Isaac Brock (musician)

Isaac Brock
Brock performing at the Orange Peel in Asheville, NC on July 19, 2010
Background information
Birth name	Isaac Kristofer Brock
Born	(1975-07-09) July 9, 1975 (age 41) Helena, Montana
Genres	Indie rock, indie folk, punk rock, experimental music
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, ukulele, piano, banjo
Years active	1993–present
Labels	Epic, Sub Pop, Up Records, K Records
Associated acts	Modest Mouse, Ugly Casanova, Wolf Parade, Mimicking Birds
Notable instruments
Ibanez and Wicks Custom

Isaac Kristofer Brock (born July 9, 1975) is the lead singer, guitarist, banjoist, and songwriter for the American indie rock band Modest Mouse, as well as his side project band, Ugly Casanova. As a songwriter he is noted for wordplay and frequent use of metaphors, philosophical lyrics, themes of oppressive rural lifestyles, and certain phrases and sayings commonly used in the early to mid-20th century and in blue collar environments.

Brock was born in Helena, Montana. During his childhood, he lived with his mother and sister in Montana and Oregon in hippie communes and churches before moving to Issaquah, Washington when he was 11 years old. Brock was home-schooled for part of his school career. When his mother's house flooded three times, she was forced to move into her future husband's trailer. Brock asked to stay behind in his own room until the new home was completed. He lived in the flooded home until the house was sold. After a short period of living in a friend's basement, he moved into the "Shed" built on the land next to his mother and stepfather's trailer.

As a young boy he was raised in a Christian religious sect called the Grace Gospel church. He told an interviewer from the Guardian newspaper that he was asked to speak in tongues when he was six: "I didn't feel the spirit of the fucking Lord rushing through me," he says. "I definitely felt awkward. I thought. 'What's the best way to make this stop?' So I ripped off some words from Mary Poppins and said them fast, and the deacons are going, 'Yeah, all right!'"

In 1992, when he was sixteen, Brock moved to D.C. for the summer where he met his girlfriend. Brock traveled back and forth from the East Coast to Issaquah, where he took a community-college course to get his high school diploma before moving back to D.C., to New York's East Village, and then the Seattle area. It was there that he, Eric Judy (bass) and Jeremiah Green (drums) first started practicing music together in the Shed.

Although many of his songs use religious themes, Brock describes himself as "not really religious at all," adding "I'm 100 percent on the whole Christianity thing being a crock of shit, pretty much." He claims to "toy around with the whole Biblical thing," because it "just has amazing characters" and also identifies himself as "pretty much" an atheist.