White Town is the solo project of Indian-born British musician Jyoti Mishra.
Jyoti Mishra
Jyoti Prakash Mishra was born in Rourkela, India, on 30 July 1966, but emigrated to the United Kingdom with his family at age of three. Mishra became straight edge at the age of sixteen and is a radical Marxist. He has been outspoken about his beliefs. Mishra's favourite thing about his music is its honesty. Concerning his artistry, he says he's "a mediocre singer, I'm a terrible guitarist, I'm a pretty good keyboardist, I'm a good producer, not amazing, but good". Noting his status as a one-hit wonder, Mishra says he is "happy" to be a one-hit wonder, as it is "better than a no-hit wonder", further stating: "to be a professional musician and to be entertaining people 20 years after my biggest hit, I feel like I'm the luckiest person alive. Just to have one song that connects with people - most musicians dream their entire lives of having that".
History
White Town was formed by Mishra in 1989, after he saw the Pixies play. Initially, there were other members on guitar, bass and drums playing support gigs for various bands, including Primal Scream. In 1990, the project released its first self-financed record, White Town EP, on 7" vinyl. This featured Nick Glyn-Davies on drums and Sean Deegan on bass with Mishra on guitar and vocals. Glyn-Davies left, and was replaced live by a drum machine and Leon Wilson on guitar. The rest of the band drifted away in the autumn of 1990, and from then on, Mishra mainly worked on his own, occasionally collaborating with other musicians, including Gary Thatcher of the Derby band The Beekeepers on guitar. The project's song "Your Woman" reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in January 1997. It also peaked at number one in Spain, as well as number two in Australia, number four in Canada, Denmark and Finland and number 23 in the United States. After a troubled working relationship with EMI, Mishra was dropped from the label in 1997. Since then, he has gone back to working with indie labels such as Parasol Records. Except for the minor hit in the United Kingdom, "Undressed," Mishra has yet to have another charting song, and White Town became a one-hit wonder. Mishra considers such a status to be "better than being a no-hit wonder". In 2006, White Town contributed the song "The PNAC Cabal" to the charity album Voyces United for UNHCR. A New Surprise EP was released in September 2006 by the Swedish indie labelHeavenly Pop Hits, and was followed up by the album Don't Mention The War, which launched Mishra's own Bzangy Records label. A 7" White Town single titled "I Wanna Be Your Ex" with B-side "Rainy Day" was released by Golly Jane Records in November 2014. In 2019, Mishra released the projectsDeemab and Polyamory. As of March 2020, he accumulates over 500, 000 Spotify streams per month.
