Travis Dickerson - Life and Work

Life and Work

Travis Dickerson was raised in Michigan, where his father, Burton Dickerson, was an arts teacher at the Central Michigan University. When Travis was ten years old, his father exchanged a painting for an old piano and Travis got it to work again.

Together with his brothers he early made some musical experiments, first recordings and later moved to Los Angeles where he met the punk band X. In his new studio in Chatsworth a bunch of the band's releases as well as some solo projects were recorded. Singer Exene Cervenka introduced Dickerson to Viggo Mortensen, starting a long friendship. Nearly all of Mortensen's albums since then were recorded or distributed by TDRS.

In 1994 Dickerson played keyboards on County Fair 2000, an album by Phil Alvin (of The Blasters) and in 1998 he appeared on Shocking Pink Banana Seat by singer–songwriter Susan James. He also wrote the liner notes for the anthology Beyond And Back by X in 1997.

Buckethead and Dickerson met in San Francisco, and Buckethead being disappointed of major record labels found a new home for his many releases in TDRS. Dickerson played keyboards on several Buckethead recordings and in 2001 they formed Thanatopsis, a band combining jazz and rock styles. Released as a Buckethead album, Population Override likewise featured a large contribution from Dickerson in both composition and performance in 2004. Chicken Noodles, a series of jazz-influenced jams, followed in 2006. Additionally Dickerson remastered the early Cornbugs albums, a fun project Buckethead ran with actor Bill Moseley and played on the last two recordings of the band before they split up.

In 2009 Travis released his highly anticipated solo album which has been said to have been in the works for years. On one of Buckethead.tk's annual Binge Support Days, Travis included a special CD with two unreleased tracks, one of those two tracks will be released on this album under the name of Legerdemain. Some participating artists include Buckethead, Bryan "Brain" Mantia, and Cameron Stone.