Member Profile
Photo Carol Kelly
Charlie
Horshack
Vocals, Guitar, Sax, Theremin, etc.
Born
and raised in the suburban armpit that is Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Charlie
Horshack (aka Charlie Naked) began playing music at the age of 15 in a
cover band called the Slip, and slightly later, a folk-rock band called
Annuit Coeptis. At this time, his primary musical influences were Neil
Young and the Velvet Underground, but upon reaching Houston to attend
school, Horshack joined up with Mike Switzer and formed the band Horshack,
which was followed by a sudden and unexpected turn into improvisation
and experimentation. This shift was mostly due to the plethora of music
Horshack was exposed to during this time in college, opening his mind
to free jazz, krautrock, psychedelic music, Indian music, and so forth.
In 1995, Switzer and Horshack formed the Hawthorne Improvisation Collective
to explore this impulse, resulting in such bands as Avijit, Bartiromo,
the Democratic Art, The Defenestration Unit, the Charlie Naked solo project,
the Carter Administration, CCM, the Naked/Switzer/Hill Trio, the Last
Bastions, and several more.
In
1996, Horshack was contacted by Ramon Medina after Medina had seen him
playing with the Democratic Art. At the time, the LP4 had a song idea
which would require some free jazz saxophone playing, so Horshack was
brought in to play the part. Shortly thereafter, more songs began to be
adapted to an additional saxophone part, and Horshack began playing portions
of Linus sets live, as well as joining the recording sessions for Killing
You With Rock. By the middle of those sessions, Horshack had been invited
to join the band as a full member. However, playing saxophone in a rock
band isn't as easy as Horshack had initially thought, and the added responsibilities
of playing sax for so many other improv bands, as well as the possibilities
opened up for Horshack to write songs for Linus and to sing them, eventually
led Horshack to give up the sax as his primary instrument in the LP4,
and the band gained its current three-guitar attack. Today Charlie Horshack
lives in a sprawling barricaded complex, replete with guard dogs and machine-gun
turrets, in which he has secluded himself in order to better observe his
beetle collection during the mating season.
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