Dan Deacon

A mad scientist stretching the limits of synth music and contemporary classical, Dan Deacon's wild compositions meld experimental improvisation, pop grandeur, distorted vocals, and pop culture references into delightfully baroque sonic collages. He was born in West Babylon, New York in 1981; voracious and curious from the start, he bounced between ska and grindcore bands as a teenager, even forming a chamber ensemble in college. Deacon relocated to Baltimore in 2004, starting the Wham City collective alongside fellow musicians, visual artists, and comedians who nourished his kaleidoscopic visions. His early style is characterized by jagged collisions of chamber recordings and computer music, though 2007's Spiderman of the Rings LP was a commercially successful leap toward electronic pop. Subsequent albums Bromst (2009) and America (2012) were praised for their ambitious live instrumentation and introspective storytelling, while Deacon’s 2015 breakthrough Gliss Riffer was an expressive cornucopia of barreling percussion and layered vocal harmonies. Deacon's mythical live performances thrive on unpredictable audience participation, while off the stage he's cultivated a parallel career as a film soundtrack composer, notably scoring Francis Ford Coppola's Twixt (2011). In 2020, he released his fifth studio album, Mystic Familiar, soaring to dizzying orchestral heights without losing sight of the humor and earnestness that made him a star.