Ongoing History Daily: What’s the deal with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes?

If you know anything about Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, you’ll know that it’s a big band—there are ten members the last time I checked—and none of them are named “Edward Sharpe.” So what’s going on here?

The answer lies with frontman Alex Ebert, who went through a rough time after many years of partying with a break-up and time in rehab. As part of his recovery, he started on a book about a messianic figure he named Edward Sharpe, a spirit sent to Earth to heal mankind but who also kept being distracted by girls.” He liked the concept so much that Alex adopted Edward Sharpe as his alter-ego. He says this helped him with everything since his time in rehab.

Hey, whatever works, right?

Yesterday’s post dealt with the origin of the names of several bands.

And don’t forget to check out my podcast The Ongoing History of New Music where you listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google, Stitcher, or wherever you get your on-demand audio.