Andy Stochansky
Andy Stochansky is a musician and songwriter from Toronto, living in Los Angeles. Early years. Born and raised in Toronto, he began tinkering with the family piano at the age of five. Shortly thereafter, 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, Andy played 150 shows a year for seven years, until he felt it was time to start expressing himself beyond the drums . Solo recording career. He switched instruments, taking up guitar and piano, and released his solo debut album, "RadioFusebox". The response to "Fusebox" was immediate. Critics everywhere were calling 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 would even win 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". 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 6 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 the companies was RCA Victor. In the summer of 2001, 5 Star Motel was released. The album was produced by Ian Lefevre and 2 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 but never slowed down 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. Even though Andy's new cd 100 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, entitled "Shine," was covered by Australian artist Shannon Noll. The song was a hit immediately 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  Canadian independent label Linus. Shannon would have another Top 10 single again the following year when he covered "Loud" another Andy song from the same 100 CD. Writing career. Andy is solely concentrating on writing / producing for and with other artists. He resides full-time in Los Angeles. Writing highlights have included White Elephant Orchestra. Andy'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. KCRW KEXP radio airplay. Written, produced and played by Andy, 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). Writing career. Andy is also a writer and producer for and with other artists.