While best known for his brief stint as a guitarist with Yo La Tengo, Dave Schramm has quietly developed a potent reputation among his fellow musicians as one of the most gifted and versatile musicians to emerge from the Hoboken/Manhattan indie rock axis, blending a folkie's delicate sense of space and aural punctuation with a rocker's passion and desire for creative adventure.
Born and raised on Long Island, Dave Schramm began playing music when he was eight years old, and by the time he was in his teens, he'd picked up the guitar after early attempts to master the clarinet, the trombone, and the piano. In high school, he wrote a symphonic piece that was performed by a local orchestra, but he was also wearing out treasured albums by Captain Beefheart, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan.