Jacob Bannon

Jacob Bannon (born October 15, 1976^[1]) is the vocalist, lyricist, and graphic artist for the American hardcore punk band Converge. He is also the founder and owner of the label Deathwish Inc. Additionally, Bannon is a visual artist and has created many visual works for the independent music community.

Bannon was also the founding member of Supermachiner, who released one album entitled Rise of the Great Machine. He has also released solo recordings under the names "J. Bannon" and "Wear Your Wounds".

Life

Bannon in 2005.

Bannon attended college at The Art Institute of Boston, earning a Bachelors In Fine Arts for design in 1998, and subsequently taught the subject on a college level for a brief time.^[2] After working a variety of freelance design jobs around Boston, he began working as a freelance artist and designer.^[3]

He is vegetarian^[4] and straight edge. From 2005 to 2008, he has been nominated for the title of "World's Sexiest Vegetarian" by Peta2.^[5] He is concerned with the greyhound-racing industry,^[4] and is a dog owner, having owned rescued greyhounds, pitbulls, among others.^[6]

Bannon is also a mixed martial arts fan,^[6] and accordingly Deathwish Inc. has sponsored some MMA fighters.^[7]

Bannon is known for his extensive tattoos. He received his first tattoo at the age of 15, which has subsequently been covered by other tattoos. He has been tattooed by Darren Brass, among many other artists.^[8]

In 2013, Bannon was the subject of a short documentary directed by Ian MacFarland entitled "Rungs in a Ladder." In the documentary, Bannon reflected on important moments in his life and his motivation as an artist.^[9]

Businesses

Deathwish Inc.

In early 2001, he founded the Deathwish Inc. record label with his best friend Tre McCarthy.

Deathwish is one of those labels that deserve to be the biggest indie label on the planet. They not only put out interesting acts, but they go through painstaking efforts with every aspect of each release from artwork to recording to the band’s branding. These efforts definitely do not go unnoticed to their many die-hard fans, but it is disheartening to see bands/labels with less than 10 percent of the integrity that Deathwish has continue to outsell them. It gives me comfort that these are things that Jacob and Tre do not concern themselves with as they continue to put out powerful and beautiful releases.^[10]

— Virgil Dickerson, IndieHQ

Diamonds & Rust

Bannon co-owns a home décor and antique store with his wife in Beverly, Massachusetts called Diamonds & Rust, which offers, "a variety of new/vintage industrial and mid-century furniture and lighting, textiles, art, and other collectibles and accessories."^[11]

Music

Bannon has been active in the hardcore punk music scene since 1990, when at the age of 14 he co-founded Converge. He has been in two musical sideprojects, Supermachiner and Irons, released solo material, and contributed guest vocals to numerous other hardcore bands.

Converge

Bannon in 2004.

Bannon is one of the founding members of Converge, who formed in the winter of 1990 when he was only fourteen years old. After several demos, the band released their first record on Earthmaker Records, entitled Halo in a Haystack (1994). The band then released three records on Equal Vision Records, Petitioning the Empty Sky (1998), When Forever Comes Crashing (1998), and Jane Doe (2001). The band has worked with Hydra Head Records and Relapse Records, among others, for EPs and split albums. For the release of You Fail Me (2004), No Heroes (2006) and Axe to Fall (2009), the band switched to Epitaph Records. Since the move, the band has released vinyl versions of their Epitaph albums and re-released older albums on Bannon's Deathwish Inc. record label. See also: Converge discography

Bannon is the lead vocalist and lyricist for Converge, and contributes the art and design for their album covers and sleeves, apparel, and other merchandise. In an interview with the Miami New Times, when discussing his vocal work on the album Axe to Fall, Bannon described his vocals:

I'm a bit of a one-trick pony, because I'm a traditional abrasive vocalist, and there are only certain things I feel comfortable with. I try to stay within the limitations that I have physically. Like, I never wanna be one of those vocalists that Auto-Tune themselves to hell -- that's the worst thing.^[12]

In 2012, Converge released "All We Love We Leave Behind" on Epitaph Records.

