Rob Benedict and Louden Swain

Rob Benedict and Louden Swain

Rob Benedict - Lead Vocals & Guitar
Michael Borja - Bass & Vocals
Billy Moran - Guitars & Vocals
Stephen Norton - Drums & Vocals

 

Prior to their newest album Sky Alive, Louden Swain’s 2012 album Eskimo had solidified their reign as indie darlings in the Los Angeles music scene. The release of Eskimo - the band’s 4th studio record - yielded a year marked by an American and European tour, and included instant classic shows in New York, London, Chicago and Berlin. While videos for the singles “Eskimo” and “Gamma Ray” posted impressive numbers on YouTube, the song “Worlds Collide” was featured in the CW series “Supernatural”. Indie Rock Café said about the album “With that kind of talent helping them out, it’s nearly impossible not to end up with some great tracks”.

The four friends and longtime bandmates had a lot to be excited about. Lead singer Rob Benedict, bass player Mike Borja and drummer Stephen Norton started the band in 1997. Early on the music catered to the time - they were a Green Day-esque garage rock band. The new millennium added influences from Wilco and My Morning Jacket. But their core purpose never changed—make music that you enjoy. With the addition of lead guitar player Billy Moran in 2005, they were finally able to not only make the music the wanted to, but with a new layer of sound that matched the epic visions they were hearing in their head. Those epic visions manifested themselves in A Brand New Hurt (2007) and Eskimo.
But 2013 brought a new challenge that they would have to overcome. In October, lead singer Benedict (also an actor with an impressive resume including “Waiting...”, “Kicking and Screaming”, “Supernatural”, and “Felicity” to name a few) unexpectedly suffered an ischemic stroke, caused by a tear in his carotid artery. This unlikely occurrence put not only Rob’s future, but also the band’s, in question. But Rob started making a surprisingly quick recovery, fueled by practices with the band. At first he could play but had a hard time enunciating lyrics, but they kept on. “It was the one thing I could do that felt good, and was good for me.” said Benedict. By January 2014, he was back to full health, much to the amazement of the doctors. His “therapy” had produced 16 new Louden Swain songs that were ready to record.

The result is Sky Alive - Louden Swain’s 5th full length album – a 12 song symphony of pain and triumph. It is an album about not only surviving but also re-connecting with life. The band has never sounded so full and passionate. The album is the closest yet to capturing the energy and pulse of their live shows. As always, the lyrics have that biting wit, catchy choruses, and instantly memorable melodies which have become the Louden Swain signature. The band produced Sky Alive themselves, and the finishing touches were added by mixer Jon Kaplan (Parachute, Augustana, Gavin DeGraw) and mastering by Gavin Lurssen (Bruno Mars, Queens of the Stone Age, Sheryl Crow).

Their music is available on Itunes and Amazon.


Osric Chau

 Osric Chau is a versatile young actor who had his start doing stunt work as a martial artist before being cast as a Wu Dang Grandmaster's prodigy in Spike TV's mini-series Kung Fu Killer. He went on to pursue a career in acting and landed the supporting role of ‘Nima,’ the featured Tibetan Monk in Roland Emmerich’s disaster epic 2012.

The year 2012 turned out to be just as big as the movie for Osric as he appeared in a pair of studio feature films; beginning with a lead role as the geeky ‘Peng’ in the Paramount Pictures comedy, Fun Size, opposite Victoria Justice followed by a supporting role in Universal’s Pictures’ Kung Fu actioner, The Man with the Iron Fists, opposite RZA, Lucy Liu and Russell Crowe. He was one of the main characters in the highly anticipated live action web series HALO: Forward Unto Dawn, a companion endeavor to the HALO 4 video game.

 

It was also the year that Osric got his start on the CW Network's television series, Supernatural as 'Kevin Tran', Osric's most recognizable character to date. He would continue working on the show for three seasons as Kevin Tran became a fan favourite character. Osric has since been working on a number of independent feature films and has his sights on producing one of his own.

 

Chau is Chinese/Canadian and currently resides in Los Angeles.


Briana Buckmaster

Briana Buckmaster is an actor, singer and voice over performer originally hailing from Moose Jaw Saskatchewan. She attended the prestigious Grant MacEwan University where she received her diploma in Theatre Arts. Continuing to perform on stages across North America she also began cutting her teeth in the improv world working with renowned theatre companies including the Canadian Comedy Award winning Die Nasty. Briana is an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award winner for numerous productions she has performed with Teatro La Quindicina (with whom she is currently a core company member). Her writing credits include the sell-out hit play Tunnels of Little Chicago which toured across Western Canada, and Lady Fartlek Productions- a series of comedic shorts written, directed, and starring fellow comedic actresses. Briana resides in Vancouver Canada with her husband and daughter where she continues to study her craft and regularly appear on stage and in television. She can be seen as the recurring character Sheriff Donna on the CW Network's long running series Supernatural.


