Hank Sullivant (born 3 February 1983) is an American rock musician and record producer, who is known for his early work with
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
-based pop rock band
The Whigs, his stint as touring guitarist for
MGMT
MGMT () is an American indie rock band formed in 2002 in Middletown, Connecticut. It was founded by multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser. Alongside VanWyngarden and Goldwasser, MGMT's live lineup currently consists of ...
, and currently as leader of the rock band Kuroma. He is also co-founder of Georgia-based blues-rock band Blue Blood, alongside Hunter Morris.
Since 2009 Sullivant has produced albums for bands including Gift Horse, Wages, and
Colour Revolt
Colour Revolt is an American Rock music, rock band from Oxford, Mississippi.
History
Colour Revolt's members first played together while they were high school students at Jackson Academy (Mississippi), Jackson Academy in Jackson, MS under the n ...
.
Memphis and Accidental Mersh
Sullivant was raised in
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
and attended high school at
Memphis University School
, motto_translation = Truth and Honor
, streetaddress = 6191 Park Avenue
, city = Memphis
, state = Tennessee
, zipcode = 38119
, province =
, country = United States
, coordinates ...
. He is listed as ‘notable alumni’ of MUS alongside
Big Star
Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton (vocals, guiar), Chris Bell (vocals, guitar), Jody Stephens (drums), and Andy Hummel (bass). The group broke up in early 1975, and reorganized with a new l ...
's
Chris Bell and FedEx CEO
Fred Smith. Sullivant played in a band called Accidental Mersh with
Andrew VanWyngarden
Andrew Wells VanWyngarden (born February 1, 1983) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitar player and songwriter for the band MGMT, praised for (according to ''Interview Magazine'') "an uncanny knack for producing pop music that s ...
, Nick Robbins, and Charlie Gerber. The band wrote funky pop songs that were inspired by elder Memphis rock band Big Ass Truck. The group packed Memphis clubs like the
New Daisy Theater on
Beale Street
Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of blues music. Today, th ...
. The group dispersed to different colleges in 2001.
Athens and The Whigs
During his first year at
The University of Georgia
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
, Sullivant met Atlantans
Parker Gispert and
Julian Dorio
Julian Dorio (born November 26, 1981) is an American drummer. He is a founding member of the rock band The Whigs.
Biography
Julian started drumming at the age of 6, as an original member of the Flying Dorios. The band included his father an ...
with whom he formed The Whigs. Sullivant, a guitarist, picked up bass to round out the band. Sullivant and Gispert co-wrote the songs with additional creative input from Dorio. During their time at UGA, the band rose to popularity in Athens and Atlanta.
After delays and a “demoralizing development deal with RCA,” The Whigs self-recorded their debut album ''Give ‘Em All a Big Fat Lip'' in an abandoned fraternity house with engineer Billy Bennett in the summer of 2005. In addition to bass, Sullivant played organ, piano, slide guitar, and acoustic guitar on the album. “Half The World Away” features a guitar solo by Sullivant. This solo was a noted climactic point in the Whigs’ live set.
Energized by the production of ''G’EAaBFL'', Sullivant experienced a period of creativity before the album’s release that resulted in most of the songs found on Kuroma’s 2007 debut, ''Paris''. The Whigs self-released their album in November of 2005.
Rolling Stone Magazine
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its cov ...
named them one of the ‘Ten Bands To Watch In 2006.’ The Whigs signed to
ATO Records in July 2006 & toured through November. Sullivant then left the band to work solely on his own music.
''Paris''
The recording of Kuroma’s debut album ''Paris'' began shortly after Sullivant quit the Whigs. Sullivant asked childhood friend multi-instrumentalist James Richardson to collaborate on most of the sessions. In March 2007, Sullivant and Richardson, with Billy Bennett engineering and co-producing, tracked the bulk of Paris at Chase Park Transduction in Athens. The final product was mastered in April 2007. Sullivant came up with the name 'Kuroma' during this time. Nick Robbins, Kyle Spence, and John Mills also appear on the album.
MGMT
Following the recording of Paris, Andrew VanWyngarden asked Sullivant to play guitar in MGMT’s live band. MGMT had signed to Columbia Records, and they were recording ''
Oracular Spectacular
''Oracular Spectacular'' is the debut studio album by the American band MGMT, released on October 2, 2007, by RED Ink and physically on January 22, 2008, by Columbia. It was produced by Dave Fridmann and is the band's first release of new content ...
'' when they contacted Sullivant. Sullivant moved to New York for rehearsals in May 2007 but planned to return to Kuroma. Sullivant stayed through the official release of ''Oracular Spectacular'' and returned to Athens after the South by Southwest festival in March 2008. Sullivant performed on the ''
Late Show with David Letterman
The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the The Late Show (franchise), ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by ...
'' and the BBC's ''
Later... with Jools Holland'' with MGMT. He played on tours with
Of Montreal,
Fiery Furnaces
The Fiery Furnaces are an American indie rock band, formed in 2000 in Brooklyn, New York.. - ''In 2000 they moved Brooklyn... and began playing as the Fiery Furnaces late in the year''. - Allmusic The band's primary members are Matthew and Eleanor ...
, and
Yeasayer
Yeasayer () was an American experimental rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2006. The band consisted of Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder. They announced their split on December 19, 2019.
History Formation
The band's thr ...
, and played MGMT’s first overseas dates in the UK and Europe. He left the band in 2008 and was replaced by guitarist
James Richardson and
Will Berman who plays drums.
