Bradford Cox

Bradford James Cox (born May 15, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band Deerhunter. Cox formed Deerhunter with Paul Harper and Dan Walton in 2001. To date, the band has released eight studio albums along with numerous singles and EPs.

Cox also pursues a solo career under the moniker Atlas Sound, a name Cox has used since he was ten to refer to his own music. Cox has released three studio albums under this name: Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel (2008), Logos (2009), and Parallax (2011). Cox's method of creating music is stream of consciousness, and he does not write lyrics in advance.

Music career

Deerhunter

Cox founded Deerhunter with bassist Paul Harper and drummer Dan Walton, who named the band, in early 2001. The band expanded after Cox met a teenage transient, Moses Archuleta, who was sleeping on the floor of Cox's friends. Archuleta initially played Ace Tone Organ and electronics. The band's first shows were experimental and based on improvisation. Cox continued recording slightly more structured material and releasing it on CD-R and cassette using the name Atlas Sound. Harper was soon replaced by Justin Bosworth. Colin Mee had also joined the band on guitar around this time. Walton eventually left the band and Cox suggested Archuleta move to drums. The band's live shows and recordings became more song-oriented. They recorded their debut 7" for Die Slaughterhaus. Josh Fauver joined the band on bass in 2004 after Bosworth died in a freak skateboarding accident. This four-piece lineup recorded Deerhunter's debut self-titled LP (2005) on Atlanta-based label Stickfigure Records. As a four-piece again, the band subsequently released three albums: Microcastle (2008), Weird Era Cont. (2008), and Halcyon Digest (2010) with this lineup. Fauver then left the band and was replaced by Josh McKay on bass.

The band now consisted of Cox on guitar and vocals, Pundt on guitar and occasional vocals, McKay on bass, and Archuleta on drums for both albums Monomania (2013) and Fading Frontier (2015). The band announced in 2018 that Fauver had died unexpectedly.

Deerhunter's most recent album, Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? (2019), saw Javier Morales join the band playing a plethora of instruments such as the piano, tenor saxophone and bass clarinet. The band has remained inactive since the 2019 tour for Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?.

Atlas Sound Atlas Sound is the solo musical project of Cox, a name he has used since he started making music between the ages of ten and eleven. The name derived from the brand of cassette deck he used. Cox would use two cassette decks, which he used to layer guitar and drum sounds, as well as his own voice. In listening to some of these old tapes, of which Cox believes he has over five hundred in storage, he found, "some of it absolutely, terrifyingly bad, but sometimes I'm just like, 'Wow, that's cool'. That's actually how some Deerhunter songs happened. 'Spring Hall Convert' [from Cryptograms] was like that. That was a tape I made in ninth or tenth grade". Because the music Deerhunter makes is a collaborative effort, Cox does not want to assert himself as its principal songwriter. "I might have an idea for a fragment of a song, but I want to leave it skeletal so the guys can fill it out. Whereas with Atlas Sound, everything is done in an hour".

Atlas Sound was chosen by Animal Collective to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that they curated in May 2011.

Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel (2008)

Cox released his first solo album, Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, on 18 February 2008 on Kranky in the US and on 4AD in Europe. The songs were recorded on Ableton Live using an array of computer-based instruments, as well as his own live recordings. The lyrics of Let the Blind Lead are autobiographical in nature, reflecting life experiences of Cox. An unfinished version of Logos had previously leaked onto the internet in August 2008. In response, Cox almost ceased production on the record, later saying, "I did not react well to the leak, in retrospect. It became the kind of internet-fueled drama that I was quickly learning to despise".

In discussing his Logos, Cox characterised his first album as being a "bedroom laptop type thing" and "very introverted". In contrast, Logos was written in several parts of the world, and is "not about me. There are collaborations with other musicians. The lyrics are not autobiographical. The view is a lot more panoramic and less close-up. I became bored with introspection". Pitchfork described the two and a half hours' worth of material as being, "four albums' worth of tossed-off ditties and more fully fleshed-out demos", and also commented that, "sonically, the collection runs from straightforward folk-pop to electronic instrumentals and songs that fall somewhere in between".

Parallax (2011)

Cox released his third and most recent album, Parallax, on 7 November 2011 on 4AD. In an interview with Spin, Cox described the recording of the album as, "very exhausting to make, even though it was comfortable and detached. It is the loneliest record that I've ever made". After Parallax was recorded, Bradford Cox continued touring with Deerhunter, which ended up being so stressful for Cox that it caused him to have a nervous breakdown. The artwork features a photograph of Cox taken by Mick Rock, who had previously shot photographs for albums such as Raw Power, The Madcap Laughs, and Transformer.

Other work In 1997, when Cox was 16, he designed a font named "Polaroid 22" which would later be used on the album covers for Papa Roach's Lovehatetragedy (2002) and Avril Lavigne's Under My Skin (2004).

