Lead singer for the rising indie sensation Okkervil River, as well as collaborator for side-project Shearwater, Will Sheff is perhaps best known as a vocalist with searing emotion, a talented lyricist and writer in general.
Mike Doughty (born June 10, 1970, in Fort Knox, Kentucky) is an American indie and alternative rock singer-songwriter and author. The former frontman of Soul Coughing barely sounds like his former self. Doughty began writing solo songs in 1995, but nothing materialized until Soul Coughing broke up in 2000, at which point Doughty began touring solo with his acoustic guitar after becoming clean and sober. Skittish was finally released to the masses along with the EP Rockity Roll on the ATO record label.
Michael Stephen Portnoy (born April 20, 1967) American drummer primarily known as the former drummer and backing vocalist for the progressive metal band Dream Theater. Known for his drumming prowess, Portnoy has won 23 awards from the Modern Drummer magazine. He has co-produced the last six Dream Theater albums with John Petrucci, starting from Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. From A Change of Seasons onwards, Portnoy has been writing a substantial amount of Dream Theater's lyrics, filling the void left by Kevin Moore, who left the band after the release of Awake.
Richard H. Kirk is a British musician specializing in electronic music. He first came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the seminal industrial band Cabaret Voltaire. His first release as a solo artist, Disposable Half Truths, came in 1980 and he maintained a career as a solo artist alongside Cabaret Voltaire until the band's dissolution in 1994. It was during the 1990s that his solo output increased considerably.
Mark E. Smith (born 5 March 1957) is the lead singer, lyricist, co-composer and frontman of The Fall, a renowned and idiosyncratic offshoot from the UK post-punk / new wave music scenes. Mark Edward Smith was born to a working-class family in Broughton, Salford, in Lancashire, England, moving to nearby Prestwich, near Bury early in his life. He formed The Fall (named after the novel by Camus) with friends after dropping out of college at the age of 19. He gave up his job at Salford docks shortly after to devote his full energies to The Fall, and has continued to do so ever since.