He was born on 2 June 1987. Koma was born in Brooklyn and raised in Seaford, New York, on Long Island.[4][2] His father, Gerald D. Bair, was a singer/songwriter and Koma first performed on stage with his father when he was four years old.[5] Koma wrote his first song when he was nine years old and credits Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen for his inspiration at a young age.[6] Koma attended Seaford High School.[7]
Musical career
Koma signed to record on Jimmy Iovine's Interscope Records in June 2011, after Iovine watched an acoustic performance of the record "She".[1] In May 2012, Koma released his first EP, Parachute, in which he wrote, produced and co-produced all four tracks with collaborators Twice as Nice, Alex da Kid, Sam Watters, Louis Biancaniello, and Ari Levine.[8] Koma provided the main vocals for the 2012 song "End of Pretend" by Black Cards,[9] and he co-produced a remix of the Bruce Springsteen song "Rocky Ground" with Ron Aniello, which Springsteen released on his album Wrecking Ball.[10]
In March 2014, Showtek's "Cannonball (Earthquake)", featuring Koma, was released.[14] Also in 2014, Koma appeared on RAC's debut album, featuring on the single "Cheap Sunglasses,[15] and was featured on Audien's single "Serotonin".[16]Afrojack's 2014 album Forget the World featured two songs written and sung by Koma, "Keep our Love Alive" and "Illuminate".[17]
In January 2015, Koma was featured in Kia Motors' online video series Rediscovered, where he recorded a cover of The Miracles' "The Tracks of My Tears" before Smokey Robinson made a surprise visit in the studio.[18] Koma collaborated with The Knocks on "I Wish (My Taylor Swift)", which was released as a single in September 2015 and later appeared on the Knocks' 2016 album, 55.[19]
Koma dated Carly Rae Jepsen from 2012 until 2015, after they met while working on her album Kiss.[25]
In May 9, 2019, he got engaged to Hilary Duff who was his girlfriend of two years, and they were married on December 21, 2019 at their home in Los Angeles.[26][27] They have three daughters.[27] He is also a stepfather to Duff's son from her previous marriage to ice hockey player Mike Comrie.[28]
In May 2017, he released "Dear Ana", a song about his anorexia and confessed that the disease almost killed him.[29]