Panda Bear (musician)

Animal Collective

As a teen, Lennox began listening to electronic music styles such as house and techno, and artists such as Aphex Twin, all of which became a major influence on his later work.^[7] He recorded and performed music solo and with friends.

Lennox had been friends with Deakin (Josh Dibb) since 1986 when they were aged eight, in school in the second grade.^[8][5] Deakin introduced Lennox to his high school friends Avey Tare (Dave Portner) and Geologist (Brian Weitz). For years, the four of them swapped homemade recordings, shared musical ideas and performed in different group configurations. Lennox, along with Deakin moved to New York in 2000.^[9] The band then began collaborating and they settled on the name "Animal Collective".

Lennox has named Black Dice, who the band first toured with, as a major influence stating: "I feel like the wisest things I've learned about being in a band I learned by watching them"^[6] and that he personally sees them "as a model for a band."^[10] Lennox also describes recording a track with Arto Lindsay in 2002 as a formative moment, having been the first time recording with an established artist in a professional studio.^[5]

Lennox has sung, played drums and occasionally guitar in Animal Collective's live performances.^{[citation needed]} He cites Stewart Copeland as the biggest influence on his drumming style.^[7] For his drumming work on Animal Collective's 2022 album Time Skiffs, Lennox cited James Brown's drummers, especially Clyde Stubblefield, as influences.^[11] Since the 2007 releases of Panda Bear's Person Pitch and Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam, Lennox has focused more on using samplers and other electronics in Animal Collective shows.^{[citation needed]}

Solo work

Lennox's early musical influences included electronic music, and his solo work has been characterized as experimental pop,^[12][13] electronic,^[14] bedroom pop,^[15] neo-psychedelic pop,^[16] and indie music.^[2] The Line of Best Fit called him a "psychedelic pop trailblazer."^[17]

Lennox's debut album Panda Bear was released in 1999 on Soccer Star Records.^{[citation needed]} After focusing more on touring and recording with Animal Collective, he released the follow-up Young Prayer in 2004.

In 2007, Lennox released his highly acclaimed third solo album Person Pitch.^[5] Of his songwriting style, Lennox says "I get impatient writing songs, I can't spend more than a couple of hours before I get frustrated. So I got to kind of spit it out real fast. My favorite songs are the ones where I worked really really fast on, when it comes all out in like two hours or something."^[7] Lennox was surprised about the positive reception and success of the album.^[5] It was written in Lisbon soon after moving there, using a limited setup including a laptop and sampler.

During a brief European tour in January 2010, Lennox played three shows consisting almost entirely of new material.^{[citation needed]} On March 7, 2010, a tour setlist with titles for ten of the new songs was posted on Panda Bear's MySpace blog.^{[citation needed]} He also played Primavera Sound Festival in 2010.^{[citation needed]} The single "Tomboy" and the b-side "Slow Motion" were released in July 2010.^{[citation needed]} It was announced in August that singles "You Can Count on Me" and "Alsatian Darn" would be released via Domino on September 28.^{[citation needed]} The limited 500 copies of "You Can Count On Me" sold out in less than a day.^{[citation needed]} The single "Last Night at the Jetty" was released December 2010^{[citation needed]}. The single "Surfer's Hymn" was released March 28, 2011.^{[citation needed]}

On 12 April 2011, Lennox released his fourth album under Panda Bear, Tomboy, on his own label, Paw Tracks.^{[citation needed]} He had started performing material from the album from 5 December 2008 at a show with No Age in Miami, Florida.^{[citation needed]}

Lennox was chosen^[when?] by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival he planned to curate in December 2011 in Minehead, England.^[18] However, Lennox was unable to play when the event was rescheduled to March 2012.

In June 2013, Panda Bear performed a set of all new material at ATP.^{[citation needed]}

In October 2014, the Mr Noah EP was released, featuring four new songs.^{[citation needed]} The full album, Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, was released in January 2015.^{[citation needed]}

In 2018, Lennox released the vinyl-only A Day With the Homies EP, a collection of five songs heavily influenced by house + bass music. Included on the packaging of the release were hidden URLs that pointed to samples used on the EP.^{[citation needed]} In February 2019, he released the LP Buoys, featuring production work by longtime collaborator Rusty Santos.^{[citation needed]} It was preceded by the single "Dolphin".^{[citation needed]}

On February 28, 2025, Lennox released his seventh solo album, Sinister Grift.^{[citation needed]} Inspired by his recent divorce from his longterm partner Fernanda Pereira,^[19] the album was recorded in close collaboration with his Animal Collective bandmate Deakin.^{[citation needed]} It was preceded by the singles, "Defense", "Ferry Lady" and "Ends Meet".^{[citation needed]}

Collaborations

From 2002 to 2007, Lennox played in the band Jane with DJ Scott Mou.^{[citation needed]} He has also performed on tracks with Atlas Sound (Bradford Cox of Deerhunter), Ducktails (Matt Mondanile, formerly of Real Estate)^[20], Dean Blunt, and many electronic musicians, including Zomby, Pantha du Prince, Flume, and Jamie xx.^{[citation needed]}

Lennox (with Animal Collective) had initially made contact with Daft Punk^[when?] asking them if they wanted to remix the track "My Girls".^[5] Whilst the duo said they liked the track, they declined saying they did not like to do remixes. However, they stayed in email contact. Later, Panda Bear appeared on the track "Doin' It Right" on the 2013 Daft Punk album Random Access Memories.^[21] The album won Daft Punk the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2014, making Panda Bear a co-winner. Almost a decade later, in 2022, Lennox worked with previous Daft Punk collaborators Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon on their new duo's debut single, "Step by Step".^[22]

In 2019, Lennox contributed to singer Solange's album When I Get Home, providing backing vocals on several tracks and co-producing the song "Binz".^[23]

Solo

with Avey Tare

• Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished (2000)

with Avey Tare and Geologist

• Danse Manatee (2001)

with Campfire Songs

• Campfire Songs (2003)

with Animal Collective

• Here Comes the Indian (2003)
• Sung Tongs (2004)
• Feels (2005)
• Strawberry Jam (2007)
• Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)
• Centipede Hz (2012)
• Painting With (2016)
• Time Skiffs (2022)
• Isn't It Now? (2023)

with Sonic Boom