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Andrew Joslyn is an American composer, orchestrator, [1] film scorer, [2] and violinist in various genres.
Joslyn was born in Pomona, California, but moved to Washington with his family when he was three and grew up on Bainbridge Island. His father is a family therapist and his mother is a Hungarian model, actress and artist. She came to the United States after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. [3] Joslyn was raised as a Zen Buddhist from an early age, and both his parents run the Entsuan Zen [4] center on Bainbridge. His half-brother, [3] [5] [6] Chris Kattan, is a comedian who was famous for his work on and off Saturday Night Live in the period 1996–2003.
Joslyn began studying violin at the age of five, with the Suzuki string method, and grew up studying music composition and performance. [7] Joslyn attended Bainbridge High School, graduating in 2001 [8] and received his B.A. in English literature and violin performance from Western Washington University in 2005 [9] and his master's certificate in music business from the Berklee College of Music in Boston. [10] While in college, he took part in studying contemporary music, ranging from rock, folk, fiddle, world, to hip-hop, film, and electronic musical genres. [7]
Andrew Joslyn began his professional career in music when he toured and wrote with the Pacific Northwest folk rock band Handful of Luvin’ from 2002 to 2010. [11] After the release of their third album Life in Between, he left the band and started his own career as an orchestrator and composer. [12] [13] [14]
In 2008, Joslyn began collaborating with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis on the Vs. EP, the Vs. Redux EP, and the chart-topping album The Heist . [15] He co-wrote the tracks "Neon Cathedral" and also "Wings", which was used for commercials involving the 2013 NBA All-Star Game. [16] [17] Joslyn worked with some other known musicians, including: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, [8] David Bazan [18] (Pedro the Lion), [19] [20] [21] Allen Stone, [22] [23] Ivan & Alyosha, [24] Mark Lanegan, [25] Grieves and Budo (Rhymesayers). [26]
Joslyn composed and arranged extensively for the Seattle Rock Orchestra, [27] [28] He leads the Passenger String Quartet, [29] [30] [31] which has backed artists including Duff McKagan, [32] [33] Suzanne Vega, [34] Daniel Bernard Roumain, [35] folk legend Judy Collins, [36] [37] and DJ Spooky. [38]
In early 2013, Joslyn was hired to arrange strings and brass for American alternative rock icon Mark Lanegan for Imitations (album). In March 2013, Joslyn arranged strings for Duff McKagan's film documentary, "It's So Easy and Other Lies", based on McKagan's book of the same title. The Passenger Quartet played the arrangements live at the Moore Theatre in Seattle along with McKagan and his band. In 2014, Joslyn collaborated with Seattle indie-rocker David Bazan to write the album: David Bazan and the Passenger String Quartet: Volume 1. Bazan and Joslyn toured the album nationally at the end of 2014. [39] [40]
Joslyn has performed live on TV with Mary Lambert on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on January 10, 2014, [41] Macklemore & Ryan Lewis at the 56th Grammy Awards on January 26, 2014, [42] and with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis at the 2015 American Music Awards where they debuted the emotional new song "Kevin", which Joslyn helped co-write [43] In late 2016, he began scoring music for the true crime series Casefile True Crime Podcast. [44]
In October 2016, Joslyn released the lead single of his solo record, "Plastic Heaven," and it was premiered both by Atwood Magazine, and Afropunk publications. [45] [46] In February 2017, Joslyn released his debut orchestral solo record, "Awake at the Bottom of the Ocean." The record is a stunning collection of genre bending, Orchestral Pop music and features Joslyn's songwriting and arrangements along with the vocals of some of the most iconic Northwest musicians and beyond, including Mark Lanegan (Queens of the Stone Age), Shelby Earl, Adra Boo (Fly Moon Royalty), Will Jordan, Billy McCarthy (Augustines), Eric Anderson (Cataldo) and Susy Sun. Early features in Paste, Afro-Punk, City Arts, Yahoo Music, The Seattle Weekly and support from Seattle's taste-maker, KEXP, paved the way for a very successful first release. Paste Magazine gave the record a 9/10 rating. [47] [48] The record was in the top 50 records on KEXP's variety charts, and top 3 of the Northwest charts. [49]
In 2016, Joslyn was brought in to help co-write the song, "Praying" for American singer Kesha, and produced by Ryan Lewis. After its release "Praying" received universal acclaim from music critics, who praised Kesha's vocals while calling the song powerful and noting it as a departure from her previous efforts. Commentators offered conflicting interpretations of the song's message; some felt that "Praying" was about forgiveness, while others thought that Kesha displayed anger on the track. Commercially, "Praying" reached number six in Australia as well as the top 20 in Canada, Hungary and Scotland, and the top 30 in Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It was also certified at least Platinum in the latter, Australia and Canada. "Praying" was nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. [50]
