Bill Callahan

Bill Callahan plays the Theatre Royal Brighton on Sunday 25 October. He's an American singer-songwriter from Silver Spring, Maryland, and he's known by another name too: Smog. If you've come across him as Smog, you're not alone — that's how he spent the first part of his career.

He started out in the lo-fi underground, making home-recorded tape albums on four-track machines before signing to Drag City, where he's stayed. Those early records were highly experimental, often dissonant and sparsely melodic, and he's cited Jandek as an influence. After joining Drag City, he moved into recording studios and started using a wider range of instruments, and between 1993 and 2000 he worked with producers Jim O'Rourke and Tortoise's John McEntire.

His songs usually rely on simple, repetitive structures, and his baritone delivery avoids the conventional verse-chorus approach. Critics have described his music as intensely introverted and darkly ironic, though they've also noted broad swaths of joy and black humour. A few of his songs have found their way onto other records and soundtracks: Cat Power recorded his 'Bathysphere' on her 1996 album What Would the Community Think, and 'Vessel in Vain', from Supper, appeared on the 2004 Dead Man's Shoes soundtrack.

On the night, he'll be performing under his own name. The set is billed as his droll songs and calming influence live, so expect the baritone and the repetitive structures he's known for. It's Bill Callahan at the Theatre Royal Brighton on Sunday 25 October.