Nabil Ayers

Photo by: Gabriela Bhaskar

Nabil Ayers is a musician, music exec and author. His memoir My Life in the Sunshine was released in June. He has also written about race and music for The New York Times, NPR, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and GQ. 

As the President of Beggars Group US, Ayers has run campaigns for artists including The National, Big Thief, Grimes, Future Islands and St. Vincent. As a drummer he has performed in several bands including The Long Winters and Tommy Stinson. On his own record label, The Control Group/Valley of Search, Ayers has released music by Cate Le Bon, Lykke Li, The Killers, PJ Harvey, Patricia Brennan, and his uncle, the jazz musician Alan Braufman. 

In this conversation, Nabil and I chat about his unique story that is the subject of his debut book, about his journey to connect with his famous father and in the process redefining what family means to him. We also chat about belonging, on having hard to pronounce names, and his life in music.