Castanets (band)

Castanets
Origin	San Diego, California, U.S.
Genres	Psychedelic folk, alternative country
Years active	2002-present
Labels	Asthmatic Kitty
Associated acts	Womb
Website	http://asthmatickitty.com/artists/castanets/
Members	Raymond Raposa

Castanets is the musical project influenced by country, folk and experimental rock led by Ray Raposa who has been signed to Asthmatic Kitty Records since 2004. He has released seven albums, most recently Decimation Blues in 2014. Additionally, he participated in a number of split 7" singles and an EP with the likes of Shapes and Sizes and Dirty Projectors. While Raposa is the only constant member of the band, his records and live performances feature a rotating cast of musicians. A San Diego native, Raposa has lived in Brooklyn and currently resides in Portland, Oregon.

Ray Raposa (b. 1981 Raymond Byron Magic Raposa) was born in Michigan City, Indiana. He moved to San Diego at the age of two and grew up in the Mission Beach area. At the age of 13 he and his mother moved to Baja where he was home-schooled for a year. Raposa left school at the age of 15 and traveled around North America and St. Croix doing odd-jobs. He worked as a surf instructor for some time. In his late teens, Raposa became involved in the free-jazz project Womb that recorded a self-titled album in 2001, which was released in 2004. In 2003 he appeared on the Liz Janes live EP Liz Janes And The Three Hour Choir.

While performing with others, Raposa had begun to develop his own musical interests. Together with Nathan Delffs, he recorded an number of CD-Rs, one of them entitled What Kind of Cure (2002). While on tour with the band Howard Hello, Raposta began working with Liz Janes, whose was already signed to Asthmatic Kitty at the time. The What Kind of Cure album was put forwarded to Sufjan Stevens who signed Rapose to the label. Instead of re-recording What Kind of Cure, it was decided to record new material for what became the Cathedral album, that appeared in October 2004. It was followed by an instrumental 12" that was split with the duo I Heart Lung. In the same year, Raposa moved to Brooklyn to pursue music together with Stevens while working in a record store.

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