Avey Tare

Avey Tare Biography

Avey Tare (born David Portner on April 24th, 1979) is a musician and founding member of Animal Collective. Avey Tare met Animal Collective's Deakin (Josh Dibb), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), and Geologist (Brian Weitz) in high school. For years, the four of them swapped homemade recordings, shared musical ideas and performed in different group configurations. Avey Tare recorded the Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished album with Panda Bear, and initially released the recording on the band's own Animal label in 2000. After high school, Avey Tare and Geologist moved to New York City to attend NYU and Columbia University, respectively. Panda Bear and Deakin had eventually moved to NYC, and the band started to become more collaborative in nature. They finally settled on the name "Animal Collective". Avery Tare released his first proper solo album, Down There, on October 25, 2010. Eucalyptus followed in July 2017, with the Essence of Eucalyptus EP, featuring remixes from various Animal Collective members, coming the year after. March 2019 brought Cows on Hourglass Pond, his most recent solo venture to date. Avey Tare's other projects and releases include Terrestrial Tones with Eric Copeland of Black Dice, a split 12" with David Grubbs, an LP with his exwife (ex-Múm) Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir (aka Kría Brekkan) called Pullhair Rubeye, and Avery Tare’s Slasher Flicks with ex-Dirty Projectors member Angel Deradoorian and ex-Ponytail drummer Jeremy Hyman.