Hisham Akira Bharoocha (born March 12, 1974 in Niigata, Japan) is an American musician and visual artist best known as an ex-member of the Providence bands Lightning Bolt and Black Dice. Currently, Bharoocha is involved in his band Soft Circle and works as an artist in New York City. Biography Early life Hisham was born in Niigata, Japan, to a Japanese mother and Burmese father. As a newborn, the family moved to Tokyo and then to Toronto when he was two, then to Los Angeles when he was six, and spent the rest of his elementary school years in San Diego. Bharoocha's mother moved the family back to Tokyo after his father died of cancer. It was at this time he began to study the bass guitar and found an interest in heavy metal. After graduating from high school, Bharoocha attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, Rhode Island, where he studied various art forms such as video and photography. Visual art In addition to music, Hisham is also a visual artist and photographer. He has had solo exhibitions of his work at D'Amelio Terras gallery in New York, as well as Vleeshal, a state run space in The Netherlands. He has been in numerous group exhibitions at galleries such as Deitch Projects, John Connelly Presents and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. His work has been published in Artforum, V, i-D, Flaunt, Tokion and more. Music At RISD, he met fellow musician Brian Gibson and soon became the vocalist in the band Lightning Bolt. This was short-lived, however, and Bharoocha eventually began playing as the drummer in a band that would eventually become Black Dice. The only officially released Lightning Bolt music with Bharoocha was a track on the Repopulation Program compilation. Hisham played in Black Dice until leaving the band in 2005. Bharoocha moved to New York City upon graduating from RISD in 1998, where he became actively involved in the music and art scene. Since leaving Black Dice in 2005, he has released two albums as Soft Circle. The first album, "Full Bloom", was a solo endeavor. The following album "Shore Obsessed" was the first to include bandmate Ben Vida. Bharoocha also played drums for Pixeltan, who released several EPs on DFA records. Bharoocha served as musical director and participated as drummer 4 in the Boredoms 77 Boadrum performance which occurred on July 7,