Biography
someone
else is philadelphia's sean o'neal, whose musical
inspiration is already imbedded in his roots. his grandfather was
a high school music teacher and also played bass with bill hailey
and the comets. his father was also on the brink of success with
various rock bands throughout the '50s and '60s. during his early
youth, sean lived a cheeseball life performing in a variety of
choirs and musical plays. also around this time, he would often
sit with his father and grandfather watching and listening to
spike jones -- a comical bandleader from the '40s and '50s who
would often make music by hitting random objects in the room. by
his teenage years, sean was playing guitar and synthesizers in a
variety of indie rock bands while being a huge fan of shoegazer
rock and krautrock.
since
1994, he has been the force behind his ever-evolving,
kitsch-driven electro-pop outfit, flowchart (much of it
alongside erin anderson a.k.a. fidget) -- releasing dozens and
dozens of albums, singles, eps and comp tracks on different labels
from all over the world (like darla, morr music, instinct,
endorphin, carrot top, and his own fuzzy box imprint), and
flowchart was chosen as one of the "next 100"
according to urb magazine in 1998. around this time he also
was hooked on idm, techno and house, and he had already fallen in
love with artists such as the orb, plastikman, king tubby and
matthew herbert. he became intrigued by herbert's use of field
recordings and found sounds, and this recalled a similar feeling
to what he gained from the music of spike jones.
as
his love for minimal techno solidified by 1998, sean teamed up
with jay haze and bjoern hartmann, and together they launched the
tuning spork label. while making dance music with field
recordings became more and more his shtick, sean grew close to
kate iwanowicz (a.k.a. miskate) and sylvain takerkart
(a.k.a. fusiphorm), and together they launched the
foundsound and unfoundsound record labels. to this
day, both labels continue to gain increasingly more recognition
while offering a unique facet to the modern-day minimal scene.
throughout
the years, sean also co-produced events in philadelphia and new
york -- hosting performances by magda, matthew dear, sammy dee,
geoff white, jeff milligan, dan bell, dinky and many others. he
also spent a lot of time writing part-time as a journalist for
various music magazines and newspapers such as xlr8r and
philadelphia city paper.
over
recent years, sean's production skills have been garnering respect
among internationally renowned djs and labels alike, as reflected
by his massive discography of releases and remixes for labels like
musik krause, tuning spork, foundsound, mo's ferry,
microcosm, nummer, kickboxer, sender, alphahouse, roman-photo,
level non-zero, mule musiq, hello? repeat, revolver and many
others. this was accompanied by extensive world touring, and he
was voted as one of the best live acts of 2006 in groove
magazine. sean continues to spin and play live all around
north america, south america, europe, japan, russia and elsewhere
-- including fabric in london, yellow in tokyo, rex club in paris
and panorama bar in berlin.
he is also the recent co-founder of the little helpers label alongside andrew rasse (a.k.a. butane).
discography at discogs: here and heresource: biography at unfoundsound