Noah Benjamin Lennox (born 1978), known by his moniker Panda Bear, is an American musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and co-founding member of the band Animal Collective, with whom he started collaborating in the late 1990s. Lennox has also released six solo LPs since 1999 under the name of Panda Bear, including Person Pitch (2007), Tomboy (2011) and Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper (2015) (the latter two both reaching the Billboard 200. He has also collaborated with other artists, including Daft Punk on their 2013 single "Doin' It Right", Dean Blunt on his song "9", Braxe + Falcon on their 2020 single "Step by Step", and Sonic Boom on the albums Reset and A? of When.

Early life and education Lennox grew up in the Roland Park section of Baltimore, Maryland. He attended the Waldorf School of Baltimore through 8th grade, and Kimberton Waldorf School in Chester County, Pennsylvania, for high school. His family moved frequently during his early years, owing to his father's studies to be an orthopedic surgeon.

Growing up, Lennox played sports, mainly soccer and basketball. His brother, Matt Lennox (whom the Animal Collective song "Brother Sport" is about), was a leading player on the high school basketball team; Noah was also a team member, playing as point guard.Costello, Lou (December 6, 1993). New Coach Is Relying On A Senior Guard Matt Lennox Is The Cougars' Team Leader. He "Picks Up Other Guys When They're Down," Says Ray Jenkins . Inquirer. Retrieved on March 6, 2016.

Lennox has stated in interviews that he enjoyed drawing a lot as a teenager, especially pandas. His moniker Panda Bear came from this habit of drawing pandas on his early mixtapes as a teenager. He also studied piano until he was eight, followed by cello. He sang tenor in his high school chamber choir.

Though he and his family have never been very religious, Lennox briefly attended Boston University (alongside his friend and future bandmate Josh Dibb), where he majored in religion because of his interest in "the concept of God". One summer he went to New York to visit his girlfriend, and decided not to return to university again.

Career Animal Collective

As a teen, Lennox began listening to electronic music styles such as house and techno, and artists such as Aphex Twin, all of which became a major influence on his later work. He recorded and performed music solo and with friends.

Lennox had been friends with Deakin (Josh Dibb) since 1986 when they were aged eight, in school in the second grade. Deakin introduced Lennox to his high school friends Avey Tare (Dave Portner) and Geologist (Brian Weitz). For years, the four of them swapped homemade recordings, shared musical ideas and performed in different group configurations. Lennox, along with Deakin moved to New York in 2000.Coyle, Jake. "Animal Collective Sings Alien Pop Tunes" , The Washington Post, October 12, 2007. The band then began collaborating and they settled on the name "Animal Collective". Lennox has named Black Dice, who the band first toured with, as a major influence stating: "I feel like the wisest things I've learned about being in a band I learned by watching them" and that he personally sees them "as a model for a band."Magic's Saga Animal Collective Part 5/5, Magicrpm.com, February 5, 2009 Lennox also describes recording a track with Arto Lindsay in 2002 as a formative moment, having been the first time recording with an established artist in a professional studio. Lennox has sung, played drums and occasionally guitar in Animal Collective's live performances. He cites Stewart Copeland as the biggest influence on his drumming style. For his drumming work on Animal Collective's 2022 album Time Skiffs, Lennox cited James Brown's drummers, especially Clyde Stubblefield, as influences. Since the 2007 releases of Panda Bear's Person Pitch and Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam, Lennox has focused more on using samplers and other electronics in Animal Collective shows.

Solo work

Lennox's early musical influences included electronic music, and his solo work has been characterized as experimental pop, electronic, bedroom pop, neo-psychedelic pop, and indie music. The Line of Best Fit called him a "psychedelic pop trailblazer."

Lennox's debut album Panda Bear was released in 1999 on Soccer Star Records. After focusing more on touring and recording with Animal Collective, he released the follow-up Young Prayer in 2004.

In 2007, Lennox released his highly acclaimed third solo album Person Pitch. Of his songwriting style, Lennox says "I get impatient writing songs, I can't spend more than a couple of hours before I get frustrated. So I got to kind of spit it out real fast. My favorite songs are the ones where I worked really really fast on, when it comes all out in like two hours or something." Lennox was surprised about the positive reception and success of the album. It was written in Lisbon soon after moving there, using a limited setup including a laptop and sampler.

During a brief European tour in January 2010, Lennox played three shows consisting almost entirely of new material. On March 7, 2010, a tour setlist with titles for ten of the new songs was posted on Panda Bear's MySpace blog. He also played Primavera Sound Festival in 2010. The single "Tomboy" and the b-side "Slow Motion" were released in July 2010. It was announced in August that singles "You Can Count on Me" and "Alsatian Darn" would be released via Domino on September 28. The limited 500 copies of "You Can Count On Me" sold out in less than a day. The single "Last Night at the Jetty" was released December 2010. The single "Surfer's Hymn" was released March 28, 2011.

On 12 April 2011, Lennox released his fourth album under Panda Bear, Tomboy, on his own label, Paw Tracks. He had started performing material from the album from 5 December 2008 at a show with No Age in Miami, Florida.

Lennox was chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival he planned to curate in December 2011 in Minehead, England. However, Lennox was unable to play when the event was rescheduled to March 2012.

In June 2013, Panda Bear performed a set of all new material at ATP.

In October 2014, the Mr Noah EP was released, featuring four new songs. The full album, Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, was released in January 2015.

