1. Devendra Obi Banhart was born on May 30,1981 and is an American singer-songwriter and visual artist.
46 Facts About Devendra Banhart
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In 2002, Devendra Banhart released his debut album and is best known for his albums in the late 2000s such as Cripple Crow and Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon.
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Devendra Banhart has since expanded his career to incorporate his interest and training in the visual arts.
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Devendra Banhart was born in Houston, Texas, to a Venezuelan mother, Maria Eugenia Risquez, and an American father, Robert Gary Devendra Banhart.
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Devendra Banhart's given name is a synonym for Indra, suggested by Indian religious leader Prem Rawat, and his middle name Obi takes after Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Star Wars character.
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Devendra Banhart's parents divorced in 1983, after which Risquez and he moved to Caracas, Venezuela.
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Risquez later remarried and when Devendra Banhart was age 14, his stepfather moved the family to Los Angeles, California.
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In 1998, Devendra Banhart began studying at the San Francisco Art Institute on a scholarship while living in The Castro, San Francisco's "gay" district, though he would often busk instead of attending class.
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Devendra Banhart played his first musical show in a church at a gay wedding, performing Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender" and the hymn "How Great Thou Art".
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Devendra Banhart dropped out of college in 2000 and left San Francisco after the dot-com bubble bust worsened the city's economy.
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Devendra Banhart recorded two other albums and an EP for the label: Rejoicing in the Hands, Nino Rojo, and The Black Babies; the releases had a simple acoustic sound.
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Devendra Banhart changed to XL Recordings in 2005 and released Cripple Crow, which was recorded in Bearsville Studios, New York, and had a more elaborate sound.
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In 2005, Devendra Banhart collaborated with Antony and the Johnsons on the album I Am a Bird Now.
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In 2005, Devendra Banhart was in a relationship with Bianca Casady of the band CocoRosie, with Devendra Banhart living with Casady and her mother Christina Chalmers at Chalmer's farm in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a Romani village in southern France.
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Devendra Banhart was the first artist to design a T-shirt for the Yellow Bird Project, in 2006.
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Devendra Banhart chose to donate the profits from the sale of his T-shirt to the Teenage Cancer Trust.
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From 2007 to 2008, Devendra Banhart was romantically linked to actress Natalie Portman, who is featured in the video for Devendra Banhart's song "Carmensita".
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Devendra Banhart recorded his second album for XL Records, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, at his home studio in Topanga, California.
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Devendra Banhart has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl opening for Gilberto Gil, as well as at Bonnaroo and Coachella music festivals.
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Devendra Banhart founded a record label, Gnomonsong, with Andy Cabic of Vetiver, in 2005.
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Devendra Banhart contributed, alongside MGMT, Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother and Binki Shapiro of Little Joy.
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Devendra Banhart wrote the foreword for and appears in his friend Lauren Dukoff's book Family: Photographs by Lauren Dukoff.
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Devendra Banhart has written the introduction to a selection of poems by Kenneth Patchen.
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In July 2012, Devendra Banhart performed on The Eric Andre Show during the show's first season.
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On December 3,2012, Devendra Banhart announced his new album, Mala.
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In 2014, Devendra Banhart covered Arthur Russell's "Losing My Taste For The Nightlife" for the Red Hot + Arthur Russell compilation that benefitting the Red Hot Organizations fight against AIDS.
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On May 14,2016, Devendra Banhart curated a two-day event at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, featuring performances from Harold Budd, Hecuba, Lucky Dragons, Jessica Pratt, Rodrigo Amarante, William Basinksi, and Helado Negro.
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In 2015, Devendra Banhart scored the film Joshy, directed by Jeff Baena and starring Nick Kroll, Jenny Slate, and Thomas Middleditch.
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In June 2016, Devendra Banhart released the first track of his ninth studio album, Ape in Pink Marble, titled "Middle Names".
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In 2018, Devendra Banhart sang on Ssion's album O, lending vocals to the track "Free Lunch".
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In September 2018 Devendra Banhart participated in the project 27: The Most Perfect Album, which was born out of the podcast More Perfect, a Radiolab spinoff.
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On February 5,2020, Devendra Banhart contributed to a 50th anniversary tribute album honoring Allen Ginsberg's Fall of America.
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Devendra Banhart provided music and score to the poem "Milarepa Taste".
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On September 3,2020, Devendra Banhart released a cover of the Grateful Dead's "Franklin's Tower" as part of Amazon's Amazon Originals series.
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Devendra Banhart has cited Vashti Bunyan, Simon Diaz, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Arthur Russell, Ali Farka Toure, and Caetano Veloso as his main influences.
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Devendra Banhart's music is often referred to as psychedelic folk, freak folk and New Weird America; it is associated with acts such as singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom, musical group CocoRosie, and contemporary folk band Vetiver.
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Drawings by Devendra Banhart were featured in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and in the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels.
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Devendra Banhart's drawings have been featured in the Art Basel Contemporary Art Fair in Miami, Florida, the Mazzoli Gallery in Modena, Italy, Spain's ARCOmadrid.
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Devendra Banhart's drawings were featured in MOCA's exhibit "The Artist's Museum", in which the works of influential Los Angeles based artists from the last 30 years were presented.
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Devendra Banhart was a participant in Yoko Ono's second Water Piece project.
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Devendra Banhart read Joan Miro's poem "A Star Caresses the Breasts of a Negress" for the recorded guided tour of Tate Modern.
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In June 2015, Devendra Banhart released a collection of drawings, paintings, and mixed media pieces, titled I Left My Noodle on Ramen Street, published by Prestel Publishing.
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In 2016, Devendra Banhart made a small cameo in the feature film Adam Green's Aladdin.
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On May 8,2019, Devendra Banhart announced a collaborative collection of linen clothing with designer Alex Crane titled "Almas".
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On December 14 and 15,2019, Devendra Banhart curated a two-day event at Hauser and Wirth Los Angeles titled Other Flowers.
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In March 2020, Devendra Banhart had his first solo art show in Los Angeles at Nicodim Gallery.