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I was a classic high school loser, sitting at home while my parents and brothers and sister went out on weekends. At some point my sister had given me some warped records (she left them on the heater at college), and these were my earliest influences. I’d usually watch “The Love Boat” and “Fantasy Island,” then wander over to the piano and write songs about space. Not emptiness, but like, outer space.
At some point I went to college in Philadelphia, did some music there (I was in an a cappella group called Off the Beat – yes, I know it’s a terrible name – and a killing rock band called Thriphtway named after a grocery store), and started writing songs in earnest while majoring in music composition (even took a class in Debussy and Bartok with George Crumb – only modern music dorks will know who that is). One song from a little production deal I had with Ruff House Records (think Digable Planets) in Philly wound up on my first album, Careen.
I moved to Los Angeles ‘cuz I didn’t really know where else you could make a living as a musician, and soon found myself working as a composer’s assistant and writing my songs in off hours. Made my first album during these off hours, and started playing shows and being a musician for real, kinda late by most people’s standards.
I’ve done a bunch of music industry stuff that people generally like to enumerate in their bios – far be it from me to break tradition. I won the Overall Grand Prize for the USA Songwriting Competition, I was a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition, got 2nd prize in the Just Plain Folks awards, & I’ve been one of Music Connection’s top 100 unsigned artists a couple years running. Lots of my songs have been on TV and in movies, some quality, some not so quality (you decide which is which) – Arrested Development, Office Space, Ghost Ship, Road Rules, Real World, Sleepover, The Hills, What About Brian, lots more. I ran down the aisles at the Oscars singing with Ellen. The Diamond Wink tour took me all over Europe opening for Alanis Morisette, and I’ve supported Jamie Cullum & Glenn Tillbrook (Squeeze) touring here in the U.S. Oh, and I opened for the Stones (yup, the Rolling ones) on the road with Tim Burgess in the UK, and I’ve played at lots of music festivals (SXSW, CMJ, V Festival in England). This year I sang on the Oscars, which was a riot. I also write score for video games and TV shows and produce other artists as well (Sara Bareilles’ Careful Confessions and Naimee Coleman’s new stuff, of late).
So I just came out with my Tall Buildings, my 4th full length album. Linus of Hollywood (The Charlatans, Puff Daddy, OPM) produced it, Dave Trumfio (Wilco, OK Go, Rilo Kiley) mixed it, and my usual band of lunatics played it – Adam Marcello on drums, Carson Cohen on bass, and Steve Mazur on guitar. Come see us play music – you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, it’s a riot.
