East Bay Ray was born in Oakland, California on November 17. He was inspired to do music by his father, who had a collection of 78RPM jazz and country blues records from the 1930’s and 40’s. When Ray’s father was a teenager, he used to sneak into black jazz clubs to see Duke Ellington and Count Basie back when the country had legal racial segregation. His father would later take Ray and his brother when they were very young to see legendary performers like Muddy Waters, the Count Basie orchestra and Lightin’ Hopkins. Ray’s music was also inspired by his mother, who listened to the Weavers and Pete Seeger. Both his parents use to organize art and music festivals in their local suburban neighborhood.
In addition to music, Ray was also politically inspired by his parents - both his mother and father were involved in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
In school, Ray planned on being an architect, but found it too artistically restricting. When he did graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, Ray was writing and playing music and by then he found that it had become impossible for him to live without music.
From The Oakland Tribune & The San Jose Mercury News, Nov. 7 2006:
THE BAY AREA'S 25 GREATEST GUITAR PLAYERS
19. East Bay Ray : â€Jello Biafra got all the press. But it was the guy beside him in the Dead Kennedys — East Bay Ray — who had the bigger hand in drawing up the blueprint for the second wave of American punk.â€
Although proficiency at your instrument was frowned upon by many punk rockers since the genre's initial surge in the late '70s, several artists were exceptions to the rule — especially Dead Kennedys guitarist East Bay Ray. In addition to penning some of the most recognizable and instantly memorable guitar riffs to emerge from the initial West Coast punk movement, Ray incorporated other styles into his playing, until he had hatched a truly original guitar style. Whereas most punk guitarists of the time were one-dimensional, Ray effortlessly rolled off surf rock riffs and other styles (including '60s spy movies and Ennio Morricone-esque spaghetti Western scores), in addition to creating spacey sounds courtesy of an Echoplex effects box. During 1978, Ray placed an ad in a San Francisco music paper looking for other musicians, which eventually led to the formation of the Dead Kennedys. With singer Jello Biafra, bassist Klaus Flouride, and drummer Ted, who was soon replaced by D.H. Peligro, on board, the group specialized in scalding-yet-witty political/social commentary, as evidenced by such early classics as "Kill the Poor," "Let's Lynch the Landlord," from the group's 1980 full-length debut, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables , and "California Uber Alles," "Holiday in Cambodia," "Police Truck" and "Moon Over Marin."
Such further releases as 1981's In God We Trust, Inc. , 1982's Plastic Surgery Disasters , 1985's Frankenchrist " and 1986's Bedtime for Democracy made the Dead Kennedys one of the world's top punk outfits, but the band broke up in January 1986. After the group's split, Ray played with other artists, including garage rockers Pearl Harbour, the lounge act Frenchy, surf rockers Jumbo Shrimp (which also included former DK bandmate Flouride), and modern rockers the Killer Smiles. Ray also played on the album Sidi Mansou r by Algerian singer Cheikha Remitti, which featured contributions by King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea. Ray then became involved in either producing, mixing, and/or mastering other artist's albums, including recordings by the No Alternative, (hed) pe, Screaming Bloody Marys, Cell Block 5, and Strychnine, among others. East Bay Ray also did soundtrack work for directors David Segal and Scott McGhee (who would later enjoy acclaim with their 2001 thriller/drama The Deep End ).