Minartist was born in New Jersey. He began performing in live bands at the age of 11. Minartist experimented with various genres between the ages of 11 and 22, ranging from Hard rock, to Hardcore, and even Hip-Hop. At the age of 22 Minartist moved to Knoxville, TN and started the band Hey OK Fantastic. In 2011, he released the self-titled debut with Hey OK Fantastic, and the follow up, "Midnight in 3-D" in 2014. After Hey OK Fantastic disbanded, MInartist focused his attention on writing and in 2016 released his novel, "A Letter to Mike Laskay" inspired by his experiences with in the Knoxville music scene. He also performed with bluegrass act The Folk You Buddies. In 2015 he began working with Knoxville hip-hop producer DJ Shell, on an experimental project called Project Planet. They recorded four never released albums. He released an album in 2017 titled, "Sunshine Universe" which he co-produced with DJ Shell, under the name Alex Minard and the Handsome Band. It was after those sessions that he began working on what would later become the album, "Bluepanther" which was released October, 2020. Outside of writing and music, he is also an active photographer, working also as Minartist. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Minartist">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.