Biography
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Born In
Evanston, Cook County, Illinois, United States
Billy Harvey was born in Evanston, Illinois. He has one younger sister. They were both raised by their mom (who bought him his first guitar when he was twelve). They moved around a lot when he was growing up. In fact, in one six-year span, he thinks they moved thirteen times, living in various cities like Santa Fe, Boston and Seattle. Eventually they ended up in Chicago where their mom found a job that she liked. Both his sister and he went to high school there.
At seventeen, the summer of his graduation, Harvey moved to California in a VW van that his mom sold to him for a dollar. He headed for San Francisco even though he didn't know anyone there. He figured when he got there he'd just sleep in his van for a while till he got a band started or something. He did finally join a band, Flame, that became very popular in that area and he did finally move out of his van (although six months later). They were together for six years and put out two records.
Harvey has been in bands his whole life and every now and then he'd sing, but usually there was another lead singer. Writing all along, and usually keeping a song or two to himself, at one point decided that he wanted to sing them. So, he started playing around the Bay Area. The location didn't seem right to him, so he relocated to Austin, TX, where he has since worked with such artists as Trish Murphy and Kacy Crowley, and produced recordings by Charlie Mars, Bob Schneider, Slaid Cleaves and Steve Poltz. Harvey has also branched out into film, including a documentary of his 7,000 mile tour for "Bearsick" in a car powered by waste vegetable oil. "Strings" played at several film festivals in 2011 and won a number of awards. In 2013, "The Taiwan Oyster," the second independent film in which he starred, opened in New York City.
Harvey has six indie releases -"More Happy Than Sad","Toast",“Pie”, and "Bearsick," which broke CMJ's top 100, "Grow Garden Grow," and "The Everlasting War."
Keep up with him also at www.billyharvey.com and www.myspace.com/billyharvey
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