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Fredo Viola

 
Artist: Fredo Viola
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Fredo Viola

Influenced By:

Dmitry Shostakovich, Boards of Canada, Igor Stravinsky, Amon Tobin, Béla Bartók
  • Active: 2000s
  • Genres: Rock

Biography

Experimental indie rocker and artist Fredo Viola was born in London and spent the first five years of his life living in England and Rome. His family then relocated to the United States, spending time in New York City before finally settling in Los Angeles. While there, Viola sang professionally as a boy soprano; when his voice changed, he shifted his focus to art. He returned to New York to attend the Tisch School of the Arts and studied to be a film director. During this time, Viola discovered the composers Bartók, Shostakovich, and Stravinsky, which led to an interest in Benjamin Britten, Mozart, and Alfred Schnittke. He was also influenced by electronic acts such as Boards of Canada and Amon Tobin, which would combine with his classical interests to inform his own compositions. After graduation, Viola pursued a career in editing and animation design, allowing him the money to build his own home recording studio. In 2004, one of his songs was licensed for use in the Jonathan Demme film The Manchurian Candidate. Soon after, Viola made his first music video for one of his compositions, "The Sad Song." The video debuted on the Internet and caught the attention of Roger Ebert, Massive Attack, and Neil Gaiman, among others. Viola signed with French independent label Because Music in 2006 and made plans to release his debut album in 2008. ~ Katherine Fulton, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: Fredo Viola
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Fredo Viola
Birth name Alfred Viola
Origin London, England
Genres Folk, ambient, post rock
Years active 2004–present
Labels Because Music
Website http://fredoviola.com/

Fredo Viola is an American singer/songwriter and multi-media artist. He was born in London, England, but has resided in the United States for most of his life. He currently lives in Woodstock, NY. He graduated from Tisch Film school at NYU, but has always been most passionate about music. Viola lists some influential artists, such as Shostakovich, Britten, Bartok, Stravinsky and Belle & Sebastian.

Contents

Career

He had an internet hit on YouTube with "The Sad Song" in 2004. In 2007, he signed with French label Because Music. He released his debut album on December 2008.

In late 2007, Fredo devoted his attention to a long series of live to digital performances he called "cluster videos", by releasing one video each month on his website.

In late 2008, working in collaboration with a Flash design team in Spain, he released an interactive web site called Aer visual studio, a web site that also serves the function of displaying his new interactive videos. The videos come in unusual shapes (circular, hexagonal) as well as widescreen rectangles, and can be turned during playback.

Discography

Albums

  • The Turn (December 2008)

Singles and EPs

  • The Sad Song EP (February 2008)
  • "Red States EP" (December 2008)

Other notes

In 2004, "Let the Sad Out" was licensed for use in Jonathon Demme’s film called the Manchurian Candidate.

In 2005, Viola had four songs licensed for use in Mike Binder's film called Man About Town, for which he produced a second version of his "Sad Song" Video.

"The Sad Song" was used on season four of The O.C: "The Shake Up", "The Night Moves" and in season 5 of CSI: Miami in the episode "Broken Home". Additionally, the song is played at the beginning and at the end of the movie called The Education of Charlie Banks. Most recently, "The Sad Song" was used in the 2008 film called Birds of America.

Videography

References

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

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