Paul Amitai is a Brooklyn-based artist who performs as a one-man operation. With an array of digital and traditional instruments, Amitai mixes electronic music with avant-rock, soul music with dub reggae production, and darkly rendered vocals with gritty sonic textures.
As both a solo performer and a member of various bands, Amitai has shared the stage with a diverse range of musicians, including Run-DMC, The Skatalites, The Specials, Califone, and Crooked Fingers.
During the early to mid 1990s as the lead singer/guitarist/songwriter of The Pacers, Amitai toured the States and recorded a number of releases while still in his teens. The group developed a national following, headlining shows at venues such as First Avenue, the Metro and The Rave. In 1994, the group recorded the full-length album Strictly for Lovers produced by Fishbone's Chris Dowd and recorded at Pachyderm Studios, birthplace of Nirvana's In Utero.
From 1995 to 1999, Amitai fronted the downtempo electronic group Jookbeet. In 1998, the quartet of Milwaukee and Chicago musicians recorded the full-length album Underneath the Winter Glass.
From 1999 to the present, Amitai has performed as a solo artist and in various collaboratives. Bridging the gap between the rock scene and the gallery scene, he continues to play clubs as well as alternative spaces and galleries, melding video and sound performance, pop music with experimentalism.
