Misha Mansoor (born October 31, 1984), also known as Bulb after the name of his solo project, is an American musician, best known as the founder of and one of the three guitarists in the progressive metal band Periphery. He is also a part of the projects Haunted Shores and Four Seconds Ago, and Of Man, Not of Machine. Mansoor is considered to be one of the forerunners of the djent movement and is often erroneously attributed with the invention of the word itself (whose invention he attributes to Meshuggah guitarist Fredrik Thordendal). With Periphery, Mansoor has recorded, produced, and released seven studio albums: a self-titled debut, Periphery II: This Time It's Personal, Juggernaut: Alpha, Juggernaut: Omega, Periphery III: Select Difficulty, Periphery IV: Hail Stan, and Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre. Mansoor has been named one of the Top 20 best guitarists of the 2010s by Guitar World magazine. Early life Mansoor was born on October 31, 1984, to Ali Mansoor, an economist associated with World Bank who served a term as Secretary to the Minister of Finance in Mauritius. Mansoor is Mauritian by descent but was born and raised in the US. He is also Jewish and can speak French. Mansoor attended the University of Toronto, originally majoring in sociology before switching to philosophy, eventually dropping out to pursue his passion for music. Career Bulb (2004–present) Mansoor first seriously started writing and producing music when at college at the University of Toronto. It was here that he and a friend decided to form a band called Bulb, and started posting demos to SoundClick in 2004. While the project ultimately did not work out and the friendship faded, Mansoor adopted the name Bulb as his online alias and continued to post demos to the Bulb SoundClick account. Mansoor would regularly post his music to the Meshuggah, John Petrucci SevenString.org, Andy Sneap Ultimate Metal online forums. Eventually, Mansoor's reputation as a songwriter and a music producer in the metal scene began to grow. After Mansoor founded Periphery in 2005, he would often transfer songs between the two projects. With the international success of Periphery, Mansoor still continued to release demos and new music under the Bulb name, but at a lesser frequency than before. In May 2013, Mansoor announced that he would be working on his first solo album, which would be written, performed and produced entirely by himself.