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Banhart is a Venezuelan American singer-songwriter. Born May 30, 1981 in Houston, Texas to a Venezuelan mother and an American father. His given name is another name for Indra, the Hindu god of rain and thunder, and was a suggestion by Indian religious leader Prem Rawat, whom Banhart`s parents followed. Banhart`s middle name was modeled after a Star Wars character. Banhart`s parents divorced two years after his birth and he moved with his mother to Caracas, Venezuela. His mother later remarried and Banhart`s stepfather moved the family to Los Angeles, California, when Banhart was 14 years old. In 1998, Banhart began studying at the San Francisco Art Institute with a scholarship, and lived in The Castro. He began to busk in San Francisco instead of attending classes and played his first show at a gay wedding in a church. Banhart dropped out of art school in 2000 and left the city because of its bad economic situation following the bust of the dot-com bubble. He moved to Paris, France over the summer and opened shows for indie rock bands. Banhart returned to the United States in the fall of 2000 and played music in San Francisco and Los Angeles, until he was discovered by Michael Gira, owner of Young God Records, after Siobhan Duffy, Gira`s wife, bought a copy of Banhart`s demo CD The Charles C. Leary and gave it to Gira.
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