Biography
Who is White Town?
Real name and early childhood
White Town is the stage name of Jyoti Prakash Mishra. He was born in Rourkela, India, on July 30, 1966. When he was three years old, his family emigrated from India to England. He spent his formative years growing up in the city of Derby.
During his time in school, he attended Woodlands Community School. By the age of sixteen, he adopted a straight edge lifestyle. He has also identified as a radical Marxist and has been vocal about his political beliefs throughout his adult life.
Band formation and early records
The project began as a full band in 1989 after Mishra attended a Pixies concert. The original lineup included Nick Glyn-Davies on drums and Sean Deegan on bass. During this period, the group performed as a support act for the band Primal Scream. In 1990, they released a self-financed seven-inch vinyl record called White Town EP. This debut featured Mishra on vocals and guitar alongside guitarist Sean Phillips.
By the end of 1990, the other members had left the group. Mishra decided to continue the project as a one-man band using a drum machine for live performances. He occasionally worked with other musicians, such as Gary Thatcher from the Beekeepers. White Town eventually signed with the EMI label for his second studio album, Women in Technology.
Your Woman and chart success
White Town gained big commercial success in January 1997 with the lead single Your Woman. The track reached the number one spot on the UK Singles Chart and also topped the charts in Spain and Iceland. It was a major international hit, peaking at number two in Australia and reaching the top five in Canada, Denmark, and Finland. In the United States, the song reached number twenty-three on the Pop Airplay chart.
Despite this success, his relationship with EMI was difficult, and the label dropped him in 1997. He then returned to working with independent labels like Parasol Records. In 2006, he contributed a track called The PNAC Cabal to a charity album for the UNHCR titled Voyces United. That same year, he released the EP A New Surprise through the Swedish label Heavenly Pop Hits.
Later career and independent labels
Mishra launched his own record label called Bzangy Records to release the album Don't Mention the War. He continued to put out new music, including a 2014 single titled I Wanna Be Your Ex on Golly Jane Records. In 2019, he released two full-length albums titled Deemab and Polyamory. His music saw a resurgence in 2020 after Dua Lipa used the same trumpet sample from Your Woman in her track Love Again.
White Town has cited a wide range of musical influences including Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, and the Wedding Present. He has also recorded a cover of the song Messages by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. As of March 2020, his music was still reaching a large audience with over 500,000 monthly streams on the Spotify platform.
Birthday and age
White Town was born on July 30, 1966, which makes White 60 years old today. That birthday falls under the Leo sign. White shares the date with 74 other famous people.
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