Pedro The Lion

It was the fall of 1998 when a good friend of David Bazan's sat him down and gave him a long talking to. She was convinced that he was making a mistake with his life: he was getting married too soon, he hadn't invested enough in an education, and he was spending most of his lazy gray-hued afternoons in his home of Seattle strumming his beat up guitar, while wasting away in a pile of songs. Boy was she wrong. In the years since, Bazan has emerged as one of the most respected and renowned songwriters in the underground, penning one spirited indie-folk record after another, sharpening his lyrical vision of societal woes, and developing a cult following that hangs on his every word. Bazan has got the house, the wife and the studio now, but perhaps the ultimate reward is that he's found success on his own terms-building within a life he's getting better at living, and through a song that he's getting better at singing.