Mitch Easter is a musician and producer. As a producer, he is probably best known for his work with R.E.M. from 1981 through 1984, though he has also worked with many other acts including The Hang Ups, Pavement, Suzanne Vega, Game Theory, Marshall Crenshaw, and Velvet Crush. As a musician, Easter played with Sneakers during the late 1970s; was the frontman for the band Let's Active during the 1980s; and more recently, has been a member of quasi-supergroups The Orange Humble Band and Coronet Blue. His first solo album was released in 2007.

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Biography

Born as Mitchell Blake Easter November 15, 1954, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Mitch Easter was deeply involved in music from an early age. He played in a number of school bands, some of them with his childhood friend Chris Stamey. The two eventually formed Sneakers, who released a number of singles and an album in the late 1970s. Stamey and fellow bandmate Will Rigby eventually formed The dB's and moved to New York. Easter did likewise, but soon returned to Winston-Salem to set up Drive-In Studio in his parents' garage.

Drive-In Studio became an integral part of the local indie-rock scene, recording a number of bands at knock-down rates. It was at this time that Easter formed Let's Active with then-girlfriend Faye Hunter and drummer Sara Romweber. Around the same time, Easter worked with R.E.M. to record their debut single, "Radio Free Europe." This initial work led to a number of collaborations with the band, with Easter producing their debut EP and (with Don Dixon) their first two albums. Let's Active toured with R.E.M., which led to a recording contract with I.R.S. Records.

Weathering several line-up changes, Let's Active released an EP and three albums before splitting up. Easter had by then become known primarily as a producer, and worked with a number of artists, some of them perhaps because of his influence on the early R.E.M. His production credits include recordings by Pavement, Suzanne Vega, Game Theory, Marshall Crenshaw, Velvet Crush, The Cosmopolitans, Richard Barone, Baskervilles, Ken Stringfellow (of The Posies), Insanity Wave, Helium and The Loud Family.

Easter's current studio is The Fidelitorium, near Winston-Salem. He currently plays with Shalini and also under his own name. Both bands have the same lineup; they consist of his wife, Shalini Chatterjee (vocals, guitar, and bass), Chris Garges (drums), and Easter on guitar, bass, vocals, and a number of other instruments. Chatterjee sings and writes most of the songs in Shalini (a more straightforward Cheap Trick-style hard pop project), while Easter solo performs his new original songs, which continue in the tradition of Let's Active's more idiosyncratic material, along with covers of his older material. Shalini has released three albums, We Want Jelly Donuts , Metal Corner , and "The Surface And The Shine". Mitch Easter's first solo album in 18 years, Dynamico , was released on Electric Devil Records on March 13, 2007 and Easter spent much of 2007 touring in support of the album. Easter, Chatterjeee, and Garges also perform occasionally in several cover bands, including Guitars In The Sky (a tribute to The Records, with bassist/vocalist Holt Evans) and Gravel Truck, an all-Let's Active material performance (including former Let's Active member, Tim Lee).