Joslyn is also a film composer, and scored several feature films throughout his career. In 2017, composed an original score for his first feature-length film, "American Violence", starring Denise Richards, Bruce Dern, and Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau. [51] Shortly thereafter, he composed the original score for the American Western film "Hickok," based on the exploits of Wild Bill Hickok in the small town of Abilene, starring Luke Helmsworth and Trace Adkins. In 2019 he scored the horror film "Soviet Sleep Experiment" starring Chris Kattan, and the drama film "Lumber Baron" about the American lumber industry at the turn of the century. [52]
In 2019 he won 2 BMI Pop Awards and 1 BMI Hip Hop Award for his co-writing the songs "Praying" and "Good Old Days". [53]
In addition to his professional career, Joslyn is also an avid advocate for the arts, and in 2021 was appointed co-chair of National Advocacy of the Recording Academy. [54]
He is listed as songwriter/composer on nearly four hundred recordings in the BMI database. [55]
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker, known for numerous film scores, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano. He has written a number of operas, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat; Letters, Riddles and Writs; Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs; Facing Goya; Man and Boy: Dada; Love Counts; and Sparkie: Cage and Beyond. He has written six concerti, five string quartets, and many other chamber works, many for his Michael Nyman Band. He is also a performing pianist. Nyman prefers to write opera over other forms of music.
The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for almost 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical music. More than 900 works have been written for it.
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"Good Old Days" is a song by American rapper Macklemore, featuring American singer-songwriter Kesha. It was written by Macklemore, Kesha, Budo, Andrew Joslyn, Sam Wishkoski and Tyler Andrews, with lyrics written by Macklemore and Kesha and production handled by Budo. Originally released as a promotional single on September 19, 2017, the song was sent to adult contemporary radio in the United States on October 9, 2017, as the third single from Macklemore's second solo studio album, Gemini (2017). As of October 9, 2017, "Good Old Days" has sold 48,000 digital copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan.
The String Quartets is an album of contemporary classical music by American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist John Zorn performed by Mark Feldman, Erik Friedlander, Joyce Hammann and Lois Martin. The piece Kol Nidre is a tune from Zorn's Masada songbook.
The Turtle Island Quartet is a string quartet that plays hybrids of jazz, classical, and rock music. The group was formed in 1985 by David Balakrishnan, Darol Anger, and Mark Summer in San Francisco. They released their first album on Windham Hill Records in 1988 with Irene Sazer.
Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, better known by his stage name Macklemore, is an American rapper. A native of Seattle, Washington, he has collaborated with producer Ryan Lewis as the duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. His releases to date include one mixtape, three EPs, and four albums.
Fences is an American indie rock band from Seattle, Washington formed by lead vocalist and guitarist Christopher Mansfield, guitarist Benjamin Greenspan, bassist and vocalist Lindsey Starr and drummer Elliott Garm Chaffee. They released their debut studio album Fences in 2010 and Lesser Oceans in 2015.
The Heist is the debut studio album by American hip hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. It was released on October 9, 2012, by Macklemore LLC, distributed under the Alternative Distribution Alliance. The album was independently self-produced, self-recorded and self-released by the duo, with no mainstream promotion or support. After the album's release, the duo hired Warner Music Group's radio promotion department to help the push with their singles for a small percentage of the sales.
Ryan Scott Lewis is an American record producer, DJ, videographer, photographer, graphic designer, music video director, rapper, and songwriter. Along with producing his own album, Instrumentals, Lewis produced the albums The VS. EP (2009), The Heist (2012), and This Unruly Mess I've Made (2016) as part of the duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. In 2006, Lewis befriended rapper Macklemore on Myspace and soon after became the behind-the-scenes partner of a successful duo, producing, recording, engineering and mixing all of the duo's music, as well as directing the music videos for "Same Love", "Thrift Shop", "And We Danced", "Otherside (Remix)", "Can't Hold Us", "Irish Celebration", "My Oh My", "Victory Lap", "Downtown", "Brad Pitt's Cousin" and "White Walls" and designing promotional graphics.
