Rob Christiansen

Rob Christiansen grew up in Boston in the 1980s, lucky to have a curious set of friends who immersed him in Homestead, SST, 4AD, and the creativity in the air at the time. Boston was a place where you could see Throwing Muses outside in the street or find The Pixies or Big Dipper at the Rat, or see the best touring Dischord bands or The Volcano Suns at TT The Bears for a $6 matinee show. It made an impression. Music lessons (Guitar, Trombone, piano, and drums) were regretably pushed aside in favor of home recording expermients and some persistent notion that music should be a creative act -- that not every good idea had been tried. Moving to DC in 1991 to study audio engineering and physics, he joined Eggs (trombone and guitar) and made his way into Teenbeat and Simple Machines bands, Grenadine (formed by Mark Robinson and Jenny Toomey) on the drums, Tsunami (formed by Toomey and Kristin Thompson) on the bass, and a live version of Liquorice (formed by Toomey and Dan Littleton of Ida) on bass. Much music was made, he landed in New York in 2000. Christiansen learned about radio production as an Engineer at the New York NPR New Bureau, and eventually moved to WNYC/WQXR, where he mixed live broadcasts from New York's finest classical music halls and episodes of the celebrated New Sounds, Soundcheck, and Spinning on Air radio programs. He is currently the Director of Broadcast Applications and Assets at New York Public Radio, where he provides tech tools to journaists and manages the NYPR Archives. He was included in the 2025 Tsunami/Ida reunion tour.