Easter was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Ken and Elizabeth (Lib),[1] and became deeply involved in music from an early age.

[2] He played in a number of school bands, including the Loyal Opposition, the Imperturbable Teutonic Gryphon and Sacred Irony,[3] some of them with his childhood friend Chris Stamey (later of The dB's).

[4] Drive-In Studio became an integral part of the local indie-rock scene of Winston-Salem, recording a number of bands at low "knock-down" rates.

Since 1981, he has produced, engineered, and often made musical contributions to albums from many other recording artists, including Donna the Buffalo, Mary Prankster, Ex Hex, Ben Folds Five, Pylon, Helium, Pavement, Suzanne Vega, Richard Barone, Game Theory, The Loud Family, Marshall Crenshaw, The Connells, Velvet Crush, Ken Stringfellow (of The Posies), and Birds of Avalon.

[6] At the age of 15, in 1970, Easter joined the band Rittenhouse Square which included friends Chris Stamey, Peter Holsapple, and Bobby Locke.

[10] This initial work led to a number of collaborations with the band, with Easter producing their debut EP and (with Don Dixon) their first two albums.

[2] In August 2014, Easter and Sara Romweber reunited Let's Active for a benefit performance, inviting former Game Theory bassist Suzi Ziegler to join the group.

[11] Easter had previously worked with Ziegler when he produced Game Theory's 1986 album The Big Shot Chronicles.

During the 1990s, Easter rarely performed or recorded his own music, although he did join Velvet Crush as a touring guitarist for a time in the mid-1990s.

The three also briefly played under the name The Fiendish Minstrels, which featured Easter's lead vocals, as well as a selection of Let's Active tunes in its repertoire.

[15] Their "recording relationship" was dissolved prior to the release of Shalini's 2010 album Magnetic North, which was produced by Easter, but on which he did not perform.