Born: April 25, 1972 Primary Instrument: Multi-instrumentalist
David Leikam is a San Francisco-based composer, designer, improviser, producer, and bandleader of the industrial jazz unit zBug. Being born with cerebral palsy has affected his body and speech, given him a distinct view into his creative arts/music and being largely a self-taught multi-instrumentalist performer. His first piano solo performance was recorded at age 16 in January, 1988. Since 2001, after a decade of formal music composition study, he developed a unique philosophy of music such as “Each performance is a premiere improvisational composition of music and an exploration into the audio spectrum.” He is also furthering his music theories of structured improvisational styles coined Industrial Jazz based on performance area architecture and music composition vocabulary. In other words, he shapes his music to reflect the architecture of the performance space including historical relevance and instrumentation selection. It has the power to envelope his audience into its core that usually lasts extended periods of time with the average composition/performance between 20 to 45 minutes per piece. One of his concerts was a nonstop five hour performance broadcast live on radio with his duo project David Leikam aka Bug and Lucas Rodenbush aka DJ EBE along with 9 to 12 hour solo ambient Sleep Concert performances. His music has often been compared with such music luminaries as Keith Jarrett, Brian Eno, Jimi Hendrix, and Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Trio.
Awards:
2005: California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) Scholarship (Performer-Composer; African-American Improvisational Music) 1997: Musicians Institute: RIT; Audio Engineering (Being the hardest working and innovative student, awarded a Mackie 1604 audio mixer)“… zBug sounds very similar to Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Trio!” – John Baffa, Sound Engineer/Lou Reed’s MM3: The Creation Of The Universe
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