Sebastian Steinberg (born February 20, 1959) is an American bass player, best known for his work in the band Soul Coughing.
Steinberg played with Soul Coughing throughout the band's entire history, from 1992 to 2000. In 2001, Steinberg performed on stage with Neil Finn and Tim Finn, Eddie Vedder, Johnny Marr, Ed O'Brien, Phil Selway and others in a series of concerts recorded on a DVD titled "7 Worlds Collide". He also recorded and performed with guitarist Marc Ribot and appeared on William Shatner's 2004 album Has Been . Steinberg performed on the Dixie Chicks' 2006 Accidents and Accusations tour, and toured with k.d. lang during the summer of 2007. Steinberg performed with Vanessa Carlton on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno October 11, 2007. In 2009, he appeared again with Neil Finn and friends for the second installment of 7 Worlds Collide playing alongside members of Radiohead and Wilco. [1] Steinberg made a brief appearance in the 2009 film Funny People , as the bassist in a band that Adam Sandler's character, a movie star, hired to jam with him.
Steinberg works as a session musician, playing electric bass and double bass on numerous albums. He contributed the bass tracks to the 2003 track 'Frosty the Snowman' and the 2012 Fiona Apple album, The Idler Wheel... , and he toured with Fiona Apple as part of her backing band in 2012. In 2014, Steinberg also played bass supporting guitar virtuoso and producer Blake Mills, a tour where Fiona Apple made sporadic appearances, [2] to promote Mills' second full-length album, Heigh Ho. Steinberg has also been a regular performer with the Watkins Family Hour, and the band released their debut album in July 2015. Steinberg has also worked with singer songwriter J.S. Ondara and has toured as a bassist for Iron & Wine. In 2020, he appeared on Fiona Apple's album Fetch the Bolt Cutters . [3] In 2024, Steinberg toured with Diana Krall and Matt Chamberlain.
In 2024, Steinberg rejoined Soul Coughing for a reunion tour, including an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! . [4] [5]
Steinberg was born in New York City and grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, son (with brother Adam) of musicologist Michael Steinberg and fabric artist Jane Steinberg.
Crowded House are a New Zealand-Australian rock band, formed in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1985. Its founding members were New Zealander Neil Finn and Australians Paul Hester (drums) and Nick Seymour (bass). Later band members included Finn's brother Tim, who was in their former band Split Enz; sons Liam and Elroy; as well as Americans Mark Hart and Matt Sherrod. Neil Finn and Seymour are the sole constant members.
Soul Coughing is an American alternative rock band composed of vocalist/guitarist Mike Doughty, keyboardist/sampler Mark Degli Antoni, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and drummer Yuval Gabay. They developed a devout fanbase and garnered largely positive response from critics. Steve Huey of AllMusic described the band as "One of the most unique cult bands of the '90s...Driven by frontman M. Doughty's stream-of-consciousness poetry, Soul Coughing's sound was a willfully idiosyncratic mix of improvisational jazz grooves, oddball samples, hip hop, electronics, and noisy experimentalism". Doughty described the band's sound as "deep slacker jazz". The group broke up in 2000.
Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart is an American singer-songwriter. Noted for her songwriting, she released five albums from 1996 to 2020, all of which reached the top 20 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. Apple has received numerous awards and nominations, including three Grammy Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, and a Billboard Music Award.
John Martin Marr is an English musician, songwriter and singer. He first achieved fame as the guitarist and co-songwriter of the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. He has since performed with numerous other bands and embarked on a solo career.
Philip James Selway is an English musician and the drummer of the rock band Radiohead. He combines rock drumming with electronic percussion. Selway was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Radiohead in 2019.
Irresistible Bliss is the second studio album by the American electronic music group Soul Coughing, released in 1996. The band initially planned for Tchad Blake, producer of their first album Ruby Vroom, to produce the album, but the death of a family member in a car accident caused Blake to take a hiatus. Over the objections of his bandmates and his record label, Slash Records/Warner Bros., frontman Mike Doughty hired producer David Kahne ; he was intent on following up the wild sonics of Ruby Vroom with a tightly wound, trembly, New Wave–inspired record.
