Amanda Palmer is a performer, director, composer and musician who is best known for her role as front woman and keyboardist for internationally acclaimed punk cabaret band The Dresden Dolls. In 2008, Amanda released Who Killed Amanda Palmer, her debut solo album which was produced by Ben Folds. Current projects include a fine art photography book on which she is collaborating with esteemed author Neil Gaiman and a WKAP companion songbook, as well as a WKAP DVD (out 6/16/09). Amanda recently wrapped up a year-long tour that took her through sold out performances in Europe, the US, Australia, & New Zealand and most recently her epic set at Coachella. Live highlights of the last year include two epic performances with the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall, residency at the Famous Spiegeltent at Edinburgh, and a critically acclaimed performance at the 2009 Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival.
Lead singer of The Dresden Dolls.
Attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut; class of 98.
Gave birth to her 1st child at age 39, a son named Anthony Gaiman on September 16, 2015 at 8:37 am. Childs father is her husband, Neil Gaiman.
(March 18, 2015) Expecting her 1st child with her husband Neil Gaiman in September.
(January 2, 2011) Married her longtime boyfriend Neil Gaiman in a private ceremony following a year-long engagement. The wedding took place in the parlor of writers Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon.
Has 3 step-children: Michael Gaiman, Holly Gaiman and Madeleine Gaiman.
Son Anthony, with husband Neil Gaiman , born at 8:37 a.m. on September 16, 2015.
I think performance art comes from a simple place of wanting to express,things beyond just sound.
I have never in my career embarked on a journey towards controversy. I,have never deliberately set a flame.
The world needs actual excitement and emotion more than it needs cool,people.
I hate being ignored.
I was just a very dark kid. My family was complicated.
I had very literal parents and I wanted to survive with metaphor and,art, and there was a real sense of shame around it.
Every album is just a greatest hits of whatever songs are on a pile when,I go in to make a record.
I have used Twitter for so many things, from places to stay, places to,go, things to do, things I need, medical advice, you name it.
One of the best things about Kickstarter and crowdfunding and the,collapse of the music business is a lot of artists like me have been,forced to face our own weird mess about ourselves and what we thought,it meant to become musicians.
People had this idea about becoming rock stars packing stadiums instead,of having the goal of becoming what musicians used to be in terms of,how they would perform and connect people.
And another local journalist wrote an op-ed wondering if this trend of empathy had gone too far. Wondering if this trend of empathy had gone too far?To erase the possibility of empathy is also to erase the possibility of understanding.
Whatever we are given is supposed to be given away, not kept.
To erase the possibility of empathy is to erase the possibility of understanding. To erase the possibility of empathy is also to erase the possibility of art. Theater, fiction, horror stories, love stories. This is what art does. Good or bad, it imagines the insides, the heart of the other, whether that heart is full of light or trapped in darkness.
The field of asking is fundamentally improvisational. It thrives not in the creation of rules and etiquette but in the smashing of that etiquette. Which is to say: there are no rules. Or, rather, there are plenty of rules, but they ask, on bended knees, to be broken.
The world needs actual excitement and emotion more than it needs cool people.