Emily Swallow

Emily Swallow was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Sterling, VA and Jacksonville, FL. Intending to pursue a career as a Foreign Service Officer, she earned a BA in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Virginia. An audition for NYU's Graduate Acting Program caused her to change course, and she moved to New York to work towards her MFA.
On television, Emily is best known for Supernatural ,
The Mentalist, How to Get Away with Murder, Monday Mornings and Southland.
Emily continues to act on stage whenever she can, starring in world premieres of
Donald Margulies play The Country House at LA's Geffen Playhouse, opposite Mark Rylance in Louis Jenkins' play Nice Fish at the Guthrie Theatre, in John Patrick Shanley's musical Romantic Poetry at Manhattan Theater Club and in High Fidelity on Broadway. She was part of the LA Drama Critics' Circle Award-Winning 2016 production of Disgraced at the Mark Taper Forum in LA and she won the Falstaff Award for best Female Performer in 2010 for her performance as Kate in The Taming of the Shrew at the Old Globe in San Diego
In 2012, Emily and fellow singer/comedienne Jac Huberman created a stage show called Jac N Swallow, which they perform in New York at the Laurie Beechman Theater and Joe's Pub. The show centers on the comic misadventures of the duo and has played to sold-out crowds.
Emily devotes much of her spare time to volunteer work for the West LA/Malibu Chapter of The Surfrider Foundation, an environmental non-profit dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our oceans, waves and beaches.

 


Gil McKinney

Gil McKinney was born on February 5, 1979 in Houston, Texas, USA as Mark Gilbert McKinney. He is an actor and writer, known for Once Upon a Time, Supernatural  and Friday Night Lights.

 


The Sandwich featuring Michael Rosenbaum

 

I’ve had a guitar since I graduated from college. My grandparents bought me one when I stayed with them in the summers in the Catskill Mountains for like $20 and I started playing. In college, my friend Tom, who is also in the band, he had a guitar and was taking lessons so I started asking him to show me chords. I’d flip the guitar over because I’m left handed and he said I couldn’t do it that way, but I just had him show me anyway and I’d play it backwards. I should have gotten my hands on a left handed guitar, but I didn’t, so I play the guitar backwards. It’s really confusing to a lot of people, amazing to some people, and it’s just because I’m lazy as fuck and never chose to learn differently.

 

I love music. I have always loved music. When it comes to 70s and 80s music I don’t think many people, besides Jimmy Kimmel, have the knowledge that I do. I like a lot of cheesy – some call it yacht rock – 80s music, but that’s the way it goes!

 

Ultimately I would write songs and play them for my friends occasionally but I was always really nervous about it. The stand up comedy and music things happened at the same time. I always fear playing in front of a bunch of people because I’m not a trained musician or singer and I’ve never done stand up comedy, well I did both of those things in December of 2016 and it was a very stressful time in my life. And it still is! My close friends Rob Danson, Tom Lally, Kent Irwin, Carl McDowell are in the band. Carl had never played bass until we started playing together. Kent had really never played drums, and I never really sang except for my own shit to myself or for a couple of people like my grandparents. Lally was scared shitless of playing in front of anyone except me! Then there is Rob Danson who is the musician of the group. He is a great lead guitarist, he’s musically competent, he was in many bands, so having him is the glue that really keeps us together. He still tunes Carl’s guitar for gods sake…and he’ll tune mine when we are on tour in Germany this summer.

 

We started playing covers but they just didn’t sound good. Kent, our drummer, was stoned one night (which is not uncommon) said, “Dude, lets just play our own shit. Lets jam!” The one thing I think I’m good at, I’m not good at many things, but I am good at coming up with songs. I’ll play chords, tell everyone what the changes are and I’ll start making up lyrics on the spot and then go back and write a song and come back together and we will have a song. That’s ultimately how we do it. We’ve been playing that way for about a year.

 

Jason Manns, a great musician (look him up), who is a good friend of mine said “Hey, I’m playing at the Troubadour…would you guys play 3 songs and open for me?” Scared shitless, I fought it, didn’t want to do it, we were a jam band calling ourselves Shit Sandwich who played in my basement! Finally agreed to it and the band learned 3 songs that I’d written and we worked on them and all came together and rehearsed the shit out of it, and….we KILLED it! We had a great night. My assistant Jess actually sang back up and she killed it. It was just a great night! So then asshole Jason Manns says, “Hey, come to Germany and go on tour with me.” Fuck!!!! He asked us to learn 8-10 songs and he’ll open for us and we will all play in Germany in 3 cities in July and thats what we did. We are now The Sandwich, not Shit Sandwich, and The Sandwich keeps on keeping on.  The goal is to keep playing and share our music by recording some songs, place them in shows or movies, and keep on.

