Hisham Akira Bharoocha (born March 12, 1976[1] in Niigata, Japan[2]) is an American musician and visual artist. Bharoocha lives in Brooklyn,[3] performs as Yokubari,[4] and is a member of the band Kill Alters;[5] he is also a former member of the Providence bands Lightning Bolt and Black Dice.[6]
Early life and education
Bharoocha was born in Niigata, Japan,[2] to a Japanese mother and Burmese IndianGujarati father.[7][8] The family moved to Tokyo and then to Toronto when he was two,[citation needed] and Bharoocha spent his elementary school years in Los Angeles and San Diego.[3] His father died of cancer when he was 10 years old;[9] as an adult, memories of the experience inspired the 24-foot mural and sound installation Bharoocha created for the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Brooklyn.[10] He attended junior high and high school in Tokyo,[11] where he first met Eye and other members of Boredoms.[12]
At RISD, Bharoocha met fellow musician Brian Gibson and became vocalist of the band Lightning Bolt after their first show.[14] Bharoocha performed with Lightning Bolt from 1995–1996, but the band's trio recording was never released;[15][14] the only officially-released Lightning Bolt music with Bharoocha was "Revenge," a track on the Load Records Repopulation Program compilation.[16]
In 1996, Bharoocha began drumming for the Clutters, a band that the following year became Black Dice.[15][14] After graduating from RISD in 1998, Bharoocha moved to New York City and became actively involved in the music and art scene; the other members of Black Dice also moved to New York, and Bharoocha continued playing with the band until his departure in 2004.[17][18] Bharoocha's work with Black Dice included 2002's Beaches & Canyons,[17] included in Pitchfork's best of 2000-2004[19] and Tiny Mix Tapes' best albums of the decade,[20] as well as Wolf Eyes and Black Dice (2003),[21][22]Miles of Smiles (2004),[23] and Creature Comforts (2004).[24]
Bharoocha released two albums as Soft Circle: 2009's Full Bloom was a solo endeavor,[25] and 2010's Shore Obsessed included bandmate Ben Vida.[26][27] Bharoocha also played drums for Pixeltan, who released several EPs on DFA records.[28]
Bharoocha served as musical director and drummer 4 in the Boredoms' 77 Boadrum performance on July 7, 2007 at the Empire–Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn, New York.[29][30] He reprised his roles the following year for 88 Boadrum, a duo of free concerts performed at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles and the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn; each concert began at 8:08pm local time and featured 88 drummers selected by Boredoms and Bharoocha, with Boredoms participating in the west coast performance and Gang Gang Dance conducting in New York.[31][32]
In July 2009, Bharoocha released a split 12 inch with High Places on the label PPM.[33]
Bharoocha is a member of the band Kill Alters, a trio with Bonnie Baxter and Nicos Kennedy;[34] he appears on the band's releases No Self Helps (2017)[35] and Armed To The Teeth (2022),[36] among others.
Visual art and fashion
In addition to music, Bharoocha is also a visual artist and photographer known for his collage and mural work.[37][38] He has had solo exhibitions of his work at D'Amelio Terras gallery in New York, as well as Vleeshal, a state run space in The Netherlands.[13] He has been in numerous group exhibitions at galleries such as Deitch Projects, John Connelly Presents and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.[39] His work has been published in Artforum, V, i-D, Flaunt, Tokion and more.[39]
