Tepper was born in New York City and raised on Manhattan's Upper East Side. His father, Robert Tepper, is a musician best known for writing the 1980 ballad "Into the Night" and for writing and recording "No Easy Way Out", which appeared in the 1985 filmRocky IV.
Career
Novels
Tepper's debut novel, Balls, was published in 2012. The book is a dark comedy about Henry Schiller, a 30-year-old piano player and neurotic Jew who lives in Manhattan with his younger, more musically gifted girlfriend Paula. When Henry discovers that he has testicular cancer, it prompts an existential crisis. The book has been praised for capturing the feel of New York City. Tepper started writing it in New Orleans and continued it in Finland, but stated that the book didn't start to take form until he returned to New York. Tepper has said Balls was influenced by Saul Bellow's 1964 novel Herzog, as well as the work of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafka and Woody Allen. Tepper's second novel, Ark, was published in 2016. Set in Manhattan, it follows three generations of the formerly wealthy, artistic, infighting Arkin family. Some of the characters were based on Tepper's real-life family members. The New York Times wrote, "Despite some early stumbles, 'Ark' is an engaging and entertaining novel, and an insightful take on just how easy it can be to slip from the upper class." In 2016, Tepper stated that he is working on an autobiographical noveltentatively titledBetween the Records, based on his own, as well as his family's, life in music. An excerpt of Between the Records appeared in the May/June 2018 Issue of Playboy magazine.
Tepper and artist Jenna Gribbon founded The Oracle Club in 2011, a members-only literary salon and workspace for artists and writers in Long Island City, Queens, which closed in 2017.
Music
Tepper played bass in The Natural History, an indie rock trio formed in New York in 2001, with his brother Max Tepper on lead vocals and guitar. He co-wrote their song "Don’t You Ever", which was covered by Spoon as "Don't You Evah" on their 2007 album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, and was also released as a single/EP on April 8, 2008. The original version by The Natural History was included on the 8-song EP, alongside remixes of the Spoon version by Ted Leo, Diplo and Matthew Dear. Spoon included "Don't You Evah" on , released by Matador Records in July 2019. An article written for Playboy magazine by Julian Tepper includes a Q & A with Spoon's Britt Daniel, in which the Tepper brothers and Daniel recount the story behind "Don't You Evah". The Natural History released an EP and two full-length albums and disbanded in 2005.