Cox has also recorded as part of other bands, such as the short lived "Wet Dreams", an otherwise all-girl garage/ noise band in which he played drums. He also recorded several tracks on Black Lips' second album We Did Not Know the Forest Spirit Made the Flowers Grow (2004), playing drums on the song "Notown Blues" from that album.

He also was a part of the "Avant-Garage" band Ghetto Cross, with Cole Alexander from Black Lips, Frankie Broyles, and Asha Lakra.

Cox contributed to the Karen O-scored soundtrack for the 2009 Spike Jonze film, Where the Wild Things Are.

Cox portrayed "Sunflower" in the 2013 feature film Dallas Buyers Club, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. In the same year, Cox created the soundtrack for Teenage, a documentary film directed by Matt Wolf based on Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture, a book by Jon Savage.

In September 2019, Cox collaborated with Cate Le Bon, releasing a joint EP, Myths 004.

In July 2023, Stereogum reported that Cox had performed a show in Athens, Georgia alongside guitarist and songwriter Tom Carter.

In July 2025, Cox hosted a two-part set on NTS Radio titled, Bradford Cox: Summer and Smoke Pt. 1 (Day) and Pt. 2 (Night).

Equipment

Guitars For the most part, Bradford favors vintage and modern Fender and Gibson guitars. Some of his guitars include: Fender Jaguar (1964 Fiesta Red, Formerly owned by Stereolab's Tim Gane) Fender Jazzmaster (1966, Block Inlays Originally white, has aged to a yellow color) Fender Stratocaster '74 Gibson Les Paul Signature Fender Bronco (70s stripped natural finish) Teisco Del-Rey EV-2, Humbuckers, Blue (possibly modified) Various Gibson Acoustics EKO 60's 12 String Acoustic Epiphone Small Body Acoustic strung in "Nashville Tuning"

Effects and amplifiers Pedalboards

Bradford Cox's Deerhunter Pedalboard as of 2016 Tours.

1966 Fender Jazzmaster into – (signal chain as follows) Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner Fairfield Circuitry Unpleasant Surprise (Used for Lead Parts, Noise) Henretta Engineering Chord Blaster (Used For Overdrive) Eventide PitchFactor Behringer Reverb Machine RV600 Ibanez CF7 Chorus / Flanger (Rarely Used) Ibanez DE7 Line 6 DL4 Boss Noise Suppressor Out to Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10

Cox also uses an exposed spring reverb tank / filter unit for noise and effects

Vocal effects pedal board Beyerdynamic M69 microphone into: Digitech DigiVerb (through mic for backwards vocals only) Digitech DigiDelay (through mic for vocal loops only) Eventide MixingLink preamp / FX loop

Amps When playing live with Deerhunter, Bradford previously used Univox U-1226 Head into a vintage Marshall 4x10 Cabinet. He has also used a Marshall JCM800 half-stack, and occasionally a 1970s Peavey Classic combo amplifier. He currently uses a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 410. Speaking to Prefix Magazine a few years prior in February 2008, Cox spoke further of his stream of consciousness songwriting and use of effects:"The reason I used effects in the first place was to use the vocals as more of an instrument. To have it be on the same level as the instruments. Because I'm not a "songwriter" and I don't write lyrics in advance, I'm more interested in ambiguity, sonically too, in terms of the way things mix. I prefer it to be a little bit skewed. The traditional concept that the vocals are supposed to be mixed pretty high, but I guess that concept was thrown out the window a long time ago". As a teenager, he dropped out of high school, although he later earned a GED, and his parents divorced, leaving him "to live in my childhood home alone. I literally lived in this large suburban house by myself". Cox has called his changing musical taste while growing up reflective of his life and mental state. Around the age of ten, his Marfan syndrome began to affect his body in more visible ways; this is the point at which he "first started looking awkward". though he previously has stated that he leads a non-sexual/asexual lifestyle. However, in a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone, Cox said that he no longer identifies as asexual but rather as queer: "For a long time I just said I was asexual, but now I just realized that… I'm still, I guess… I mean, I'm queer. I just sort of, don't really have a very big self-esteem, so asexuality is sort of like a comfort zone where you don't get rejected". Cox stated in an October 19, 2016, radio interview: "There's so many types of sexuality, but one that I think is overlooked is to be asexual. I am absolutely asexual. I am a virgin at 34 years old". In 2019, Cox confirmed that he was still a virgin. Cox also identified as non-binary in a 2019 tweet.

In December 2014, Cox was hospitalized after being hit by a car in Atlanta.

Discography

With Deerhunter: 2005 Turn It Up Faggot 2007 Cryptograms 2008 Microcastle 2008 Weird Era Cont. 2010 Halcyon Digest 2013 Monomania 2015 Fading Frontier 2019 Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?

As Atlas Sound: 2008 Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel 2009 Logos 2011 Parallax

With Cate Le Bon 2019 Myths 004