Jeremy Messersmith

Jeremy Messersmith, an indie pop performer and composer residing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, originated from South Carolina before growing up in Washington. After moving to Minneapolis for his studies, he launched his career by capturing introspective and somber tunes within his home basement setup. His debut release arrived in 2006 as the independently issued The Alcatraz Kid, initiating a sequence of three pop-oriented records he crafted across the next several years. This effort garnered local acclaim in the region, attracting the notice of Twin Cities figure Dan Wilson from Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic, who took on production duties for the subsequent effort, 2008's The Silver City. Concluding the trilogy came 2010's The Reluctant Graveyard, which elevated his profile across the country thanks to its inclusion in NPR's Top Ten albums of the year, alongside coverage from Paste magazine and The New York Times. Following that achievement, he put out an additional single during 2010, yet pivoted sharply in 2012 toward a six-track collection of atmospheric, richly layered instrumental pieces titled Paper Moon. During the same period, he pursued his unconventional independent approach through a series of house concerts featuring potluck dinners on tour. By 2013, a contract with the New York label Glassnote Records led to his fifth full-length, Heart Murmurs, appearing at the start of 2014. While developing material intended for his upcoming album Late Stage Capitalism, the surprise outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election prompted him to shelve those tracks in favor of something more positive, resulting in the April 2017 release of 11 Obscenely Optimistic Songs for Ukulele: A Micro Folk Record for the 21st Century and Beyond. The grounded Late Stage Capitalism arrived afterward via Glassnote in the beginning of 2018.