Bob Nanna

Born Robert Thomas Nanna in Chicago in 1975, he moved to Urbana in 1993 to attend the University of Illinois. Inspired by post-hardcore bands such as Jawbox and Hoover, he formed Braid soon after arriving, a band whose late-1990s records are among the touchstones of Midwest emo.

During Braid's initial run the band played 537 shows and toured with Jimmy Eat World and the Get Up Kids, releasing three albums, Frankie Welfare Boy Age Five, The Age of Octeen and Frame & Canvas, before breaking up in 1999. Nanna graduated the same period with a degree in communications and advertising.

He then formed Hey Mercedes with Braid bandmates Todd Bell and Damon Atkinson and guitarist Mark Dawursk, releasing Everynight Fire Works in 2001 and Loses Control in 2003, and touring with the Early November, Armor for Sleep, Piebald and Hopesfall.

Braid reformed briefly in 2004 and then again in 2011, releasing the EP Closer to Close and, in 2014, their first full-length in sixteen years, No Coast; Hey Mercedes has also reunited for occasional shows. Alongside these bands Nanna has played in Orwell, Certain People I Know and Lifted Bells, and in 2013 co-founded the commissioned-song website Downwrite.

His solo performances are typically stripped down to voice and guitar, drawing on material from across those bands, the angular phrasing and conversational, detail-heavy lyrics intact, with between-song talk a regular part of the show. In 2020 he released Celebration States, his first album under his own name, a largely acoustic record made in a single day.