Kevin Blechdom (born Kristin Grace Erickson; 1978 in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

) is an American experimental

electronic musician ''Electronic Musician'' is a monthly magazine published by Future US featuring articles on synthesizers, music production and electronic musicians. History and profile ''Electronic Musician'' began as ''Polyphony'' magazine in 1975, publis ...

and

performance artist Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

. She is based in Santa Cruz, California.

Early life and education

Kristin Grace Erickson was born in 1978 in Florida and raised in Stuart,

. She studied piano and classical music at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

however she was unhappy with the nature of her studies and transferred to

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

in 1997 to study experimental music. She has a BA degree and MFA degree in electronic music from Mills College. While she attended

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, she co-founded Blectum from Blechdom with Blevin Blectum (born Bevin Kelley), an experimental electronic group. The two performed together as Blectum from Blechdom for four years, ending in 2002 when Blechdom moved to Berlin, Germany. Blechdom's work changed when she started creating music solo, becoming more personal and about heartbreak. In 2013, Blectum received a

Doctorate of Musical Arts The Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) is a doctoral academic degree in music. The DMA combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization (usually music performance, music composition, or conducting) with graduate-level academic study in ...

degree in the Performer-Composer Program from the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

(CalArts).

Career

Blechdom played in an art-rock band,

Adult Rodeo An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...

, with her brother lumberob, a.k.a. Rob Erickson, and his wife mephany stankins. They released records on

Shimmy Disc Shimmy Disc is a New York City-based independent record label founded in 1987 by Mark Kramer. Before it was sold to the Knitting Factory, artists like Bongwater, Daniel Johnston, Fly Ashtray, Galaxie 500, King Missile, Boredoms, Ruins, Ween, Gwar ...

and

Four States Fair 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

. Kevin Blechdom's solo release ''Eat My Heart Out'' features a 13-minute "musical movie" called ''

Countdown to Nothing A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'', a collaboration with

Lucile Desamory Lucile may refer to: * ''Lucile'' (poem), an 1860 story in verse By Owen Meredith (Robert, Lord Lytton-Bulwer Though the book in Question makes reference to the name Bulwer. *Lucile, the couture house (and nickname) of early 20th-century fashion de ...

. Blechdom produced two albums for New York City

anti-folk Anti-folk (sometimes referred to as unfolk) is a music genre that emerged in the 1980s in response to the remnants of the 1960s folk music scene. Anti-folk music was made to mock the perceived seriousness of the time's mainstream music scene, a ...

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

group

Ching Chong Song Ching Ching (previously known as Ching Chong Song) was a vocal duo rooted in New York City's Anti-folk scene. Their music is often experimental and off-kilter in nature, shifting from humorous to dark, serious, or thoughtful in tone, sometimes with ...

; their debut album, ''Little Naked Gay Adventure'', and their second album, ''Everything is for Babies''. Blechdom recorded, toured, and performed with

Eugene Chadbourne Eugene Chadbourne (born January 4, 1954) is an American banjoist, guitarist and music critic. Life and career Chadbourne was born in Mount Vernon, New York, but grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He started playing guitar when he was eleven or twel ...

in 2007. Blechdom also performs with Christopher Fleeger as the computer-country band Barnwave. She collaborated with

Chicks on Speed Chicks on Speed is a feminist music and fine art ensemble, formed in Munich in 1997, after members Australian Alex Murray-Leslie and American Melissa Logan met at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Though Chicks on Speed reached cult status th ...

on the song "

Wordy Rappinghood "Wordy Rappinghood" is the debut single by American new wave band Tom Tom Club, from their 1981 self-titled debut album. It uses part of a traditional Moroccan children's song and game, " A Ram Sam Sam", made popular by the 1971 Rolf Harris r ...

" from their album '' 99 Cents'' in 2003 along with other female musicians such as

Miss Kittin Caroline Hervé (born 1973), known professionally as Miss Kittin, is a French electronic music producer, DJ, singer, and songwriter. Since rising to prominence in 1998 for her singles " 1982" and "Frank Sinatra" with The Hacker, she has worked ...

Le Tigre Le Tigre (, ; French for "The Tiger") is an American electronic rock band formed by Kathleen Hanna (of Bikini Kill), Johanna Fateman and Sadie Benning in 1998 in New York City. Benning left in 2000 and was replaced by JD Samson for the rest ...

Adult. Adult (stylized as ADULT.) is an American band from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1998 by married couple Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller. The band integrates vocals with drum machines, analog synthesizers and electronic/ punk elements.Copela ...

Nicola Kuperus Nicola Kuperus is an American musician and artist. She is a member of the band ADULT. with her husband Adam Lee Miller (formerly of Le Car). ADULT. owns and manages Ersatz Audio, a record label based out of Detroit, Michigan. In 2003 she sang ...

, and

Tina Weymouth Martina Michèle Weymouth (born November 22, 1950) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and a founding member and bassist of the new wave group Talking Heads and its side project Tom Tom Club, which she co-founded with her husband, Tal ...

of the

Tom Tom Club Tom Tom Club is an American new wave band founded in 1981 by husband-and-wife team Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth and as a side project from Talking Heads. Their best known songs include " Wordy Rappinghood", " Genius of Love", and a cover ...

. "Wordy Rappinghood" became a moderate dance hit in Europe, peaking at number five on the Belgian Dance Chart, and at number sixty-six on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

Honors and awards

In 2011 she was

artist in residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

WORM Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

, a Rotterdam-based institute for avant garde music and art. In 2001, Blectum From Blechdom won an Award of Distinction for digital music at the Prix

Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in the ...

Discography

* 2001 – ''I Heart Presets'' - CD EP on

Tigerbeat6 Tigerbeat6 is a San Francisco and Berlin based independent and (mostly) electronic record label run by Kid606 (Miguel De Pedro). The label is run as a DIY operation and releases a variety of electronic music styles, including noisecore, intelli ...

* 2001 – ''The Inside Story'' - 3" CD on Tigerbeat6 * 2002 – ''Jelly Donuts'' - 7" vinyl on Four States Fair Records * 2002 – ''And The Tempo Of Doom'' - 7" vinyl on Unbearable Recordings * 2003 – ''Your Butt'' - on Dudini * 2003 – ''Bitches Without Britches'' - CD album on

Records * 2005 – ''Eat My Heart Out'' - CD album on Chicks on Speed Records * 2008 – ''The Children's Suite'', with Ad Hawk - 7" vinyl on

Dual Plover Dual Plover (stylized dualpLOVER) is an Australian independent record label founded in Sydney in 1995 by Lucas Abela and Swerve Harris. Dual Plover's first release "a kombi - music to drive-by" consisted of recordings from a Volkswagen Kombi ...

* 2009 – ''Gentlemania'' - CD album on Sonig

References

External links

An interview with Kevin Blechdom

A Viennese Acoustic Video Session with Kevin Blechdom
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blechdom, Kevin American electronic musicians Living people Musicians from Florida 1978 births American women in electronic music American avant-garde musicians California Institute of the Arts alumni People from Santa Cruz, California Mills College alumni 21st-century American women