37 One man bands

A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical or electronic contraptions. One-man bands also often sing while they perform.

Hasil Adkins was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His genres include rock and roll, country, blues and more commonly rockabilly, and because of his unusual playing and singing style, he is often cited as an example of outsider music. He generally performed as a one-man band, playing guitar and drums at the same time.

Alec Mapa: Baby Daddy is a 2013 one-man show by Alec Mapa. It was made into a concert film that screened at film festivals in 2014 and premiered on Showtime in 2015.

Author & Punisher is a one-man band from San Diego, formed in January 2004 by mechanical engineer and artist Tristan Shone. Most of the instrumentation and controllers he uses, entitled "Drone Machines" and "Dub Machines", are custom designed and fabricated by Shone from raw materials and open source electronic circuitry.

Belenos is a French pagan black metal band from Brittany.

Bologna Violenta is a one man band musical project founded by Nicola Manzan in 2005.

Bonaparte is the stage name of Berlin-based Swiss electronic rock songwriter and producer Tobias Jundt. Jundt is the only permanent member in the studio, collaborating with a changing cast of live musicians and performers when touring. Since 2006 Bonaparte performed over 500 shows worldwide, among others Europe, China, Russia, New Zealand and the United States of America.

Rémy Bricka is a French musician, one-man band, and singer. He became the first person to walk across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1988, using floating skis to walk on water.

Burzum was a Norwegian music project founded by Varg Vikernes in 1991. Although Burzum never played live performances, it became a part of the early Norwegian black metal scene and is considered one of the most influential acts in black metal’s history. He has also released four dark ambient and neofolk albums. The word "burzum" means "darkness" in the black speech, a fictional language crafted by Lord of the Rings writer J. R. R. Tolkien. Burzum's lyrics and imagery are often inspired by fantasy and Norse mythology, and do not feature the political views Vikernes is known for.

Chryst is an Austrian avant-garde/extreme metal one-man band formed in 1990, initially under the name Korova, then changing its name to Korovakill and finally to Chryst.

Edith Crash is a French singer-songwriter, musician, producer and one woman band.

Alex Zhang Hungtai is a Taiwanese-born Canadian musician and actor. In addition to his given name, he makes music under the names Last Lizard and Dirty Beaches.

Drowse is the musical project of American musician and producer Kyle Bates. Based in Portland, Oregon, Bates founded the project in 2013 and released the debut album, Soon Asleep, in 2015.

Graveland are a Polish pagan metal band which was formed in 1991 by Rob Darken. They began as a black metal band before adopting a pagan and Viking metal style. The lyrics and imagery of Graveland are strongly inspired by European mythology, far-right politics, neo-Nazism, nature, winter and war. Their early work focused on Celtic and Slavic mythology, while their later work focuses on Norse mythology and Wotanism.

Shakey Graves is an American Americana musician from Austin, Texas.

Homeshake is the solo musical project of Montreal-based singer-songwriter and musician Peter Sagar.

Horde is the unblack metal solo project of Australian musician Jayson Sherlock, formerly of Mortification and Paramaecium. In 1994 the only album Hellig Usvart was released on Nuclear Blast. With a session line-up, Horde played live-shows in 2006, Norway, and in 2010 in Finland and Germany. Hellig Usvart proved to be a seminal release for the unblack metal movement, and the album was highly controversial in the secular black metal scene at the time it was released.

Jimmy Hotz is an American inventor, record producer, recording engineer, electronic music pioneer, audio expert, author and musician.

Bob Log III is an American slide guitar one-man band based in Tucson, Arizona, and Melbourne, Australia. During performances, he plays old Silvertone archtop guitars, wears a full body human cannonball suit, and a helmet wired to a telephone receiver, which allows him to devote his hands and feet to guitar and drums. His show has been described as a blues punk guitar dance party. Log tours internationally, performing about 150 shows each year; he has made tours of North America, Europe, Japan and Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Taiwan, and Iceland.

Myrkgrav is a Norwegian blackened folk metal band with a single member, Lars Jensen. Jensen founded the band in 2003 and released a demo in 2004 entitled "Fra fjellheimen kaller...". His first album, Trollskau, skrømt og kølabrenning, was released on 27 October 2006. The lyrics are about local history, legends and folklore from Ringerike, Lommedalen and Hole, from around the 17th century to the end of the 19th century. The songs are sung in a local Norwegian dialect.

Myrkur is a Danish post-black metal band led by singer Amalie Bruun. Initially, the real-life identity of the person behind the project was kept unknown. Her identity has since been made public. Myrkur has released three full-length studio albums to significant critical acclaim, as well as a live album and one EP. Her most recent album, Folkesange, was released on 20 March 2020 through Relapse Records.

Nargaroth is a German black metal band led by René "Ash" Wagner, formerly known as “Kanwulf”.

James Jeffrey "Jeff" Plewman, better known by his stage name Nash the Slash, was a Canadian musician. A multi-instrumentalist, he was known primarily for playing the electric violin and mandolin, as well as the harmonica, keyboards, glockenspiel, and other instruments.

Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in 1988 in Cleveland, Ohio. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band until the official addition of English musician Atticus Ross in 2016. The band's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), was released via TVT Records. After feuding with TVT about how to promote the album, Reznor signed with Interscope Records and released the EP Broken (1992). The following Nine Inch Nails albums, The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999), were released to critical acclaim and commercial success.

Nortt is an extreme metal musical project formed in 1995 by a Danish musician who goes by an eponymous pseudonym and describes his music as "Pure Depressive Black Funeral Doom Metal". In terms of lyrics and imagery he is akin to other black metal acts, while the sound of his music is closer to doom metal.

Donald Eric Partridge was an English singer and songwriter, known as the "king of the buskers". He performed from the early 1960s first as a folk singer and later as a busker and one-man band, and achieved unexpected commercial success in the UK and Europe in the late 1960s with the songs "Rosie", "Blue Eyes" and "Breakfast On Pluto". He later was a founder of the group Accolade, which released two albums. He continued writing music, playing, busking and recording, mainly as a solo artist, until 2008.

Beat Zeller, better known as Beat-Man or Reverend Beat-Man, is a Swiss musician, DJ and record company owner. He performs as a one-man band, as the leader of psychobilly band The Monsters, and with other bands, in a style described as primitive rock and roll and as "gospel blues trash". He is also the founder and head of Voodoo Rhythm Records, a company based in Bern, Switzerland.

Emitt Lynn Rhodes was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer. Rhodes began his career in musical ensembles The Palace Guard as the group's drummer before joining The Merry-Go-Round as a multi-instrumentalist.

The Ruins of Beverast is a German extreme metal project formed by Alexander von Meilenwald in 2003. Five albums have been released under the moniker through Ván Records. Since 2013, von Meilenwald has also performed live with an expanded line-up under the band's name; however, apart from occasional appearances by session musicians, he continues to perform all instruments and vocals on the band's studio material. Der Spiegel called the third album Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite a "highly complex" album and rated it 8 out of 10. The album Exuvia was released in 2017. It was well-received by the metal press. Metal Hammer Germany rated it 6 out of 7, metal.de 9 out of 10.

Tim Scanlan is a musician from Melbourne, Australia who performs as a one-man band. This multi-instrumentalist simultaneously plays a harmonica, a guitar and rattling shaker (left-handed), a bass drum or cajon with his right foot, and cymbals on a stand with his left foot while tapping his feet on a stomp box. He also sings occasionally. His unique style of music has been described as a blend of Blues, Jazz, Folk, Roots Music and Reggae.

Taake is a Norwegian black metal band from Bergen, formed in 1993 and originally named Thule. The band's one continuous member is Hoest, who writes and records most of the music. He has released seven full-length albums and several EPs. The band describes itself as "True Norwegian black metal", and Hoest said that he wants to "awaken national pride and cultural nostalgia in my Norwegian listeners" as well as to remind people "that Hell is right here on Earth and that humans can be demons". All lyrics are in Hoest's native dialect and are printed in Norse runes. "Taake" is the old spelling of the Norwegian word "tåke", meaning "fog".

Tame Impala is the psychedelic music project of Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker. In the recording studio, Parker writes, records, performs, and produces all of the project's music. As a touring act, Tame Impala consists of Parker, Dominic Simper, Jay Watson, Cam Avery, and Julien Barbagallo. The group has a close affiliation with fellow Australian psychedelic rock band Pond, sharing members and collaborators, including Nick Allbrook, formerly a live member of Tame Impala. Originally signed to Modular Recordings, Tame Impala is now signed to Interscope Records in the US, and Fiction Records in the UK.

Mike Silverman, better known as That 1 Guy, is an American musician based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He frequently performs and records as a one-man band, singing and using a variety of homemade musical instruments.

Threatin is an American rock band from Los Angeles. Founded by Jered Threatin, real name Jered Eames, it gained notoriety in November 2018 for its European tour, playing to largely empty venues. Threatin has been labelled a "fake band" by the music press and described as a vanity project of its founder.

Tune-Yards is the American, Oakland, California-based music project of musician Merrill Garbus, with long-time collaborator, bassist Nate Brenner. Garbus’s music draws from an eclectic variety of sources and utilizes elements such as loop pedals, ukulele, vocals, and lo-fi percussion. Tune-Yards’ 2011 album Whokill was ranked the number one album of that year in The Village Voice's annual Pazz and Jop critic's poll.

Lee Chester "L. C." Ulmer was an American delta blues musician. He was a regular performer for over half a century, playing at festivals and clubs throughout the United States and elsewhere, but particularly in the Deep South. Ulmer was featured in the 2008 documentary film M for Mississippi: A Road Trip Through the Birthplace of the Blues. His earliest musical influence was Blind Roosevelt Graves. Ulmer later met numerous notable musicians, including Elvis Presley, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Brook Benton, Nat King Cole, Fats Domino, Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, and Buddy Guy, and performed with some of them.

John Anthony White is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He is best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes, but has also had success in other bands and as a solo artist. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely credited as one of the key artists in the garage rock revival of the 2000s. He has won 12 Grammy Awards, and all three of his solo albums have reached number one on the Billboard charts. Rolling Stone ranked him number 70 on its 2010 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". David Fricke's 2011 list ranked him at number 17.