THEGA(Y)TE-KEEPER PRESENTS: DEREK LASSITER - VOCALIST/COMPOSER

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As a vocalist/musician Derek Lassiter’s power is in his ability to render the subject he’s writing about as cleanly as possible. For him, God isn’t in the details but in simplicity. Lassiter bravely steps from behind the false front and in doing so reveals the sobering truth about his life. In this sense he is a poet's musician.

Born in the South Bronx, Derek Lassiter spent the first eleven years of his life moving around the neighborhoods of that New York City borough. At age 11 he moved to the suburbs of Pennsylvania to live with his maternal Grandmother.

“Both places had a profound effect on me and I learned at an early age just how disparate the world could be. My mother listened to Soul and 60’s folk music, my Grandmother didn’t have a stereo and only listened to Country and Western on a little radio in the kitchen. But then again my Grandmother also sent us to a Baptist church where I heard Gospel for the first time.” 

When his Grandmother became too ill to care for him and his siblings, Derek spent his teen years moving between foster homes in Pennsylvania. He recounts that with each move he was exposed to an ever growing list of musical genres.

“I can track the movements of my life through music. Whenever I talk to my older brother about a song and we’re trying to remember the year we’ll say; “oh yeah, that’s when we lived at...”

Eventually Derek settled in San Francisco where he currently lives and works. In the early 90’s he fronted several bands and played many of the local clubs including Slim’s, Great American Music Hall, Café du Nord and numerous cafes and private events.

In 2006 he embarked on a “solo” endeavor composing his own music and writing lyrics. He’s collaborated with some of the finest musicians for hislive shows including Tammy Hall, pc muñoz, Marc Weibel, Art Khu, Alcide Marshall and Tom Freund to name a few.

A few years have passed since the release of Witness. Shortly after the completion of that project he started writing a song called Music Outside. The inspiration for the song came when he remembered that at one point in his life he had consciously made a decision to stop doing anything creative: no music, no writing, acting or photography. Those years were very dark and desperate times for him. 

HERE IS THE LINK TO DOWNLOAD HIS MUSIC.