Ezra Closer is an American; salesmen, guitarist, writer, and modern designer. In a lifetime spanning as long as he can remember, Closer has written; rock, orchestral, jazz, and concert band music. In addition to these accomplishment, Closer also arranges “atypical tunes for clarinet quartets.” He is currently working on David Bowie’s “Major Tom” for what he calls, “Four Clarinets and a Judgmental Audience.”
In his elementary school years, he acquired a love for stage when his third grade class was asked to put on a full production of both Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and “Comedy of Errors.” When asked if these productions were successful, Closer replies, “Of course not. But I memorized all of my lines and didn’t pass out during my monologues. So yes, they were successful.” In Closer’s upcoming autobiography, he also cites his fifth grade music teacher as a large contributing factor to his love of stage.
“Mr. Williams thought it would be wise for me to pick up an instrument. He had a trombone that was being neglected. He cleaned it up and showed me a few basics. I took it home for a couple weeks and sat on the couch playing along to all the commercials on TV. I appreciated how a well-greased slide could mimic an elephant or a passing prop-plane-but it didn’t really stick. I wanted something louder; well something a lot louder. After a few years of pestering, my grandfather gave me a guitar he had in his closet. I probably spent an entire year trying to teach myself the opening riff to “Smoke on the Water”. I’m pretty good at it now.”
Growing up in the military forced him to move all throughout the United States and parts of Europe. This wasn’t easy on Closer. He always found it difficult to keep up with the differences in language, more so, how words have different meaning, depending on where you are. He always found it odd that in the mid-west “a coke” wasn’t necessarily “a Coke”. It just meant you wanted a soda. You would say, “I’d like a coke.” Then they would ask, “What kind?” You then would say, “Root beer please.” On the west coast they call it “soda” and in the NW some will call it “pop”. Refusing to ever use the term “pop” or “soda”, Closer found it increasingly hard to fit in. It was difficulties like these that some say fuel his angst and unwillingness to retune his guitar after a solo.
Ezra Closer currently resides in Oregon and is a founding member of the NW rock band The Salesmen. He can currently be heard on their 2009 release “Cubicle Rock’.
