Andy Stochansky is a musician and songwriter[1] from Toronto, living in Los Angeles.
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Andy Stochansky | |
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Genres | music |
Occupation(s) | Musician, composer |
Instrument(s) | Drums percussion vocals piano guitar |
Born and raised in Toronto, Stochansky began tinkering with the family piano at the age of five. To stop him from making music with anything he could get his hand on, his parents bought him a toy drum kit. By the time he was in his 20s, he had become a touring studio musician for Ani DiFranco. With DiFranco, Stochansky played 150 shows a year for seven years, until he felt it was time to start expressing himself beyond the drums.
He switched instruments, taking up guitar and piano, and released his solo debut album, RadioFusebox. Critics called it one of the best albums of the year. Kim Hughes put him on the cover of Now Newspaper. Joan Anderman from the Boston Globe called him "the best thing at SXSW". RadioFusebox won the 2000 Canadian Juno Award for Best Album Design (Michael Wrycraft - Creative Director).
"The press was so amazing but I wanted to switch gears and make a pop record, something definitely different. The day after my final Fusebox Tour show, I started writing something on the long drive home that would set me on course for the next few years. I wanted something with hook. I wanted feel good music. I wanted something which made people move, so I wrote Stutter and that opened the flood gates".[citation needed]
Stochansky quickly had 25 new songs and wanted to let anyone hear them. He was approached by an independent promoter in California who wanted to know if he would play six shows in and around Los Angeles. On the second night of that tour, Stochansky was approached by three different record companies, all wanting to sign him. One of these was RCA Victor.
In the summer of 2001, 5 Star Motel was released. The album was produced by Ian Lefevre. Two songs, "Wonderful (It's Superman)", produced by Dennis Herring, and "Stutter," produced by Tom Rothrock, received considerable radio attention. Songs from this record would appear in TV shows and movie soundtracks. Stochansky kept writing: "Anywhere, anytime I would have the guitar in my hands or steal away with headphones and mini keyboard I was truly addicted".
Stochansky chose Goo Goo Dolls frontman Johnny Rzeznik to produce his follow-up album, 100'. Out of all the people I talked to to produce this, his absolute love of songwriting, had me sold. Although the album was completed and mastered, a restructuring of the RCA record company (because of Napster), along with the firing of the very people who signed him, put Stochansky out on his own. The first would-be single from 100, "Shine," was covered by Australian artist Shannon Noll. The song was an immediate hit and holds the record for most weeks at Number One on the Australian Airplay Chart. A second single, "House of Gold", received radio success for Stochansky himself when released in Canada on the Canadian independent label Linus. Noll would have another Top 10 single again the following year when he covered "Loud", another song from 100.
Stochansky is solely concentrating on writing / producing for and with other artists. He resides full-time in Los Angeles.
His writing highlights include:
[citation needed]
Stochansky's newest project, White Elephant Orchestra, is an art-pop project which released a new album, entitled Debut. Highlights included singles being played by NPR World Cafe, and KCRW KEXP radio airplay. Written, produced and played by Stochansky, Debut features Lola Lennox and Martina Sorbara (Dragonette) on back-up vocals and tracks mixed by Grammy Award-winning mixing engineer Dave Pensado (Michael Jackson, Pink, Peaches).
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Stochansky is also a writer and producer for and with other artists.
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