Gregory Rogove is an American indie music

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

. He is notable for partnering with indie artist Devendra Banhart to form the group ''

Megapuss Megapuss is a band with the following members: Devendra Banhart, Gregory Rogove (of Priestbird), Fabrizio Moretti (of The Strokes), and Noah Georgeson (member of Devendra's band and his producer). Megapuss formed as a joke between Banhart and Rogo ...

''. He signed a record contract with Knitting Factory Records in 2011.

Background

Rogove grew up in Amish country in

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...

of Jewish parents with some of his distant ancestors being

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

s. When eighteen, he traveled to India on a year-long

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

and studied the

tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల� ...

. He described India as a "swirl of energy." He traveled to Singapore, Mali, and Mexico. He spent five weeks in China at the Peking Opera and commented that the sound of the gongs made it seem likely that one's head would split in two. The journeys influenced his musical sensibility and helped him achieve a "rich repertoire" with diverse influences from

freak folk Psychedelic folk (sometimes acid folk or freak folk) is a loosely defined form of psychedelia that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of folk, but adds musical elements common to psychedelic music. Charac ...

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

, punk rock and world music, according to one source. At

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

, he studied

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

. Upon his graduation in 2002, he was the recipient of the Pokora Prize, awarded annually to the outstanding undergraduate student in music composition. In the music scene in New York City, he founded a band called ''Tarantula A.D.'' which later became the band ''Priestbird''. He performed with artists such as

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi music, lo-fi style, and became ...

and met

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

. He plays

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

in addition to his mainstay of writing songs.

Priestbird

The band ''Priestbird'' was formed by mutual associations of friends. One reviewer described Rogove in ''Priestbird'' as anchoring a "welcome foray into sludgy, feedback-heavy noise-rock" after a performance in 2009. A second reviewer found the songs to be "trippy" and were more "epic, heavy, and hypnotic."

Megapuss

During these years he became friends with musician Devendra Banhart, and they collaborated on songs and toured together. According to one account, Rogove and Banhart started their association on the project ''Megapuss'' "as a joke" but ended up writing numerous songs together, and the project gelled into a band and an album. The band was "built for laughs" and emphasized "fun", and Banhart and Rogove had promotional pictures featuring the two men "standing stark naked". A reviewer later asked: "Have you found yourself talking about your genitals a lot?" and Rogove said it had been a "prescribed aesthetic decision" in which "everyone is very well represented." The album ''

Surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

'' was recorded in a cabin near Los Angeles and released in 2008. One report was that the words ''Mega puss'' translated from Swedish to English means ''Mega kiss'' or ''big kiss''. Reviews have varied from positive to mixed. One reviewer described the ''Megapuss'' album entitled ''Surfing'' as something that "sounds like a freak pop version of the Doors" and with a video that was entertaining as "heck" and might have been "something the Monkees might have come up with after not showering for several weeks ... and taking lots of drugs." Another wrote that it was not fruitful to search for levels of meaning in the song ''Chicken Titz'' but to "just listen and laugh," and described the song ''Crop Circle Jerk 94'' as "warm and sunny." The reviewer described ''Theme from Hollywood'' as having a catchy melody but criticized the "meowing breakdown" at the end of the song. A third reviewer described the album as "obnoxious." In 2011, Rogove lives in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Personal life

Gregory Rogove is married to Moon Juice creator and wellness influencer Amanda Chantal Bacon, has two children, and lives in the

Rustic Canyon Rustic Canyon is a residential neighborhood and canyon in eastern Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Pacific Palisades, on the west side of Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles, California. It is along Rustic Creek, in the Santa Monica Mountains. ...

neighborhood of

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

References

External links

Knitting Factory Records website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rogove, Gregory American rock drummers Tabla players American indie rock musicians Musicians from Lancaster, Pennsylvania Wesleyan University alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)