RANDY WILSON - Music Bio
RANDY WILSON
Composer - Arranger - Songwriter
Vocalist - Keyboardist
Pro Tools|HD & MIDI based Production
Born into a family of musicians, Randy's first formal music lessons were at the age of six at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, N.Y. From that early age, his education in music and audio has been extensive and ongoing.
At the age of 11 he joined the American Boychoir performing concerts thru-ought the U.S. and Canada as well as recording albums and music for picture. His first album as a singer at 12 was the RCA Red Seal recording "Elijah" with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was inspired to become a composer after performing the world premier of Charles Davidson's "I Never Saw Another Butterfly."
Music for Picture - Randy composed and recorded the music for the award winning short film, "Don't Say Far Away." He also composed, arranged, and recorded music for a series of six Equestrian videos, including a video of the Andalusian horses of Bo Derek. He composed and recorded the music for a film about the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland. He wrote the quasi-classical piece, "Wind Command" that was purchased and recorded orchestrally for the Narrator Tracks audio production music library.
Netherworld - Randy founded Netherworld, a progressive rock band filling the role of multi-keyboard player, songwriter, and backing vocalist. Netherworld recorded a high quality, independently released album that received critical acclaim. But high album sales eluded the band, since progressive rock had already declined in popularity. The Netherworld album was recently re-released on CD by Musea Records leading to many new, extremely positive reviews. www.netherworldmusic.com
GOGOPLEX - After Netherworld Randy played in a number of original and cover bands developing his lead vocal capabilities before forming GOGOPLEX with Layne Rico. Layne had written a top 40 U.S. single titled "Lawn Chairs" with his previous band, "Our Daughter's Wedding," for EMI. GOGOPLEX is a two man, one computer band making extensive use of MIDI sequencers running banks of synthesizers and samplers. One DJ described the band's sound as "combining melody and optimism with driving beats, great orchestration and atmosphere." A new GOGOPLEX CD will be released later this year.
Additional Recordings - As a session synthesist or collaborator, Randy's keyboard and vocal contributions have covered a number of styles from avant-garde to gospel. Most recently he composed, sang, played synthesizers and Mellotron with Spirits Burning and Daevid Allen (Gong, Soft Machine) on a piece about Luana Borgia for Mellow Records. He also played synthesizer parts for a track on Spirits Burning's "Found in Nature" album and joined this space rock collective to play the organ and Mellotron parts for their rendition of "The Story in Your Eyes" on the Moody Blues tribute album "Higher and Higher."
He composed and recorded a ballad about Katrina and George W. Bush titled, "Empty Streets" that is posted on the National Public Radio website.
Equipment - Pro Tools|HD Accel 3 card system, 192 HD and 1622 I/Os, Mac Pro Dual Processor. Pro Tools LE & MP for live use. Registered, experienced owner of well over 100 audio and music software applications and plug-ins. Extensive audio and MIDI outboard supporting gear.