Devendra Banhart

About

Also known as: Devendra Obi Banhart

Devendra Banhart is one of those rare artists who gets tagged as the leader of an entire movement, in his case freak folk, and actually earns the label. His early records on Young God Records, starting with Oh Me Oh My in 2002, were built from short, raw acoustic fragments that felt like field recordings of a very strange dream. He stepped up the scale with Cripple Crow on XL Recordings and then Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, his 2007 album that charted on the Billboard 200 and drew openly on the end of his relationship with CocoRosie's Bianca Casady. His lyrics lean fantastical and poetic, with an occasional wink of innuendo threaded through. Beyond his solo work, Banhart keeps busy in collaborative corners. He released Surfing under the Megapuss project with Gregory Rogove and Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes, contributed to Beck's Record Club covers of Leonard Cohen, and sang lead on a track for Todd Solondz's film Life During Wartime alongside Beck. He also co founded the Gnomonsong record label with Andy Cabic of Vetiver, and his visual art background, rooted in his time at the San Francisco Art Institute, feeds into everything he touches.