Hearing-Impaired Musician Gives Duo a Distinctive Sound

Brooklyn-based prog-rock duo Bangladeafy has a unique sound, and it might have to do with the fact that the act’s bassist and frontman has a very limited hearing capacity.

Jon Ehlers was born with Sensorineural hearing loss, or SNHL, rendering him almost deaf without his hearing aids in. “Because of my hearing disability, I don’t hear things the same way as my peer musicians do,” Ehlers says. “Not that I necessarily hear it ‘less’ in terms of volume, but just the way it’s passing through my brain.”

A working rock musician who also has sensorineural hearing loss might be considered an oxymoron. But this different way of mentally processing rhythm actually gives the band a distinctive sound.

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