"Thrift Shop" is a song by American hip hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, featuring vocals from American singer Wanz, released on August 27, 2012, as the fourth single from their debut studio album, The Heist (2012). The song's lyrics show Macklemore's esteem for thrift shops and saving money, rather than flaunting expensive items like many rappers. The song was met with universal acclaim, with various music reviewers praising its humorous lyrics and social critique.
"Same Love" is a song by American hip hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, released as the third single from their 2012 debut studio album, The Heist. The track, featuring vocals by Seattle-based singer Mary Lambert, talks about the issue of gay and lesbian rights and was recorded during the campaign for Washington Referendum 74, which, upon approval in November 2012, legalized same-sex marriage in Washington State. The song reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and reached number 1 in both Australia and New Zealand. The song was nominated at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards for Song of the Year.
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are an American hip hop duo from Seattle, Washington, formed in 2008 by Macklemore, a rapper, and Ryan Lewis, a DJ and record producer. In 2009, they released their first collaborative effort, an EP titled VS. EP. They later followed up with VS. Redux (2010), the Grammy Award-winning album The Heist (2012) and This Unruly Mess I've Made (2016).
Michael "Mike" Wansley, better known by his stage names Wanz and TeeWanz, is an American singer, songwriter and rapper. He performs in various genres, including rock, R&B, soul, hip hop, and pop. He was featured on fellow Seattle-based duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' international hit single "Thrift Shop", which received two Grammy Awards for "Best Rap Performance" and "Best Rap Song".
The 56th Annual Grammy Awards presentation was held on January 26, 2014, at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The show was broadcast on CBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT and was hosted for the third time by LL Cool J. The show was moved to January to avoid competing with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, as was the case in 2010.
The discography of American hip hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis consists of two studio albums, two extended plays, 17 singles and 15 music videos. Macklemore and Lewis' single "Thrift Shop" reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 2013. The single was soon dubbed the first song since 1994 to top the Hot 100 chart without the support of a major record label by Billboard, although Macklemore, in a slightly unusual recording contract, pays a nominal percentage of sales for the usage of Warner Bros. Records' radio promotion department to push the releases of their singles.
Rainbow is the third studio album by American singer and songwriter Kesha. It was released on August 11, 2017, by Kemosabe and RCA Records. Primarily a pop record, Rainbow incorporates elements of pop rock, glam rock, neo soul, and country pop. Its lyrical themes range from letting go of the past, finding forgiveness within oneself for past mistakes, self-worth, and female empowerment. Kesha assumed an integral role in the album's production and collaborated with several producers, including Ricky Reed, Drew Pearson, Ben Folds, and her mother Pebe Sebert.
"Praying" is a song by American singer Kesha from her third studio album Rainbow (2017). It was made available for digital download by Kemosabe Records on July 6, 2017 as the album's lead single. The track originated from Ryan Lewis, who contacted Kesha and offered her an early version of the song. "Praying" was written by the singer with Ben Abraham, Andrew Joslyn, and its producer, Lewis, and co-produced by Jon Castelli. Musically, the song is a gospel and soul-influenced pop piano ballad that features minimal production and accompaniment from violins, violas, strings, celli, backing vocals and drums. Inspired by suicidal thoughts she has had in the past, Kesha said that "Praying" is about hoping that anyone, even abusers, can heal. "Praying" was written to showcase the singer's vocal range and to represent her as a person, and also features her nearly screaming at the top of her register. Various critics suggested that the song is about Dr. Luke, whom Kesha accused of sexual assault and emotional abuse in a lawsuit, although Luke is never mentioned in the song by name.
Gemini is the second solo studio album by American rapper Macklemore. It was released on September 22, 2017, via Bendo LLC. The first album he did without producer Ryan Lewis since his 2005 solo effort The Language of My World, Macklemore wanted to create a record devoid of any political subject matter and just about having a good time.
Reiko Nakano is a violinist, founder of Strings by Reiko, and director of Sound Roads Music.