JOE CASSIDY
Joe Cassidy's career as a singer, songwriter, producer, composer and front-man spans almost three decades. Signed to a major label at the age of 15, Cassidy moved from Belfast to Manchester, London, and Chicago—finally landing in Los Angeles in 2007. Cassidy's career is a study in duality: his projects have been picked up by hot indie labels Rough Trade and H.ark!—and major giants Arista/ BMG, Hit It!/ Tommy Boy, Dedicated/ BMG, RCA, and Universal. Cassidy has written scores for string quartets made up of members of the Liverpool Symphony and the Chicago Lyric Orchestra—and for films like "Bettie Page Uncensored", "Stan" and the upcoming "Hollywood". Cassidy also worked on the 2011 Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner "We Live In Public" and the 2011 Emmy winning documentary "Hold At All Costs".
His band Butterfly Child is known for its symphonic love songs; his band Assassins is known for its electro-pop dance tracks—both have devoted fan bases. And he uses his recording studio to produce labors of love with musician friends—as well as remixes for the likes of Ludacris, Kid Rock, and R.Kelly. Cassidy even had the honor of producing song writing legend Jimmy Webb with Glen Campbell in the room.
He has performed across the USA and Europe including Lollapalooza and has supported New Order, Muse and Duran Duran to name but a few.
Oh, and it's there—in a bucolic home in Silver Lake—that Cassidy composes and records national commercials, spots which incorporate his lush pop sensibility and deep-seated sense of cool into ads for some of the country's most legendary brands.
"I usually work with people who have a very open mind about what they are looking to achieve with a song, an arrangement or the type of production necessary. Artists or clients who are not "boxed in" to a genre are the ones I usually find knocking at my door," Cassidy says. Perhaps Cassidy demonstrates success across genres and continents because of what Rolling Stone called "his mastery of the simple pop song." At the heart of every one of his compositions is a melody infused with deeply satisfying musical—and narrative—resolution. As was said of Cassidy's style, "If you've ever been drunk in a pub, staring at someone beautiful, just watching them move, in a blur, this was probably the music in your head."
Cassidy's new Butterfly Child album "Futures" was released by Dell'Orso/ SRD in November 2015. The A Shot In The Dark EP, featuring the title track remixed by Stephen Hague (New Order, Pet Shop Boys etc) is released on September 9th, 2016.
SHEPARD FAIREY
Shepard Fairey received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, R.I. While there he created the “Andre the Giant has a Posse” sticker that transformed into the OBEY GIANT art campaign, with imagery that has changed the way people see art and the urban landscape. His work has evolved into an acclaimed body of art, which includes the 2008 "Hope" portrait of Barack Obama, found at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
Fairey’s 25-plus-year career started in 1989 with his sticker campaign. In addition to his guerrilla street art presence, the artist has executed more than 50 large-scale painted public murals around the world as of 2016. His works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and many others.
A lifelong vinyl collector, in 2003 Fairey was inspired to begin DJ’ing after working on the art and marketing for the DJ culture documentary “Scratch.” Fairey befriended “Scratch” alumni DJ Z-Trip, finding a mentor in Z-Trip and inspiration in his innovative mixes blending varied and unexpected genres. Over the years Fairey has been a resident DJ at several prominent nightclubs including a six-year run with the "Dance Right" weekly at downtown LA's La Cita. Fairey has also DJ’ed at festivals including Coachella and All Tomorrow’s Parties. In 2014 Fairey co-founded NØISE, a music project which combined his creative passions of art and music.
MERRITT LEAR
Merritt Lear is a musician and filmmaker/editor based in Los Angeles.
Born in Chicago, she began learning violin at the age of three and started her first band, Hussy, while studying music at Yale University.
She became a founding member of the seminal synth band, Assassins, where she contributed guitar, vocals and songwriting. The band was signed to Arista Records by LA Reid. Described by Chicago Tribune as "a furious cocktail of rock and electronic elements spiked with impressive songwriting and coed vocals… first-rate", Assassins recorded with producer Stephen Hague (New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Siouxsie and the Banshees) and performed alongside such acts as New Order, Muse, Duran Duran, Interpol, VHS Or Beta, Travis, Elbow, and Zwan.
Lear has toured extensively worldwide, singing and playing violin and other stringed instruments in the bands of notable artists such as Jason Mraz and John Mellencamp. During her 2-year world tour with Mraz, notable shows included Madison Square Garden, Hollywood Bowl, the O2 Arena in London as well as live television performances on Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Ellen, The Today Show and VH1 Storytellers. They also had the honor of performing the inaugural broadcast for the launch of iTunes China, as well as playing the first major show in Myanmar since the fall of their 50 year military regime in 2012, to an audience of 100,000, broadcast by MTV.
She recently played her first solo show with The National and Young the Giant and her band is working on an EP.
As a filmmaker, Merritt has edited music videos for Robert Plant and Lana Del Ray as well as several feature documentaries which have won accolades at international film festivals including Sundance, Tribeca and SXSW.
JOHN GOFF
John Goff has a long and varied history in Electronic Music and post punk/rock. In the late 80's John played with tribal/experimental group Crash Worship. After several record releases and tours with Crash Worship he began the post punk/art rock collective Physics - an experimental group born of German Minimalism and Branca’s guitar army. Physics toured and released various records through a host of labels (Gravity Records, Golden Standard Records otherwise known as GSL, etc.) Out of the ashes of Physics, John and his brother, Will, started the electronic band, Sonic Solutions Incorporated or SSI. SSI released three records and is currently working on their fourth. Concurrent with these endeavors, John started two record labels, The Way Out Sound, which featured an eclectic group of global experimental musicians (Muslimgauze, Merzbow, Heavy Vegetable, etc.), and Chlorophyll Records which featured releases by SSI, Point Loma (Nortec Collective), as well as John's solo music project, The Silver Wizard. As a producer and guest artist, he has worked with the likes of Neurosis, Chris and Cosey, Spacetime Continuum, HIA. He also runs a print publishing company, Serigraphic Systems, Inc. The company produces small editions of screen prints, working with various artists including Kofie, Shepard Fairey , Cleon Peterson, Remi Rough and many others. Goff is a music addict, but also an enigma, so he may be working on future NØISE, or may not be, or in-between, or both, or neither.