State Shirt is the alias of Ethan Tufts, born and raised in a small Massachusetts town and currently working out of a small bedroom studio in the suburbs of Los Angeles.
He has become known for his atmospheric and imaginative songwriting, ghostly harmonies, and warm bedroom production that mashes up electronic and acoustic sounds over hand-crafted loops.
“Imagine flooding a cathedral from floor to rafters, and then being able to watch the ghosts of prayers swim about.”
The SongFight website inspired him to begin recording as State Shirt in 2001. Since then he has released one EP and five albums on his own Los Fucking Angeles label. With each release, the styles and techniques shift and transform.
“The entire production sounds like it was recorded beneath the lofty stone arches of a Gothic cathedral: polyphonic choral breakdowns, echoes & reverbs & strange twists of sound, and the airy, atmospheric wash of one thousand angels murmuring in the east transept. That’s State Shirt, homie.”
All of his songs are open source, providing raw materials for hundreds of remix artists to create new works based on his source tracks. His songs have appeared in numerous commercials, television shows, movies, and thousands of non-commercial and non-profit video projects. Every State Shirt song is available with a “Buy or Steal” option on his website—support the artist or download for free, your choice, no guilt either way.
Since 2010, State Shirt is also a noisemaker, marketer, product designer, and partner at Strymon Engineering.