Supermachiner

Supermachiner, a collaboration between Bannon and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou alongside their friend Ryan Parker, released Rise of the Great Machine in 2000. Unlike the heavier music of Converge, much of Supermachiner is ambient.^[13] A 30 track discography, Rust, was released in 2009.^[14]

Solo

After Converge had completed their 2001 album Jane Doe, Bannon started writing and recording solo material under the name Dear Lover. A number of releases were lined up that never saw the light of day. A song "Grant Me the Strength" was made available for download on Converge's website.^[13]

In 2008, Bannon has released a 7" EP of solo material on Deathwish Inc., entitled The Blood of Thine Enemies, under the name J. Bannon. The EP contains one song on the A-side, while the B-side is etched, part of the "impressive" package design which included a silkscreened folded cardboard cover/sleeve.^[15] The music "is a pulsing ambient piece. Miles away from his front man duties in Converge, Jacob uses only a clean delivery here, genuinely singing the chorus."^[16]

Irons

Irons is a musical collaboration between Bannon, Dwid Hellion (of Integrity) and visual artist Stephen Kasner. They are self described as a "collective effort to create apocalyptic, non-linear music from a primal fine art based mindset."^[17] A split 12" LP with Pulling Teeth was released on Deathwish Inc.^[18]

Wear Your Wounds

Initially planning on releasing solo music under his name only, in 2012 Bannon began using the Wear Your Wounds name for these projects. This allowing others to collaborate and work with him on future projects. In January 2013 a split 7" EP between Wear Your Wounds and Revelator, who is Ben Chisholm guitarist for Chelsea Wolfe was released.

Guest vocals

Bannon has recorded guest vocals for bands such as 108, Cave In, Some Girls, Give Up the Ghost, Ramallah, and Pulling Teeth.^[19]

Art

Bannon's art and design career predominately involves doing design work for hardcore punk bands and releasing limited edition art prints. He has stated that his art and design work pays his bills.^[10] Since 1997, he has produced art for dozens of bands.^[20] Work for these bands has involved packaging, poster, web, apparel, and logo design.^[21] Some of his design work has been credited to his art company Atomic! ID.^[22] He designed a shirt for the online boutique of Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta, Hatewear.^[23] He also is responsible for the art direction, and often the design work, for all the releases on his Deathwish Inc. record label.^[24]

His work has been described as "heavily textured with a kinetic energy and unsettling feel".^[24] Tim Lambesis of As I Lay Dying praised Bannon's work on their Shadows Are Security album art and stated that it "is probably the biggest selling record that Jake has ever done artwork for ... [even though] his ethic and his whole approach to art isn’t really about sales and numbers."^[25] Bannon's style has been influential; as one magazine article put it, he "is often credited with inventing the so-called skull with wings aesthetic that became so popular in the punk underground and mixed martial arts scenes that today knockoffs are available in stores like Target and Marshalls."^[26]

In 2004, Bannon released a series of 4 "museum-quality" giclée prints, with a run limited to 100.^[27] He has worked with Burlesque Design to have limited series screenprints produced of some of his artwork, including two limited edition Converge tour posters and limited prints based on the album artwork for the Converge albums Jane Doe, No Heroes, and Axe to Fall.^[28] The Jane Doe cover art was featured on the cover of the sixth issue of Beautiful/Decay Magazine, which also contained an interview with Bannon.^[29] He also designed a limited-edition cover for the May/June 2005 issue of Punk Planet, which was their third Art & Design themed issue.^[30]

On August 15, 2004, he participated in Strhess Fest in Cleveland.^[31] In February 2008, he participated in the Public Domain group art show,^[32] and October 2008, his artwork was featured in a Halloween themed group show entitled Horror Business, both held at Tradition in Los Angeles.^[33][34] In October 2010, Bannon had work in the Scream With Me show at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco, which featured the artwork of selected musicians and tattoo artists.^[35][36]

List of bands for whom Bannon has designed

Bannon has worked on art and design for dozens of bands, including:^[20]

Solo discography

• The Blood Of Thine Enemies, Deathwish Inc (March 2008)
• Wear Your Wounds & Revelator split EP, Self Released (January 2013)
• 'The Migration" Single, Self Released (January 2013)
• Wear Your Wounds, Deathwish Inc (unreleased)

Selected art exhibitions

• Strhess Fest- Art Gallery, Scene Pavilion, Cleveland, OH (August 2004)
• Public Domain, Traditions, Los Angeles, CA (February 2008)
• Horror Business, Traditions, Los Angeles, CA (October 2008)
• Scream With Me, 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA (October 2010)
• Solo exhibition, Ursa Major Gallery, Beverly, MA (March 2011)
• "Universal Monsters", Mondo Gallery, Austin, TX (October 2012)

References

External links

• Jacob Bannon official website
• Converge official website
• Deathwish Inc. official website
• Diamonds & Rust official website