Singer Songwriter Project 2012

Track Credits

1. Dandelion by Andy Studer

Lauren Baba: viola 
Caroline Cirone: electric bass
Giorgi Dimitrov: violin 
Jarrett Furst: cello 
Bianca McClure: violin
Aaron Moore: electric guitar 
Andy Studer: vocals, acoustic guitar 
Ryan Studer: drums 
Dakota Lillie: mix engineer

2. Gas Banjo by Paul Mathis

Max Kutner: banjo
Ingrid Lee: keyboard 
Paul Matthis: vocal 
Amir Oosman: drums 
Jackie Owens: vocal 
Alex Wand: e. guitar, back-up vocal 
Ashley Jacobson: mix engineer

3. Irregrettably You by Jake Faulkner

Rachel Geller: vocal
Alex Fishel: piano
Patrick Kelly: acoustic bass
Greg Uhlmann: electric guitar
Jackie Urlik: harp
Brian Saia: mix engineer

4. Hollywood by Ian Walker

Giorgi Dimitrov: violin
Jarrett Furst: cello
Ryan Studer: cello
Ian Walker: vocal
Henry Webster: violin
Dakota Lillie: mix engineer

5. Startin Over by Diane Lindsay

Sean Fitzpatrick: back-up vocal
Kassandra Kocoshis: djembe, bongos, tambourine
Diane Lindsay: lead vocal, piano
Nailah Middleton: back-up vocal
Jackie Owens: back-up vocal
Ryan Parrish : soprano sax
John Baffa: mix engineer

6. Time by Ben Schwab

Matt Blitzer: electric guitar 
Trevor Gabriel: slide guitar
John German: piano  
Sam Kauffman-Skloff: drums 
Patrick Kelly: electric bass 
Ben Schwab: lead vocal, acoustic, guitar, tambourine
Stan Thile: back-up vocal
Charlie Cohen: mix engineer

7. The Great Hunt by Alex Wand

Laura Anderson: back-up vocal
Ivan Carames-Bohigas: cello
MaryClare Brzytwa: flute
Max Kutner: acoustic guitar
Alex Wand: lead vocal
Brian Saia: mix engineer

8. Shadow of Mine by John German

Laura Anderson: back-up vocal
Ryan Bancroft: flute & trumpet
Matt Blitzer: electric guitar
Marcus Buser: electric bass
Claire Chenette: oboe & back-up vocal
John German: lead vocal
Sam Kauffman-Skloff: drums
Jett Kelly: back-up vocal
Jackie Urlick: harp
Ian Walker: piano
Peter Gonzales: mix engineer

Album Credits

Song Selection Panelists:
Marc Lowenstein, Susie Allen, David Johnson, John Baffa, Alan Eder

Produced by Marc Lowenstein and Alan Eder; John Baffa, Chief Audio Engineer

Recording Engineers:
Studio "A" (Roy O. Disney Hall)-Main Instrumental Tracking: Peter Gonzales, Charlie Cohen, Mario Luna
Studio "B" (Herb Alpert Digital Recording Studio)--Overdubs: Brian Saia, Ashley Jacobson, Dakota Lillie

Recorded January 21 & 22, 2012 at California Institute of the Arts

Composer Bios

Jake Faulkner

Jake Faulkner Is a recent Alumnus of Calarts. He graduated from the MAP program excelling in songwriting and upright bass performance all under the tutelage of Susan Allen, PhD. He now works in Los Angeles with his band, The Americans, with fellow Calarts Alumnus, Tim Carr.

Diane Lindsay

Diane Lindsay is a critically-acclaimed songwriter, producer, arranger, recording artist, classically-trained keyboardist, bassist and composer.

With an extensive background in classical as well as contemporary styles, from Royce Hall to Carnegie Hall she has lent her considerable musical skills to acts ranging from The Limeliters, Patti Page, Cris Williamson, Holly Near, Dusty Springfield and many more.

She has produced many independent artists (including her own highly-praised releases) winning awards for Best Independent Production from BAM Magazine and NAIRD. Hot Wire Magazine's "Reader's Choice Awards" went to Diane for Favorite Song and Favorite Bassist. Always self-produced, she was named a Billboard "Best Unsigned Artist, and lifetime Love (from her second album Live In To Love) was awarded the rare distinction of a "Critic's Choice Pick Single-of the-Week" by Billboard magazine. 

Her recording credits include over 75 albums; her songs have been recorded by many artists and featured on stage, HBO, award-winning documentaries, and national and international radio. 

Residing in Los Angeles, Diane is sought after as a recording producer, arranger, music director, accompanist (classical and contemporary) and instructor. She is currently completing the third album of her songs while pursuing her MFA in Performance and Composition at CalArts.

Paul Mathis

Gas Banjo is one of the many awesome tracks from Paul Matthis's new musical, Lunatic Sun, to be workshopped at CalArts in Fall 2012. Paul received his undergraduate degree in music composition and voice from FSU in 2004. He then immediately moved to LA and said to hell with academic music, I'm out. For seven years he worked odd jobs throughout the music industry and Hollywood, determined to find out what made pop music tick instead. He finally came back to CalArts to get his Composer/Performer MFA, because he thought here, maybe, he could combine the two. Congrats graduates!

Ben Schwab

Singer/songwriter and composer from Ohio. 

Style: Folk/Rock and Roll 

Influences: Cass Mccombs, Lou Reed, Elliott Smith, Bob Dylan, and the Beatles. 

Best Friend: Jeff Bryant

Andy Studer

Andy Studer was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. With his mother a songwriter from Japan and his father a composer for multimedia, he spent much of his childhood in pop music and recording studios. He developed a love for music early on, attempting to play back music he would hear on the piano, which ultimately developed his ear for music. After picking up the violin at age 10, he taught himself how to play the guitar in high school, and began to write songs. A few years later, he started his band Red Robot, the name originating from childhood stories Andy wrote about a character of the same name. He developed a love for string quartet music during those years as well, and consequently began to write quartet arrangements for his own songs. Much of his compositional focus went towards his string quartet writing during his four year stay at CalArts beginning in 2008. Red Robot's first studio-recorded EP, Identification, was released in August 2011 as a free digital download. It includes the song “You Could Only Take” which was mastered at Capitol Records as a result of the CalArts recording competition in 2011. Identification was subsequently released on CD in February, 2012, and the band's next EP is currently slated for the summer. Dandelion was written in the Summer of 2011, which features Red Robot as well as Andy's implementation of string quartet. 

Ian Walker

Ian Walker's passion for music began at an early age. He studied jazz, funk, and rock piano, classical voice and composition, and played in numerous bands in the Sonoma County area before coming to California Institute of the Arts. His goal is to inspire others with his music, while combining the contemporary, classical and popular traditions.

Alex Wand

Alex Wand is a composer originally from Michigan, and has studied at the U of M School of Music and CalArts with composers Bright Sheng, Michael Fink, Ulrich Krieger, and Wolfgang von Schweinitz. He finds value in learning about non-western music, in particular, North Indian, Eastern European, Spanish, Brazilian and Mexican traditions. He finds value in storytelling, often in the form of a song, or as music for film, animation, and dance. He is interested in the fields of acoustics and just intonation and also finds them to be valuable sources of inspiration. Together with these influences, Alex incorporates an element of folksiness in almost all of his music. He sings and plays guitar, sitar and other various stringed instruments and has been in bands Light in August, Three Thirds, and Our Brother the Native.