 


Blake Lewis

is an American singer-songwriter and beatboxer who was the runner-up on the sixth season of American Idol. His major label debut album A.D.D. (Audio Day Dream) was released on December 4, 2007 through 19 Recordings/Arista Records.[2] On October 30, 2007, his first single "Break Anotha" was released. The album landed on number ten on the U.S. Billboard 200 as its highest peak position with 97,500 copies sold in its debut, and has sold over 350,000 copies. After the release of his second single "How Many Words", which peaked at number eight on the U.S. Billboard Dance/Club Play Songs, Lewis was dropped by Arista Records. Lewis eventually signed with Tommy Boy Records.

 

His second album, Heartbreak on Vinyl, was released on October 6, 2009. The first single "Sad Song" was released on July 21, 2009. The album charted at number 135 on the U.S. Billboard Billboard 200, number twenty on the Billboard Independent Albums, and number seven on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums with over 4,000 copies sold in the first week.

 

His third album, Portrait of a Chameleon, was released on May 20, 2014. This was his first independent record and includes his hit single "Your Touch". Portrait Of A Chameleon was available for pre order on PledgeMusic before its release and included special extras such as posters and insiders on his album.


Jason Manns and Band

 As a singer/songwriter Jason has released his debut album in 2006 and not only plays in the US but has toured Europe multiple times. His original songs are placed in TV Shows in the US, one of those being theTV Hit-Series Supernatural.

As an actor he had leading roles in Indiefilms like "Cake" and character roles in films like "Rock Slyde". As a producer Jason has worked on various short films.

Jason resides in Los Angeles.

He released his second album "Soul", which he describes like that: "I am really excited about this album, there are some definite experiments on there that I'm curious to see how they go over. There are, of course,plenty of songs that sound like what most people would think of as "JasonManns songs" but there are a couple, maybe a few, that don't really sound like that... and I really like them! It's not a crazy departure. It's not electronic, no vocal, dance music or anything, but there is one rock song on there that is pretty fun, and kinda dark, and there's one with kind of an R&B influence... like I said, experimental!”

His next album "Move" was released in 2013 and is also a great success!

In December 2014, Jason released a Christmas Album with wonderful guest appearances of actors from Supernatural like Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Misha Collins, Rob Benedict and Richard Speight jr.. The associated release party for this album was held at the King King in Hollywood and was live streamed on Stageit with over 5000 viewers. The proceeds went to Random Acts, a charity organization of Misha Collins.

His music is available on Itunes, Amazon and cdbaby.


The Mots Nouveaux with Amanda Wallace

As a professional pianist and songwriter, Aaron has toured the U.S. and Europe extensively, and his solo project has garnered considerable attention, including radio play on KCRW. L.A. Weekly wrote that Aaron's work brings "a new life to the ancient music-hall/pop piano-man tradition, with clear-headed songs of genuinely witty lyrical oomph and, most of all, a historically informed musical depth--all delivered with style, grace, wit and elan, of course." The artist has undertaken several successful East Coast, West Coast, and European tours, backed by tour press, including TV appearances on networks such as KCRA Sacramento and Park City TV, radio, and continuous online viral promotion. In addition to a steady stream of live and session piano work, Aaron performs as one half of the throwback pop duo, The Mots Nouveaux, alongside co-writer, vocalist, and actress Emma Fitzpatrick.


Paul Carella

Paul is a Scottish singer/songwriter. Self taught, Paul learned his trade as a musician playing in the pubs and clubs of Glasgow before moving to London in 2009 to further his music career. Since then Paul has released a second studio album, which was followed by a 10 date tour in Nashville, Tennessee. That was followed by a UK tour in which Paul supported Alan Price (The Animals) and award winning L.A singer/songwriter Steve Carlson. Paul has also worked with Alabama 3 and The Steve Cradock Band. Over the last 4 years, Paul's music has been played on independent radio stations in the UK and the US.

Since a young age, Paul has shown a hunger for music. Finding his first idol at the age of 4 in Elvis Presley, singing along and following Elvis, move for move in his parents living room. That hunger was stifled for many years by a crippling shyness, that Paul eventually broke through and became the outgoing person he is today. Finding other influence in artists such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen and most recently Glen Hansard, Paul has matured into an artist of the people, writing songs about day to day life, relationships, hardships, topics that the people can really relate to.
Paul signed with music management, Downtown Artists in 2013.

He’s playing shows in UK, Scotland and Germany since he joined The Final Wish and Hayden Lee at their gig in Germany in November 2014.

 

You can buy his album “Carella” and the new EP “Dead Town” on Itunes and Amazon.