Orpheo McCord (born 1979) is an American composer and percussionist. He is an original member of

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is an American folk rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 2005. The group is led by singer Alex Ebert. The band's name is based on a story Ebert wrote in his youth, about a messianic figure named E ...

, and a former member of The Fall,

Fool's Gold The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue giv ...

and

Cass McCombs Cass McCombs (born November 13, 1977 in California) is an American musician and songwriter. Since 2002 he has released ten albums, an EP and a B-sides compilation under his own name. McCombs’ music blends elements of many styles including Ameri ...

. His debut solo album, ''Recovery Inhale'', was released on January 26, 2018.

Early life and education

McCord attended

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

, graduating in 2002."Alumnotes (2002),"
Berklee.edu. Accessed February 9, 2017. He has spent time in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

studying African percussion,Drew Tewksbury
"The Alchemy of Fool's Gold,"
''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...

'', October 7, 2009. and has also studied percussion in

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

and

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

. His father Joseph McCord has said he was named after the musician

Orpheus Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Jaso ...

from

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

.David Wexler
"Father's Day With the McCords,"
Janglin, June 15, 2014. Joseph McCord was a professional

mime Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...

who went by the name Merlin, and was one of

Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Kesey was born in ...

Merry Pranksters The Merry Pranksters were comrades and followers of American author Ken Kesey in 1964. Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters lived communally at Kesey's homes in California and Oregon, and are noted for the sociological significance of a lengthy roa ...

.Jonathan Valania
"The Third Coming of Edward Sharpe,"
''

Magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...

'', July 26, 2013.

Career

The Fall (2006-07)

In May 2006 after several members of U.K. Band The Fall quit mid-tour, McCord was recruited by frontman

Mark E. Smith Mark Edward Smith (5 March 1957 – 24 January 2018) was an English singer, who was the lead singer, lyricist and only constant member of the post-punk group the Fall. Smith formed the band after attending the June 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the ...

to join The Fall along with guitarist Tim Presley and bassist Rob Barbato. McCord toured the US and Europe with the band, and was a member of The Fall for their 26th album '' Reformation Post TLC'' (2007), as well as the live album ''

Last Night at The Palais ''Last Night at The Palais'' is a live album by English post-punk band the Fall, recorded at the Hammersmith Palais on 1 April 2007 and released in 2009. Background The recording has historic interest as this was the last concert to be put ...

'', recorded in 2007 and released two years later.Dave Simpson,
The Fallen: Life In and Out of Britain's Most Insane Group
', Edinburgh:

Canongate Books Canongate Books (trading as Canongate) is an independent publishing firm based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is named after the Canongate area of the city. It is most recognised for publishing the Booker Prizewinner ''Life of Pi''. Canongate was n ...

, 2008, pp. 305-07. The 2006-07 lineup was a pleasant one for The Fall, absent the infighting that marked most of the band's numerous incarnations. In his 2008 autobiography ''Renegade'', Smith called McCord the best of the more than a dozen drummers The Fall had up to that point, with an openness to new ideas and straightforward playing that avoided cliches.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (2007-present)

were formed in Los Angeles in 2007 by frontman

Alex Ebert Alexander Michael Tahquitz Ebert (born May 12, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter and composer. He is best known for being the lead singer and songwriter for the American bands Ima Robot and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. On January 1 ...

. McCord met Ebert at a mutual friend's party and then again while jogging in

Elysian Park Elysian Park is one of the largest parks in Los Angeles at 600 acres (240 ha). Most of Elysian Park falls in the neighborhood of the same name, but a small portion of the park falls in Echo Park. The park was created by city ordinance on April 5, ...

, where Ebert asked him to join the band. They released their debut album '' Up From Below'' in 2009, followed by ''

Here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a TV ...

'' in 2012, a

self-titled An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

album in 2013, and ''

PersonA A persona (plural personae or personas), depending on the context, is the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. The word derives from Latin, where it originally ref ...

