J.P. Shilo

Born John Brooks, the musician known as J.P. Shilo once belonged to Hungry Ghosts, an Australian slowcore instrumental ensemble comparable to the Dirty Three. That band dissolved after issuing its first full-length recording, Alone, Alone, in 2000; the album was produced by Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and issued on Shelley’s Smells Like label. The split affected Brooks deeply, prompting him to resume using his birth name and largely step away from music until he resurfaced years afterward while studying Tibetan Buddhism at Melbourne’s Tara Institute. During that period he began capturing musical sketches on a four-track recorder; Shelley later heard the material and proposed releasing it on his own imprint. The finished record, As Happy as Sad Is Blue, came out on Smells Like in 2006. Shilo has since joined the Australian group the Black Eyed Susans.