Geologist (musician)
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Brian Ross Weitz (born March 26, 1979), also known by his stage name Geologist, is a musician best known as a member of the
experimental pop Experimental pop is pop music that cannot be categorized within traditional musical boundaries or which attempts to push elements of existing popular forms into new areas. It may incorporate experimental music, experimental techniques such as m ...
group
Animal Collective Animal Collective is an American experimental pop band formed in Baltimore County, Maryland. Its members consist of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Geologist (Brian Weitz), and Deakin (Josh Dibb). The band's work is cha ...
. He provides electronic sound manipulations and samples for the band. Weitz grew up in
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
and
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
Animal Collective's Brian Weitz: The New Gay Interview
September 27, 2007
and lives in
Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
. His nickname comes from a friend mistaking his major in college, as well as the
headlamp A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage, ''headlamp'' is the term for the device itself and ''headlight'' is the term for t ...
he wears in order to see his electronic equipment during live shows.


Animal Collective

Geologist attended the Park School of Baltimore where he met future Animal Collective bandmates David Portner (aka Avey Tare) and Josh Dibb (aka Deakin). Avey Tare, Geologist and Deakin first started an indie-rock band called "Automine" with two other schoolmates. Deakin introduced his childhood friend Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) to Avey Tare and Geologist. Throughout their high school years and winter/summer college breaks, the four of them played music in different variations and often solo, swapping homemade recordings and sharing ideas. Geologist went on to study at
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, while Avey Tare went to NYU, Panda Bear to
Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...
, and Deakin to
Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...
. Avey Tare recorded tracks with Panda Bear which eventually became '' Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished,'' which was released under "Avey Tare and Panda Bear" in August 2000. After Panda Bear and Deakin both left school and moved to New York in 2000, the group's music became more collaborative, and Avey and Panda began playing clubs around New York. Geologist soon began performing with the group who eventually became "Animal Collective." He first appeared on their 2001 release '' Danse Manatee'', and has contributed to every Animal Collective recording to date, except for their 2004 '' Sung Tongs'' LP and their 2003 '' Campfire Songs'' LP (though he was present during the recording of the latter to operate the MiniDisc recorders). Before that time, Geologist had gone to Arizona for graduate school. When asked about his personal musical influences, he says "I was always inspired by horror soundtracks, things that use unconventional sounds and textures as music. I'm interested in how abstract sounds can have the same impact on the listener as traditional musical sounds."


Other musical projects

As well as performing various DJ sets, Geologist has released the track "Jailhouse" on Animal Collective's ''Keep Cassette'', "Stretching Songs for Spring" on a digital split with Avey Tare entitled ''New Psycho Actives Vol. 1'' and created the soundtrack for the Morphologic Studios short film ''Man O War''. In April of 2018 he released the limited edition cassette ''Live in the Land of the Sky'' - his first proper solo release. Geologist collaborated with Doug Shaw (credited as "D.S.") on the album ''A Shaw Deal'', released in January 2025. The singles "Loose Gravel" and "Route 9 Falls" were released on January 13, 2025 ahead of the album. He also hosts a monthly radio show on
NTS Radio NTS Radio (also known as NTS Live or simply NTS) is a music radio platform which was founded in 2011 in Hackney, East London by Femi Adeyemi "for an international community of music lovers". NTS was built as a platform to celebrate the eclec ...
called ''The O'Brien System''.


Personal life

In addition to his musical career, Weitz also worked on ocean conservation and environmental policy. He has a BA from Columbia University in Environmental Science, and an
MPA MPA or mPa may refer to: Academia Academic degrees * Master of Performing Arts * Master of Professional Accountancy * Master of Public Administration * Master of Public Affairs Schools * Mesa Preparatory Academy * Morgan Park Academy * M ...
in Environmental Policy from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Weitz was married on
Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
in 2009. He and his wife had a son in August 2010.


Musical equipment

*
MiniDisc MiniDisc (MD) is an erasable magneto-optical disc-based data storage format offering a capacity of 60, 74, or 80 minutes of digitized audio. Sony announced the MiniDisc in September 1992 and released it in November of that year for sale i ...
– sample playback * Kaoss Pad – effects * Roland SP-555sampler *
Roland SP-404 The Roland SP-404 Sampling Workstation is a sampler made by Roland Corporation. Released in 2005, it is part of the SP family and successor to where Boss Corporation’s SP-505 sampler left off. The sampler was succeeded by the SP-555 in 200 ...
– sampler * Moog Taurus 3 Pedals * Moog Sub 37 * Moog Little Phatty


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Geologist 1979 births Living people American electronic musicians Animal Collective members Columbia University alumni