'' in 2016. The group won the

Grammy Award for Best Music Film The Grammy Award for Best Music Film is an accolade presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally named the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality videos or musical programs. ...

in 2013 for the documentary ''Big Easy Express''. McCord incorporates African influences in his work with the band, using a hybridization of drum set,

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

djembe A djembe or jembe ( ; from Maninka language, Malinke ''jembe'' , N'Ko script, N'Ko: ) is a rope-tuned skin-covered goblet drum played with bare hands, originally from West Africa. According to the Bambara people in Mali, the name of the djembe ...

and

electronic percussion Electronic drums is a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sound ...

."Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros,"
Beatrouteab, September 10, 2012. McCord played marimba on Alex Ebert's score for the 2013 film '' All Is Lost'', which won the

Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is a Golden Globe Award presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications o ...

Solo work

On January 26, 2018, McCord's debut solo album, ''Recovery Inhale'', was released on Sound Creature Records. The album is composed of "hypnotic instrumental pieces... treading the line between new age and minimalist ambient music."Daiana Feuer
"Premiere: Orpheo McCord, 'Ghost Ship',"
Buzzbands.la, December 15, 2017. "Ghost Ship", the first single, was released in December 2017. On the album, McCord performs all instruments, predominantly effected

and

kalimba Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and pl ...

Other work

McCord was a member of

' band starting in 2007 and has played on four of his albums. He was formerly the drummer and percussion leader in

, an LA pop band whose music incorporates African rhythms. In 2010, he played with

Harper Simon Harper James Simon (born September 7, 1972) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He is the son of Paul Simon and his first wife Peggy Harper. Simon's talents have appeared on several studio albums, and has been featured in ...

as a duo at the

Festival au Désert The Festival au désert (Festival in the Desert) was an annual concert in Mali, showcasing traditional Tuareg music as well as music from around the world between 2001 and 2012. It was founded and directed by Manny Ansar, and attracted thousand ...

, outside of

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...

. They also performed there with the

Tuareg The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern A ...

band

Tinariwen Tinariwen (Tamasheq: , with vowels , pronounced ''tinariwen'' "deserts", plural of ''ténéré'' "desert") is a collective of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. Considered a pioneer of desert blues, the group's guita ...

. In 2014, McCord and

Mikael Jorgensen Mikael Jorgensen (born June 4, 1972) is an American musician known as the pianist and keyboardist for the band Wilco as well as a member of the bands Pronto and Quindar. Career Prior to his days in Chicago and with Wilco, Mikael honed his musical ...

(pianist/keyboardist for

Wilco Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup changed frequently dur ...

) formed the duo Prism Break, inspired by early 1970s German experimental rock. McCord has also performed with

Ima Robot Ima Robot is an American band based in Los Angeles, California, United States, that formed in the late 1990s. They have released several albums, EPs, and singles, most notably '' Ima Robot'' in 2003, ''Search and Destroy'' and ''Monument to the M ...

The Flaming Lips The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steven Drozd (guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, vocals), Derek Brown (keyb ...

, Jack Johnson,

Dawes Dawes may refer to: Places * Dawes (Parish), New South Wales, Australia *Dawes Point, New South Wales, Australia * Dawes Arboretum, in Newark, Ohio, U.S. *Dawes County, Nebraska, U.S. * Dawes Township, Thurston County, Nebraska, U.S. Other uses *D ...

and He's My Brother She's My Sister.

Personal life

McCord is based in

Ojai, California Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...

, where he lives with his wife Rachel Kolar (of He's My Brother She's My Sister) and their two children.Mitch Inkrott
"Bottlerock @ Napa Valley – Festival Preview & Interview,"
ourvinyl.tv, 2013.

Discography

Albums

Appears on

Soundtracks and compilations

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCord, Orpheo Living people 1979 births American male drummers American rock drummers American rock percussionists American marimbists American male composers Conga players Djembe players 21st-century American drummers Indie rock drummers The Fall (band) members Berklee College of Music alumni Musicians from California Musicians from Victoria, British Columbia People from Ojai, California 20th-century American drummers Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros members