David Portner

Avey Tare
Portner performing with Animal Collective, 2009
Background information
Birth name	David Michael Portner
Born	(1979-04-24) April 24, 1979 (age 38)
Origin	Maryland
Years active	1995–present
Labels	Paw Tracks, FatCat Records, Domino Records, Catsup Plate, St. Ives, UAAR,
Associated acts	Animal Collective, Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan, Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks, Automine, Panda Bear, Terrestrial Tones
Website	entertheslasherhouse.com

David Michael Portner (born April 24, 1979), also known by his moniker Avey Tare, is a musician and songwriter who co-founded the American experimental pop band Animal Collective. He has released two solo albums, as well as three collaborative albums with Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), all of which were later retroactively classified under Animal Collective's discography.

Portner met Animal Collective's Deakin (Josh Dibb), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), and Geologist (Brian Weitz) in high school. For years, the four of them swapped homemade recordings, shared musical ideas and performed in different group configurations. Portner recorded the Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished album with Lennox, and initially released the recording on the band's own Animal label in 1999. The album is commonly referred to as the first official Animal Collective release, with Tare writing the music and Lennox providing the 'perfect percussion' (as cited in the album's credits).

After high school, Portner and Weitz moved to New York City to attend New York University and Columbia University, respectively. Lennox and Dibb eventually moved to New York City, and the band became more collaborative in nature. They finally settled on the name "Animal Collective".

Although the band's output is, as their name suggests, a collaborative effort, with no typical 'frontman,' Portner has been cited by the other members as being the 'primary songwriter' and de facto leader of the group. On the releases after Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished, which was written entirely by Portner, he has written at least half of the material, and for the albums Feels, Strawberry Jam and Merriweather Post Pavilion, contributed around three quarters of the songs that made it onto the album. For the band's Centipede Hz, Tare confirmed that the album has eight songs penned by him.

Portner's other projects and releases include Terrestrial Tones with Eric Copeland of Black Dice, a split 12" with David Grubbs, and an LP with his then-wife Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir (aka Kría Brekkan) called Pullhair Rubeye. He released his debut solo album "Down There" on October 26, 2010.