| Penguin Prison | |
| Origin: | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Genre: | Synthpop, dance-pop, indietronica, Disco |
| Years Active: | 1999–present |
| Label: | Downtown |
| Current Members: |
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| Past Members: |
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Penguin Prison (born 1983) is an electropop project composed solely of New York City singer, musician, producer and remixer Chris Glover.[1] His stage name comes from a song he created with his friend Bob that was about George W. Bush, when they started freestyling and saying "He's a penguin vision, he went to the penguin prison, and assumed a penguin position".[2] While Glover creates music by himself, he has a band for live shows and tours consisting of Andrew Pertes, David Gross, Ben Grubin, and formerly Ernesto Karolys.[3]
Chris Glover was born in 1983 and grew up in New York City's Upper East Side. His early musical influences came mostly from his mother's love of country music. Glover's favorite artists growing up were Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and Hank Williams. Glover showed an interest in performing music at an early age when he joined his school's gospel choir at age 10, singing alongside future R&B artist Alicia Keys. While a teen, he performed at CBGB's with his punk band The Museum.
He attended Bard College, where he formed a popular "crazy, fake boy band" called Smartest People At Bard, which he describes as "a cross between Backstreet Boys and Beastie Boys".[4] He was signed to Interscope in 2005 under his birth name in quotes, and recorded an unreleased pop-rap album called Hell Isn't Even That Funny. The album was promoted with the single "Stand On Your Seat" (2005).[5] [6] The album went unreleased because "[The record label] didn't really seem to know what to do with it so I just waited... and then finally said I'm gonna just do something else... and I started doing Penguin Prison shortly after that.".
As Penguin Prison, he started remixing with the Jamiroquai song "White Knuckle Ride", the Faithless song "Feel Me", the Goldfrapp song "Rocket", and the Marina and the Diamonds song "I Am Not a Robot". These remixes, among others, led into the release of his self titled album Penguin Prison on October 11, 2011 through Downtown Records to positive reviews.[7] After this, he continued remixing songs, and created two songs for the soundtrack of the web series "Dirty Work".
In 2014, Glover collaborated with other artists such as RAC and Viceroy, and made covers of "All Night Long" by Lionel Ritchie and "Hang On To Your Love" by Sade. On May 5, 2015 he released his sophomore album "Lost In New York"
Glover continued making remixes, and released the Turn It Up EP on February 9, 2018. On May 10, 2019, he released "The Heat". On October 9, 2020, he released "Better", a song about the COVID-19 pandemic. Glover stated on his Instagram "This has been a very difficult year for a lot of people - a global pandemic, social injustice, climate change and countless other troubling developments. I wanted to make a song about rising above it all".[8] On February 12, 2021, he released "All Your Love". He explained the meaning of the song on his Instagram, saying "This song is my version of a ballad and a dedication to my wife - an acknowledgement put into record. The past year has brought on a lot of feelings for everyone. For me, a renewed sense of gratitude for the people closest to me."[9] On February 23, 2024, he released a remix of "The Worst" by The Sometimes Island.
Studio albums
Singles
Stand On Your Seat (2005)