Kuroma
Beginnings and live performances
Upon returning to Kuroma in 2008, Sullivant originally opted to have no personalized web presence, (MySpace, Facebook, or band website) but managed to get Kuroma reviewed in print and Internet magazines. His initial reticence stemmed from a sense of revulsion at the marketing of music and bands. Sullivant says that ''Paris''’s sound was primarily influenced by the ''Love, Peace, and Poetry'' compilation series of obscure international 60s psychedelic music. Paris received good reviews, and the live band was praised early on by
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
and
Spin Magazine
''Spin'' (stylized in all caps) is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione, Jr. Now owned by Next Management Partners, the magazine is an online publication since it stopped issuing a print edition in 2012.
Histor ...
. In 2008/2009, the band opened for
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician and radio presenter. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp, he became a figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Following P ...
,
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie (vocals) and Jim Beattie. The band's current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes (guitar), Simone Butler (bass), and Darrin Mooney (drums) ...
,
MGMT
MGMT () is an American indie rock band formed in 2002 in Middletown, Connecticut. It was founded by multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser. Alongside VanWyngarden and Goldwasser, MGMT's live lineup currently consists of ...
, and
The Walkmen
The Walkmen is an American indie rock band. Active from 2000 to 2013, they are known as part of the 2000s-era post-punk revival in New York City, particularly for their critically acclaimed single "The Rat (song), The Rat." The band is made up o ...
, and performed at the 2009 Bonnaroo festival.
“Transmutilation” and performance art
In February 2009 Sullivant and fellow UGA graduate Alejandro Crawford put on a performance art show at Athens Cine entitled “Homeopathic Grafting: This Awakening Dream of Communication.” The title is a direct quote from
Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as w ...
’s ''
Simulacra and Simulation
''Simulacra and Simulation'' (french: Simulacres et Simulation) is a 1981 philosophical treatise by the philosopher and cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard, in which the author seeks to examine the relationships between reality, symbols, and soci ...
''. Crawford, a poet and visual artist, identifies “Transmutilation” as the technique behind his long-form poem ''Morpheau''. In a video interview in 2009 Sullivant describes Kuroma’s music as “transmutilation.”
In November 2008, Kuroma put on a two-part performance at The Georgia Theatre. Part One featured a 15+ minute cover of
Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3 were an English neo-psychedelia space rock band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman. Their music is known for its brand of "tr ...
’s “Big City;” the intermission was a screening of the late 1960s psychedelic art film ''The Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda''; and Part Two was a set of Kuroma songs. Formal playbills were passed at the door.
Single and video releases
Green Label Sound, a one-off video/single label funded by Pepsi/Mountain Dew, approached Kuroma in early 2009. Sullivant submitted “In New York Everything Is Tropical,” a song he describes as “soulless.”
Sullivant elaborates, “There’s a celebratory part of the song, but also a cynicism, and when you combine both of them, you’re left with nothing.” In contrast to the quiet release of ''Paris'', GLS heavily promoted the single, and the video itself shows a barrage of graphics on top of rapid-fire shots of Sullivant walking overconfidently through famous sections of New York, including the Marcy Projects and the financial district. During the publicity run, Sullivant hosted MTV2’s Subterranean, and MTV2 routinely played the video for two months.
Sullivant identifies Kuroma’s following video/single, “Get The Gunz,” as a companion to “In New York Everything Is Tropical.”
Directed collaboratively with Ash Sechler, the video features Sullivant dancing in rollerblades, stabbing water, suggestively being “curbed,” and killing his bandmates and himself with cartoon-like liquid after-effects as blood.
''Psychopomp''
Sullivant, Joaquin Cotler, Alfredo Lapuz, and Nick Robbins tracked songs for Kuroma’s second album ''Psychopomp'' at Chase Park Transduction in December 2009. Eric Gorman, a mixing engineer from New York, co-produced with Sullivant. The songs were mixed at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, NC, in February 2010. ''Psychopomp'' was released on iTunes in October 2010 before Kuroma’s fall tours with MGMT and Tame Impala. The 8-minute track “Get Quick Got It” was licensed for a Cinemax upcoming movies advertisement in February 2011. The lineup was Sullivant on guitar, Lapuz on keyboards and synth bass, Robbins on drums, and Stan Walker on synths.
2013
As of 2013, Kuroma’s lineup was Sullivant, Simon O’Connor, James Richardson and Will Berman. The band made its third album, ''Kuromarama'', produced by Ben Goldwasser of MGMT, and opened for MGMT on its North America tour in the spring of 2013. Sullivant was scheduled to fill in on guitar at several summer festivals for MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden, who was recovering from shoulder surgery.
St. Aelred Catholic Church
Sullivant is currently the music director at St. Aelred's Catholic Church in
Bishop, Georgia
Bishop is a town in Oconee County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 332.
The town's historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.[Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter
The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter is a special Catholic diocese for Anglican and Methodist converts in the United States and Canada. It allows these parishioners to maintain elements of Anglican liturgy and tradition in their ...]
, a floating diocese under the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. He directs the choir, and leads them at the 10:45 AM mass. Sullivant also teaches music at their
St. Thomas More Academy homeschool enrichment program.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivant, Hank
1983 births
Place of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American rock guitarists
American rock bass guitarists
Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee
University of Georgia alumni
Songwriters from Tennessee
Record producers from Tennessee