

As part of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone

As part of Xiu Xiu

Other Collaborations

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Composed Pop: Jherek Bischoff Gets By with a Little Help from His Friends". thestranger.com. 2012-11-28.
  2. ↑ "Classical Music/Opera Listings". nytimes.com. 2012-02-02.
  3. ↑ "NME". nme.com.
  4. ↑ "Jherek Bischoff Crafts A Symphonic Sound On 'Composed'". npr.org. 2013-04-09.
  5. ↑ "2013 Music Genius Award Finalists". thestranger.com. 2013-06-05.
  6. ↑ "Best of Seattle: Collaborator". seattleweekly.com. 2014-08-06.

External links