Geologist

Brian Weitz performs as Geologist, a foundational participant in Animal Collective who layers abstraction and electronic experimentation across the collective’s unconventional pop structures. His contributions appear on many of the band’s most acclaimed releases, while additional pursuits lead him toward further musical extremes, such as the 2025 collaboration A Shaw Deal with Gang Gang Dance’s Doug Shaw.

Weitz spent his formative years in Baltimore and Philadelphia. There he formed early friendships with the musicians who would become his Animal Collective bandmates; together with David Portner and Josh Dibb he played in the Pavement-influenced indie-rock group Automine, which issued a lone 7-inch single in 1995. During the early 2000s Weitz studied at Columbia University in New York City while Portner, recording as Avey Tare, and Noah Lennox, known as Panda Bear, lived nearby and began concentrating on home recording and live shows. Weitz’s participation grew steadily, starting with the 2001 Animal Collective album Danse Manatee and continuing on nearly every subsequent release.

Outside the group he undertakes infrequent side projects, among them various solo pieces, the 2018 cassette Live in the Land of the Sky, and 2025’s A Shaw Deal. On the latter he routed brief segments of guitarist “Sleepy” Doug Shaw through his modular synthesizer rig, yielding enough material for a complete album.