If he played with the antenna enough, young Brendon Whitney could pick up the late-night music television show Friday Night Videos all the way out in his rural, small hometown of Hollis, Maine. Watching Cosby kid
Malcolm-Jamal Warner host the program and present a cross-section of hip-hop videos blew the 13-year-old's mind and put him on the path to becoming the underground producer and
Anticon associate best known as
Alias. A drum machine Christmas present from his parents introduced him to the world of beat-creating. He was well practiced when at age 17 he first met rapper
Sole. Three years later,
Sole and
Alias were members of the Live Poets, which would morph into
Deep Puddle Dynamics around 1998 with the addition of
Slug and
Doseone. More work with the members of the
Anticon label's crew influenced
Alias to move near the label's headquarters in East Oakland, California. Work with many of the label's acts followed along with his 2002 solo debut,
The Other Side of the Looking Glass, which included
Alias' beats and vocals. Both released in 2003, the EP
Eyes Closed was all-instrumental while the full-length
Muted was mostly instrumental. With each release, his music began to rely less on sampling and more on his own keyboard work. Remix work for others kept
Alias behind the computer and drum machine, but he was also looking for more organic and interactive outlets. Since his younger brother
Ehren had been growing as a musician in his own right,
Alias flew him out to Oakland to work on a full-length. Credited to
Alias & Ehren,
Lillian was released in 2005. Three years later and influenced by a move back home, the warmer and welcoming album
Resurgam appeared. The woozy
Fever Dream followed in 2011. In 2014 the single "Ghost Cloudz" arrived, along with the album
Pitch Black Prism. Whitney passed away at the age of 41 in March of 2018. ~ David Jeffries