Phil Elverum

Phil Elverum was born on May 23, 1978, in Anacortes, Washington.[1] Growing up Elverum's father regularly made mixtapes for him and his sister. He soon started to play the tuba but after three years moved onto drums.[1] At age 14, he started his own band "Nubert Circus", playing the drums and writing lyrics.[1] Elverum attended Anacortes High School.[3] After graduating, he traveled across Canada with his then-girlfriend.[3] In the summer of 1997, he moved to Olympia, Washington where he lived from until 2002.[3] Elverum briefly attended Evergreen State College.[3][4]

In his adolescence, Elverum worked at Anacortes based record store The Business where he would record music in the backroom, after hours.[3] During his time there, he met Beat Happening member Bret Lunsford who offered him a job as the drummer of the band D+ alongside Karl Blau.[1]

Elvrum in 1999

Elverum is best known for having recorded and performed prolifically under the band names The Microphones (1996–2003, 2019–present) and Mount Eerie (2003–present). Elverum uses mostly analog recording equipment and often works in his own studio spaces, where he has the time and freedom to experiment with sounds.[5] In 2012, he helped establish a studio and venue called "The Unknown" at a disused church in his hometown of Anacortes, Washington.[6]

In 2004, Elverum created the label P. W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd.,[7] through which he has released records by Mount Eerie and The Microphones, as well as The Spectacle, Thanksgiving, Woelv, Nicholas Krgovich, Key Losers and Wyrd Visions. Prior to this, he was closely linked to K Records and the Olympia, Washington music scene, where he produced recordings by Mirah, Little Wings, Beat Happening, The Blow, and others at Dub Narcotic Studio.

His musical influences include Eric's Trip, Will Oldham, Björk, Nirvana, Popol Vuh, Sunn O))), and Angelo Badalamenti.[8][9]

Elverum is also known for his artwork and photography. Early in his career, he produced limited-run fanzines and song booklets which would be sold during Microphones tours. Since establishing P.W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd., he began to experiment with letterpress printing and other elaborate packaging ideas for his releases.[16] In 2007, he published a hardcover book of film photography with a 10" picture disc titled Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7. In 2009 Elverum hosted his first art show, In Dreams, at Stumptown Coffee, Portland. The exhibition consited of landscapes Elverum photographed in Norway, France, and rural Washington, using antique cameras and expired film.[17] In 2014 Elverum released Dust, a book of digital photography bound in stamped linen. He sells large scale photographic prints and ink paintings through his online store.[18] in 2017 after finishing his eighth studio album, Elverum created a book about Anacortes, Washington.[19]

In 2005, Elverum created a 365-day comic calendar titled Fancy People Adventures, which was later syndicated by music website Tiny Mix Tapes.[20] In late 2008, Buenaventura Press published Dawn, a book and CD of journal entries and songs from winter 2002/03, during which Elverum lived in a remote cabin in Finnkonevika, Kjerringøy, Norway.

In 2001, while on tour, Elverum wrote a, "paper opera", play entitled The Other Foot In The Other World show as part of a magazine centering around the theme of death.[21]

Elverum has also experimented with filmmaking, producing background visuals for his shows (released as a limited edition DVD entitled Fog Movies) and promotional videos for several Mount Eerie songs.[22]

Elverum and Castrée, his wife of 12 years, playing together in 2006

Elverum married Canadian artist and musician Geneviève Castrée on February 29, 2004.[3] Castrée was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer following the birth of the couple's first child in 2015[23] and died on July 9, 2016.[24][25][26][27]

He married actress Michelle Williams in July 2018 in a private ceremony in the Adirondacks.[28] Around the same time, Elverum moved from his longtime residence in Anacortes to Williams' home in Brooklyn.[27] The couple separated in January 2019, and filed for divorce in April 2019.[29] Following the split, Elverum moved back to Washington, after having lived in New York for about nine months.[27] By November 2019, it was reported that they were no longer married.[27]

Elverum described his parents as "mystical about nature", although these beliefs were not tied to a specific religion.[1] In an interview from 2012, he stated that "a lot of the ideas that I’m trying to enunciate reflect a more or less Buddhist ideology. Even though I’m not Buddhist, at all, I come across these same ideas... I’m taking things from that tradition and reframing them in my world."[30]

• P.W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd.
• Fancy People Adventures
• K Records