Telephone Jim Jesus

Born George Chadwick in New London, New Hampshire, the musician later recognized as anticon’s Telephone Jim Jesus first encountered electronica through a sampler purchased by his high-school friend and bandmate Dave Bryant, who was then staying at Chadwick’s home. Although the pair, together with drummer Matt Valerio, performed in a hardcore goth-punk group, their attention soon turned toward the subtler currents of experimental rock, hip-hop, and electronica; glitches, bleeps, drones, chords, and loops from those styles gradually reshaped the music they were making. Once the three reached Oakland in the late 1990s, the concept for Restiform Bodies took shape. The resulting ensemble—Chadwick alongside Bryant, now known as Passage, and Valerio, now known as the Bomarr Monk, plus contributions from fellow labelmates—issued its self-titled album in 2002, with Telephone Jim Jesus handling keyboards, guitars, bass, effects, and sampler. Around the same period he produced material for other anticon acts, among them Sole and Pedestrian. His own first solo statement arrived in 2004 as the instrumental album A Point Too Far to Astronaut. Three years afterward, following the end of a long-term relationship and an extended period of travel throughout Europe and the United States, he released Anywhere Out of Everything.