# Andy Stochansky

Andy Stochansky is a musician and songwriter from Toronto, Canada, currently living in Los Angeles, United States.

## Early years

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 hands 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.

## Solo career

He switched instruments, taking up guitar and piano, and released his solo debut album, Radio Fusebox. Critics called it one of the best albums of the year. Radio Fusebox 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 more of a song record, something definitely different than Fusebox. I didn't want to repeat myself . The day after my final Fusebox Tour show, I started writing something on the long drive home that would set me on a new course so I wrote "Stutter". He 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 3 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 (Elvis Costello, Counting Crows, Modest Mouse), and "Stutter," produced by Tom Rothrock ( Beck/Elliott Smith ) 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, along with the firing of the very people who signed him, put Stochansky out on his own and he decided to pitch the songs to be able to get traction while figuring his own live career. 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.
Andy is now making his next full-length record and is hitting the road soon.( 2024 )

## Writing career

Stochansky was solely concentrating on writing / producing for and with other artists. He resides full-time in Los Angeles.
Just some of the writing highlights include:
* "Pale" and "Wherever You Go", both co-written with Lola Lennox and produced by Annie Lennox, received considerable BBC radio airplay.
* "Northern Lights" a song chosen for the Twilight Breaking Dawn soundtrack, performed by Cider Sky
* "Shine" – Shannon Noll (11 consecutive weeks at Number One on the Australian Airplay Chart – a record that still remains today)
* "Home", which was the first single on Goo Goo Dolls' Something for the Rest of Us cd.
* "Kick This Love" – "Gin Wigmore" from "Gravel And Wine" (bonus tracks version) 2013 Universal Music US
* "Beautiful Like You" – Lee Dewyze (American Idol winner) for his Live It Up cd (single)
* "Liar" – Eden's Edge (Big Machine Nashville)
* "Loud" – Top 10 single off Shannon Noll's third album
* "Until The Last Falling Star" – Matthew Perryman Jones The Distance in Between and Grey's Anatomy (Season 7 / Episode 4 )
* "Let's Get Back" (first single) "Last Surrender" and "I'm Giving In" – Matt Andersen (True North Records)

## White Elephant Orchestra

Stochansky's passion project, White Elephant Orchestra, is an art-pop project which released the album, 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 mixing engineer Dave Pensado (Michael Jackson, Pink, Peaches).

## Discography

* While You Slept (1996)
* Radio Fusebox (1999)
* Five Star Motel (2002)
* Shine EP (2004)
* 100 (2005)
* Debut (2020)