Chris Brokaw

Born in New York in 1964, Chris Brokaw has navigated since the late 1980s between indie rock, slowcore, post‑rock, folk and experimental music, performing on both guitar and drums. After attending Oberlin College, he first came to prominence as the drummer of Codeine, a key slowcore band, on the LPs Frigid Stars (1990) and Barely Real (1992), before returning to the guitar with Come, formed with Thalia Zedek. Come’s albums 11:11 (1992), Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (1994), Near‑Life Experience (1996) and Gently, Down the Stream (1998) extended a tense, abrasive and melodic songwriting style drawn as much from post‑punk as from 1990s American rock. Concurrently and as a solo artist, Brokaw developed a more open, sometimes instrumental repertoire, ranging from acoustic atmospheres to long electric excursions and conventional song forms, as on Red Cities (2002), Wandering as Water (2003), Incredible Love (2005), Canaris (2008), Gambler’s Ecstasy (2012), The Periscope Twins (2015) and Puritan (2020). His career also includes Pullman, The New Year and Dirtmusic with Chris Eckman and Hugo Race, as well as collaborations with Geoff Farina, Evan Dando, Thurston Moore and Rhys Chatham. Brokaw also composes for film and theatre, providing music for i was born, but... (2004), Road (2011) and Now, Forager (2014).