Extra Life was formed in 2007 as the main vehicle for New York-based guitarist/composer/vocalist, Charlie Looker. The band plays a fusion of aggressive math rock, dark dramatic pop, modern classical, and ancient liturgical music, bridging the worlds of abstract art music and DIY post-punk musical culture. Looker was a founding member of NY noise-chamber outfit Zs, frontman of industrial metal band Psalm Zero, and is a prolific collaborator across the experimental music scene, with credits including Xiu Xiu, Dirty Projectors, Lingua Ignota, Darius Jones, and John Zorn.
Between 2008 and 2012, Extra Life released four records, and toured the U.S. and Europe extensively, including appearances at Primavera Sound (Spain), Moers (DE). Villette Sonique (FR), and Bad Bonn (CH), and sharing bills with Sonic Youth, Ariel Pink, Deerhoof, Owen Pallett, Deerhunter, and Chelsea Wolfe. Looker put Extra Life on hiatus in 2013, to focus on his classical composition, improvisation, and his metal band Psalm Zero.
Looker reunited Extra Life in 2021, releasing Secular Works Vol. 2 (2022), to great acclaim, and The Sacred Vowel (2024), both on his own imprint, Last Things Records. International touring followed, including a slot at A Colossal Weekend Festival (DK). The current band line-up includes Toby Driver(Kayo Dot), violinist Timba Harris(Ultraphauna, Secret Chiefs 3), and drummer Cameron Wisch (Sheer Mag, Dust Star).
Patrick Higgins is an American composer, guitarist, and producer from New York City, known for his work in experimental and contemporary classical music. Higgins plays guitar and composes in the band Zs, described by The New York Times as ‘one of the strongest avant-garde bands in New York.’ Heralded as a ‘formidable concert music composer’ (Boston Globe) and ‘one of the most gifted guitarists working today’ (The Quietus), Higgins has received attention for bridging traditions including baroque chamber music, contemporary noise, electronics, and 20th-century minimalism. His work has been performed in over 25 countries internationally, and he has composed works for some of the world’s leading ensembles, ranging from chamber orchestra works, percussion cycles, and string quartets to smaller ensembles and soloists. He has scored works for television, museum exhibitions, and films both short-form and feature-length. Since 2013, he has operated Future-Past Studios, a recording studio in upstate NY.
He recently had a solo exhibition of artworks and sheet music, as well as two world premiers, at The Clark Museum in MA, USA. In 2019, he was a curator and headliner of the Le Guess Who festival in Holland. Higgins has performed and presented works at many of the world’s largest festivals and venues across the past 12 years, including The Broad Museum (LA), The Warhol Museum, SF MOMA, Unsound Festival (Poland), Pioneer Works (NYC), Monom Berlin, Sony Ginza Park (Tokyo), ReWire (Holland), Cleveland MOCA, ICA Boston, Teatro Carignano (Torino), Sacrum Profanum (Kracow), Merriweather Post Pavilion, Donau Festival (Austria), Paula Cooper Gallery (NYC), Club Unit (Tokyo), Shakespeare Theater (Gdansk), The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and many more.
Higgins currently records for the Other People label, and has previously worked with NNA Tapes, Northern Spy, and Telegraph Harp records. He is the founding member of AEAEA, a new duo project with electronic musician Nicolás Jaar.
Patrick Higgins composes with a scholar’s historical perspective and a punk’s sense of abandon—Pitchfork
One of the prime movers of the avant-garde—The New Yorker
A pioneer of modern experimental music—East Village Radio