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Robert Schneider | |
|---|---|
 Schneider performing atThe Black Cat nightclub in 2006 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Robert Peter Schneider (1971-03-09)March 9, 1971 (age 54) Cape Town, South Africa |
| Origin | Ruston, Louisiana, US |
| Genres | Psychedelic pop,indie pop,indie rock,experimental music |
| Occupations | Musician, mathematician, singer, songwriter, composer, producer, engineer |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Labels | The Elephant 6 Recording Co.,spinART,Eenie Meenie,Yep Roc/Simian, Garden Gate,Fire, Chunklet Industries,Cloud Recordings |
Robert Peter Schneider (born March 9, 1971) is an American musician and mathematician. He is the lead singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer of rock/pop bandthe Apples in Stereo and has produced and performed on albums byNeutral Milk Hotel,the Olivia Tremor Control,the Minders and a number of other psychedelic and indie rock bands, as well as byYoko Ono and Cornelius. Schneider co-founded theElephant 6 Recording Company in 1992. He received a PhD inmathematics fromEmory University in 2018 (doctoral advisorKen Ono). As of September 2022[update], he is an assistant professor of mathematical sciences atMichigan Technological University specializing in number theory and combinatorics,[1] particularly the theory ofinteger partitions andanalytic number theory.[2]
After spending the first six years of his life inCape Town, South Africa,[3][4] Robert Schneider's family moved toRuston, Louisiana, where his father had taken a job teaching architecture atLouisiana Tech University.[5] There, Schneider befriendedBill Doss,Will Cullen Hart andJeff Mangum, and began discovering and playing music with them. After graduating fromRuston High School, where he was Junior and Senior class president, and spending two years atCentenary College inShreveport, Louisiana, Schneider moved toDenver, Colorado to attend theUniversity of Colorado. Although he subsequently left school to pursue his musical ambitions, his academic interests remained strong as an avid student ofanalytic number theory.
Soon after moving to Denver, Colorado in 1991 Schneider metHilarie Sidney,Jim McIntyre andChris Parfitt, who formed theindie pop band the Apples (the name was subsequently changed tothe Apples in Stereo). The group made their first release in 1993 with theTidal Wave EP that became the inaugural release on theElephant 6 record label.
Schneider's prowess in harnessing the sounds of Elephant 6 bands became apparent with his distinct production style. In addition to producing all of the albums for the Apples in Stereo, he's produced work forthe Olivia Tremor Control,the Minders and a number of other artists, but is best known as a producer for his work onNeutral Milk Hotel’s critically laudedIn the Aeroplane Over the Sea. TheWall of Sound production style implemented by his heroesPhil Spector andBrian Wilson was used on these records and cemented Schneider's reputation as the producer-engineer behind the sound of many bands of the Elephant 6 label, which grew through the 1990s into a sprawling collective of psychedelic pop and experimental groups.
Schneider has a number of solo projects. One, a project calledMarbles, began withlo-fiBeach Boys-esque recordings done withWill Cullen Hart, and is the name most of Schneider's solo work appears under, beginning with the 1996 debut album"Pyramid Landing" and Other Favorites on spinART Records. Another project, Orchestre Fantastique, is an instrumental venture which recorded a soundtrack for the as-yet unreleased filmDean Quixote. Schneider also collaborated withAndy Partridge ofXTC in the early 2000s, with the pair reportedly writing over thirty songs together by telephone; the project, however, produced no recorded results. Schneider also composed a number of jingles for television commercials during the 2000s, including a string of pop songs for the Kohl's department store chain.
Schneider formed a comparatively dark band in 2004 calledUlysses inLexington, Kentucky, which released the 2005 album010 on Eenie Meenie Records recorded live with a single microphone, and released a second Marbles albumExpo in 2005 influenced byElectric Light Orchestra, as well asGary Numan,Michael Jackson,New Order andthe Cars.
During 2006, it was announced that Schneider was playing in a Kentucky-based psychedelic garage band with his brother-in-law, Craig Morris, calledThee American Revolution. Thee American Revolution released the lo-fi psych-pop albumBuddha Electrostorm in 2009 on Garden Gate Records; the album was reissued worldwide on December 5, 2011, on the UK labelFire Records.
Since 2007, Schneider occasionally records and performs children's music as Robbert Bobbert and released an albumRobbert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine; as well as having composed the score for the animated anthology short seriesShorty McShorts' Shorts' final episode,Flip-Flopped, under that name.[6][7]
In 2017, Schneider formed the Atlanta-based bandAir-sea Dolphin with guitarist Matt Chapman and bassist Mike Chapman (better known asThe Brothers Chaps, creators ofHomestar Runner), guitarist Ryan Sterritt and drummerJames Huggins III (Of Montreal,Elf Power,Great Lakes, James Husband).[8]
Schneider has engaged in a number of experimental music projects taking inspiration from mathematical concepts. He has written several compositions using anon-Pythagorean scale based onlogarithms.[9][10][11] He has also incorporatedprime numbers and thesieve of Eratosthenes in both a composition to be performed by a bell tower, and in the score for a play by mathematicianAndrew Granville and playwright Jennifer Granville that debuted at theInstitute for Advanced Study on December 12, 2009, and he has written a plan for an electronic composition based on prime numbers lasting millions of years.
Since September 2010, Schneider has performed using a mind-controlled analog synthesizer.[12] The mind-controlled synthesizer uses a voltage generator made from a circuit-bent Mattel MindFlex electronic toy, scored for one "conductor" wearing anEEG sensor. Schneider, along with experimental musician and visual artistRobert Beatty, use the voltage generator to control the filters ofMoog synthesizers. Pieces performed with mind control include Schneider's "Composition for Two Hemispheres"[13] and a score byJeff Mangum ofNeutral Milk Hotel. Other experimental musicians[who?] have subsequently built similar units from an instructional video Schneider released online.
In 2012, Schneider completed his bachelor's degree (BS) in mathematics from theUniversity of Kentucky.[1] That same year, he announced he was stopping touring; whether this hiatus is temporary or permanent is unclear. In 2018, Schneider completed a PhD in mathematics fromEmory University, where he studied number theory underKen Ono.[14][15] From 2018-2022, Schneider was a lecturer in mathematics at theUniversity of Georgia. As of September 2022[update] he is an assistant professor of mathematical sciences atMichigan Technological University.[1]
Schneider conceived and developed a new non-Pythagoreanscale withfrequencies corresponding to thenatural logarithms of successivewhole numbers.[9][10][11]
The scale was introduced in 2007 with the release ofNew Magnetic Wonder, the sixth studio album by the Apples in Stereo. The album featured two brief compositions using the scale. Enhanced CD versions of the album included a third composition as well as a variety of information from Schneider concerning the scale including audio files and instructions to enable the listener to prepare aMIDI keyboard to play in the non-Pythagorean scale.
Below is a list of selected works crediting Schneider as performer (incomplete list).
In addition to producing all of the albums for the Apples in Stereo, Schneider has produced, engineered and mixed numerous albums for fellow Elephant 6 bands and other artists, including the following.
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