In 2018, Lennox released the vinyl-only A Day With the Homies EP, a collection of five songs heavily influenced by house + bass music. Included on the packaging of the release were hidden URLs that pointed to samples used on the EP. In February 2019, he released the LP Buoys, featuring production work by longtime collaborator Rusty Santos. It was preceded by the single "Dolphin".

On February 28, 2025, Lennox released his seventh solo album, Sinister Grift. Inspired by his recent divorce from his longterm partner Fernanda Pereira, the album was recorded in close collaboration with his Animal Collective bandmate Deakin. It was preceded by the singles, "Defense", "Ferry Lady" and "Ends Meet".

Collaborations From 2002 to 2007, Lennox played in the band Jane with DJ Scott Mou. He has also performed on tracks with Atlas Sound (Bradford Cox of Deerhunter), Ducktails (Matt Mondanile, formerly of Real Estate), Dean Blunt, and many electronic musicians, including Zomby, Pantha du Prince, Flume, and Jamie xx.

Lennox (with Animal Collective) had initially made contact with Daft Punk asking them if they wanted to remix the track "My Girls". Whilst the duo said they liked the track, they declined saying they did not like to do remixes. However, they stayed in email contact. Later, Panda Bear appeared on the track "Doin' It Right" on the 2013 Daft Punk album Random Access Memories. The album won Daft Punk the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2014, making Panda Bear a co-winner. Almost a decade later, in 2022, Lennox worked with previous Daft Punk collaborators Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon on their new duo's debut single, "Step by Step".

In 2019, Lennox contributed to singer Solange's album When I Get Home, providing backing vocals on several tracks and co-producing the song "Binz".

Panda Bear and Sonic Boom In 2022, Lennox and producer Peter Kember aka Sonic Boom (who previously co-produced Tomboy and Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper) released the collaborative album Reset. This was followed by a full remix album by dub producer Adrian Sherwood called Reset In Dub in 2023, as well as the Reset Mariachi EP in 2024, which featured Spanish-language mariachi reworks of songs from Reset with the group Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Pérez.

In 2026, Lennox and Kember announced their second collaborative album, A ? of WHEN, featuring contributions from Daniel O'Sullivan and harpist Mary Lattimore. The album will not be made available on streaming services – in a statement, the duo explained "...there’s no streaming, no videos, and a minimisation of online everything. Going forward we’re looking to radio, live shows, listening parties, Q&A sessions & real life interactions to get back to a place we feel makes more sense."

Personal life Lennox met his ex-wife, the fashion designer Fernanda Pereira, in Lisbon. After visiting each other in Lisbon and New York, Lennox decided to move to Europe because he also felt "connected to the European way of life", considering himself as a "slow moving kind of person" and Lisbon as a "slow moving kind of place". In 2004, Lennox moved from New York City to Lisbon, Portugal. He first visited the city for a vacation following a long Animal Collective tour in 2003. Lennox says about Lisbon: "Since I got off the airplane here [for the first time] I had a good feeling about this place." Lennox and Pereira have a daughter born in 2005,Kelly, Jennifer. "Good Times, Other Realities: A Conversation with Panda Bear" , PopMatters, March 26, 2007 and a son born in June 2010. In 2007, he and Pereira collaborated on a line of sweatshirts called 2nd Things. Pereira also directed music videos for his songs "Playing the Long Game" and "Danger". In 2023, the couple divorced. Lennox wrote songs about his experience of divorce to channel his grief, which were released as the album Sinister Grift in 2025.

In 2023, Lennox was in a relationship with Rivka Ravede from the band the Spirit of the Beehive, who toured with Animal Collective in 2022. On July 31, 2026, Rivka announced on Instagram that the two were married in Istanbul.

Musical equipment Synthesizers Minimoog Voyager Korg M3

Digital samplers Roland SP-555 Boss SP-303 "Dr. Sample"Lennox, Noah "Pitchfork: Guest Lists: Panda Bear" , Pitchfork, February 15, 2007, accessed March 22, 2011. Teenage Engineering OP-1

Drum machine/synthesizer JoMoX Xbase 999

Discography

Solo Studio albums + Title Album details Peak chart positions US US Indie UK Panda Bear Released: 1999 Label: Soccer Star — — — Young Prayer Released: September 28, 2004 Label: Paw Tracks — — — Person Pitch Released: March 20, 2007 Label: Paw Tracks — 38 — Tomboy Released: April 12, 2011 Label: Paw Tracks 29 5 62 Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper Released: January 9, 2015 Label: Domino 34 2 49 Buoys Released: February 8, 2019 Label: Domino — 7 — Sinister Grift Released: February 28, 2025 Label: Domino — — — "—" denotes album that did not chart or was not released

Extended plays + Title Album details Mr Noah Released: October 23, 2014 Label: Domino Crosswords Released: August 20, 2015 Label: Domino A Day with the Homies Released: January 12, 2018 Label: Domino

Singles "I'm Not / Comfy in Nautica" (September 22, 2005, UUAR) "Bros" (December 4, 2006, Fat Cat Records) "Carrots" (split 7-inch with Excepter) (January 23, 2007, Paw Tracks) "Take Pills" (June 19, 2007, Paw Tracks) "Tomboy" (July 13, 2010, Paw Tracks) "You Can Count on Me" (October 19, 2010, Domino) "Last Night at the Jetty" (December 13, 2010, FatCat Records) "Surfer's Hymn" (March 28, 2011, Kompakt)