BLIND IDIOT GOD
BEFORE EVER AFTER

Before Ever After, co-produced by Bill Laswell and band guitarist Andy Hawkins is Blind Idiot God’s fourth record. For 32 years the band has been creating timeless, boundary-defying instrumental music. The band has a long history as forbearers of modern varieties of tech/prog music. The band explores, innovates, and defies convention and expectations. NME enthuses “They’re post-everything in the best sense of the term…” 

Formed in St. Louis, Missouri in 1982 by guitarist Andy Hawkins, bassist Gabe Katz, and drummer Ted Epstein, the band’s first forays were distilled versions of punk, dub, and funk. Musical inspirations among members included Black Flag, Black Uhuru, Led Zeppelin, 1970’s electric Miles Davis, Public Image Limited, Igor Stravinsky, The Tony Williams Lifetime and Gyorgy Ligeti. 

In 1986 the band moved to New York City and recorded their self-titled debut with producer Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn). The album was released by SST Records in 1987. It was a critical success, described as “an extraordinary debut” by All Music. 

Blind Idiot God (BIG) went on to make two more LPs with the original lineup. “Undertow,” released by Enemy Records in 1989, began a long relationship with visionary bassist/producer Bill Laswell. A third LP, “Cyclotron,” also produced by Laswell, was released in 1991 on Avant Records, the label curated by iconic saxophonist/composer John Zorn. Zorn also recorded with the band on the track “Purged Specimen” on “Undertow.” 

During the thirteen years Ted Epstein was a member, BIG toured the US and Europe, performing with Black Flag, Helmet, The Minutemen, Jesus Lizard, and Sun Ra, among others. Live Blind Idiot God was an unbridled, kinetic experience, described by The Wire’s Mark Sinker as “loud senssurround, violently static.” 

Blind Idiot God also collaborated on recordings and festival performances with musicians such as John Zorn, Buddy Miles, Tim Berne, Joey Baron, and Henry Rollins. Rollins collaborated with BIG on the title track for director Alex Winter’s 20th Century Fox film Freaked. In 1996, drummer Ted Epstein left the band and BIG went on hiatus while searching for a new drummer. During that time guitarist Andy Hawkins released two solo guitar records under the name Azonic on the Strata and Sub Rosa labels, as well as working with academy award winning composer Elliot Goldenthal on soundtracks for the movies Heat (Robert DeNiro) and In Dreams. 

In 2001, Hawkins and Katz joined forces with Khanate drummer Tim Wyskida. The band began work on new material with looser structures to maximize Wyskida’s exceptional improvisational skills. After some setbacks, including Katz sitting out long periods with bad bouts of tendonitis and hearing maladies, the fourth LP began to take shape. BIG returned to the stage in 2006, performing well-received shows in NYC. 

In 2012, bassist Gabe Katz departed BIG and was replaced by talented New York veteran Will Dahl, whose resume includes everything from electric jazz improv to recording/touring with NYC metal core act Harley’s War. 

The new 74-minute double LP titled, Before Ever After, was co-produced by Bill Laswell and guitarist Andy Hawkins and is being released by Indivisible Music. “Andy Hawkins is a nut, a perfectionist for his amplification and the guitar, and we recorded it right,” Laswell recently explained to HeavyMetalBe-Bop.com. “Every detail is there. He’s obsessive. It’s probably the best thing they’ve done.” The gatefold double-vinyl LP artwork is a stunning example of artist Seldon Hunt’s finest LP designs (Neurosis, Earth, Melvins, Sunn). Three tracks from album (“Barrage,” “High And Mighty,” and “Shutdown”) are featured in Alex Winters’ new HBO documentary about the rise and fall of Napster titled, Downloaded. 

The band is based in Brooklyn, NY and play live and tour regularly.