Andrew Michael Rourke was an English musician best known as the bassist of the 1980s indie rock band the Smiths. Regarded as one of the greatest bassists of his generation, he was known for his melodic and funk-inspired approach to bass playing.
Mark degli Antoni is an American composer, known for his work as co-founder and keyboard sampler for the band Soul Coughing from 1992 to 2000.
Maude Amber McAfee-Maggart is an American cabaret singer and recording artist who performs throughout the United States and Europe, but most often in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City.
Sara Ullrika Watkins is an American singer-songwriter and fiddler. Watkins debuted in 1989 as the fiddler of Nickel Creek, the progressive bluegrass group she formed with her brother Sean and mandolinist Chris Thile. In addition to singing and fiddling, Watkins also plays the ukulele and the guitar, and also played percussion while touring with the Decemberists. In 2012, she and her brother played with Jackson Browne during his "I'll Do Anything" acoustic tour.
David Garza is a Grammy winning producer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and visual artist who has crafted a 35-year repertoire of over 400 original compositions.
Charles Leslie Drayton is an American multi-instrumentalist and producer, known primarily as a drummer. Artists he has recorded or performed with include The Cult, Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Johnny Cash, Chaka Khan, Mariah Carey, Seal, Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Janet Jackson, Courtney Love, Michelle Branch, Andrés Calamaro, Hiram Bullock, and many others.
7 Worlds Collide is a musical project by the New Zealand singer-songwriter Neil Finn. The project brings together Finn and other musicians in support of charity.
Time on Earth is the fifth studio album by Australian rock band Crowded House. Tracks have been produced by both Ethan Johns and Steve Lillywhite and the album was released on 30 June 2007 in Australia, 2 July in the United Kingdom and 10 July in North America. Time on Earth is the band's first studio album since 1993, and marks the reunion of the band eleven years after they disbanded and features new drummer Matt Sherrod in place of the original drummer, Paul Hester, who died in 2005.
"Don't Stop Now" is the first single from Crowded House's fifth studio album Time on Earth. It was released in Australia on 16 June 2007; in the United Kingdom, it was released digitally on 18 June 2007 and physically on 25 June 2007.
Roundhead Studios is an Auckland-based sound recording studio owned by singer-songwriter Neil Finn. It was officially opened in June 2007, however by the time of its opening, several international artists had already used it whilst the studio was either in construction or receiving finishing touches.
The Sun Came Out is a charity studio album released on 31 August 2009 by 7 Worlds Collide, a musical project of New Zealand singer/songwriter Neil Finn for the benefit of Oxfam. The album was recorded at Finn's Roundhead Studios and is a follow-up to the 7 Worlds Collide live album of 2001. Contributors to the project include 7 Worlds Collide's 2001 alumni Johnny Marr, Ed O'Brien, Sebastian Steinberg, Phil Selway, Lisa Germano, Tim Finn and Liam Finn; as well as Don McGlashan, Bic Runga, Glenn Richards, KT Tunstall and Wilco members Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone.
7 Worlds Collide: Live at the St. James is an album released in 2001 by 7 Worlds Collide, a musical project of New Zealand singer-songwriter Neil Finn. It is a live recording culled from a series of five shows recorded at the St. James Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand from 2 to 6 April 2001. Notable members of Finn's band included Eddie Vedder, Johnny Marr, Ed O'Brien, Tim Finn, Sebastian Steinberg, Phil Selway, Lisa Germano, and Betchadupa.
John Would is a Grammy award-winning American musician, songwriter, record producer, audio engineer, and mixer, who was born in Vallejo, California. He has recorded and performed extensively as a multi-instrumentalist and works mainly out of his own studio, Stanley Recordings, in Los Angeles, California.
Fetch the Bolt Cutters is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple. It was released on April 17, 2020, Apple's first release since The Idler Wheel... in 2012. The album was recorded from 2015 to 2020, largely at Apple's home in Venice Beach. It was produced and performed by Apple alongside Amy Aileen Wood, Sebastian Steinberg and Davíd Garza; the recording consisted of long, often improvised takes with unconventional percussive sounds. GarageBand was used for much of this recording, and Fiona Apple credited the album's unedited vocals and long takes to her lack of expertise with the program.