īiafra initially attempted to compose music on guitar, but his lack of experience on the instrument and his own admission of being "a fumbler with my hands" led Dead Kennedys bassist Klaus Flouride to suggest that Biafra simply sing the parts he envisioned to the band. Biafra cites Joey Ramone as the inspiration for his use of humor in his songs (as well as being the musician who made him interested in punk rock), noting in particular songs by the Ramones such as " Beat on the Brat" and " Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue". The lyrics Biafra wrote helped popularize the use of humorous lyrics in punk and other types of hard-core music. In the tradition of UK anarcho-punk bands like Crass and the Subhumans, the Dead Kennedys were one of the first US punk bands to write politically themed songs. The lyrics were mostly political in nature and displayed a sardonic, sometimes absurdist, sense of humor despite their serious subject matter. The band's lyrics were written by Biafra. He began performing with the band under the stage name Occupant, but soon began to use his current stage name, a combination of the brand name Jell-O and the short-lived African state Biafra. In June 1978, Biafra responded to an advertisement placed in a store by guitarist East Bay Ray, stating "guitarist wants to form punk band", and together they formed the Dead Kennedys. In the autumn of that year, he began attending the University of California, Santa Cruz. The Healers became well known locally for their mainly improvised lyrics and avant garde music. He began his career in music in January 1977 as a roadie for the punk rock band The Ravers (who later changed their name to The Nails), soon joining his friend John Greenway in a band called The Healers. Boucher ignored his high school guidance counselor's advice that he spend his adolescence preparing to become a dental hygienist. Biafra says he has been a fan of rock music since first hearing it in 1965, when his parents accidentally tuned in to a rock radio station. An avid news watcher, one of his earliest memories was of the John F. Īs a child, Boucher developed an interest in international politics that was encouraged by his parents. He grew up in a secular household and has said that he is "not really Jewish". Biafra has a Jewish great grandparent, but was unaware of this until the mid-2000s. Boucher, was Associate Director of the Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library she died in a mountain-climbing accident on October 12, 1996.
Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice.
He is a staunch believer in a free society, and utilizes shock value and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes.
In 1979 he ran for mayor of San Francisco, California. He ran for the party's presidential nomination in the 2000 presidential election, finishing a distant second to Ralph Nader. Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and supports various political causes. He has also occasionally appeared in cameo roles in films. Although now focused primarily on spoken word performances, Biafra has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. In a 2000 lawsuit, upheld on appeal in 2003 by the California Supreme Court, Biafra was found liable for breach of contract, fraud and malice in withholding a decade's worth of royalties from his former bandmates and ordered to pay over $200,000 in compensation and punitive damages the band subsequently reformed without Biafra.
When the band broke up in 1986, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray.
Initially active from 1979 to 1986, Dead Kennedys were known for rapid-fire music topped with Biafra's sardonic lyrics and biting social commentary, delivered in his "unique quiver of a voice". He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys.
Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), better known by his professional name Jello Biafra, is an American singer and spoken word artist.