Casey Stratton
Encyclopedia
Casey Stratton is a male Pop
/Rock
singer/songwriter/musician.
in 1976. He has lived in Los Angeles, California
, Chicago, Illinois and New York City, New York. Stratton currently resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan
.
Beginning violin lessons at the age of 8, Stratton followed quickly with cello lessons at 10, the piano at 11, and guitar at 16. It was through the piano that Stratton discovered a passion for writing and performing songs. After graduating from Michigan's Interlochen Arts Academy
, Stratton moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career. His first album release on a major label, "Standing at the Edge" for Sony Music Entertainment
received positive reviews in magazines like People
and Billboard.
Casey Stratton's biggest influence is Tori Amos
. Other influences include Sarah McLachlan
, Peter Gabriel
, Radiohead
, Björk
, Paula Cole
and Joni Mitchell
. His musical inspirations are found in classical composers such as Debussy
, Ravel
, Copland
and Barber
. Moreover, his lyrics are inspired by the works of T. S. Eliot
and Joseph Campbell
.
Stratton interacts with fans on a regular basis at venues and through his online blog
.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1995, Casey quickly signed an independent recording contract with Magic Records. Work then began on the recordings that would eventually become his first full length release, The Giver and the Grave Digger, which was released in 1996. In late 1995 Magic Records released Driving to the Moon EP which garnered considerable critical acclaim and exposure in the Los Angeles music scene. This led to a string of live performances at the now defunct Luna Park venue.
In 1997, after deciding not to renew his contract with Magic Records, Casey began his first self-produced album, Lily Sleeps. This project marked an experimental phase for Casey. Over 90 tracks were written and recorded during this time. While the album was never released in CD format, it is now available in the DIGITAL MUSIC STORE at www.caseystratton.com.
The songs from Lily Sleeps gained some industry attention and Casey signed a publishing contract with Rondor Music Publishing in 1997. It was during this time that Casey began recording Whirlwind Medusa. This is also when the first recordings of future favorites Hollow and House of Jupiter were completed. In 1999 Casey was informed that his contract with Rondor Music Publishing would not be renewed. This led to a dark period in the performer's life. In the summer of 2000 Stratton moved to Chicago where he began a nearly two year hiatus from the record industry. He immersed himself in writing and recorded an independent album called The Winter Children. Many of these tracks would be re-recorded later and included on his Sony release Standing at the Edge.
Casey returned to the recording industry in 2002. Shortly after moving to New York City, Stratton inked a deal with Sony Music. in January 2003 he flew to Los Angeles to begin recording Standing at the Edge with legendary producer Patrick Leonard
. Originally intended for an August 2003 release, Standing at the Edge was initially delayed until October 2003. Eventually the album would be delayed yet again and ultimately released in on January 20, 2004.
After Standing at the Edge, Stratton gained further success when the Junior Vasquez
remix
of "House Of Jupiter" went to #1 on the Billboard Dance chart and remained there for 20 weeks in 2005. This was followed by Vazquez's remix of "Blood". Casey left Sony Music in December 2004. Stratton's 6th studio album, "DIVIDE", was released in October 2005 on Stratton's independent label, Sleeping Pill Music (ASCAP). Casey also launched a comprehensive digital music store on his website that would include all of his early albums, various holiday recordings, EPs and live shows as well as his current release DIVIDE. In March 2006 Casey recorded and released an album of traditional folk songs, The Sun is Burning, including 3 new songs where Casey set 3 W.B Yeats poems to music.
The DIVIDE tour started on March 18, 2006 in Chicago, IL and completed all the East Coast
dates with a performance in Atlanta. The West Coast
portion of the tour began on April 27, 2006 in Los Angeles, California, ending in Portland, Oregon
on May 6, 2006. A summer tour began on July 18, 2006 in Cleveland, OH and ended in Savannah, GA on July 28, 2006.
Stratton's album, The Crossing, was released in April 2007. A tour was being planned but was eventually scrapped due to financial concerns. Casey frequently discusses the strains of being an independent musician in these times and is in strong opposition to music piracy.
Casey's album, Orbit, was digitally released on February 5, 2008. This was followed by Signs of Life which was digitally released in August 2008 and physically released on CD in November. Messages Sending digitally released in April 2009. No plans are in place for a CD release at this time.
Casey started a Podcast in May 2008 in which he discusses his career and life in addition to live performances.
Memories and Photographs was released in September 2009, followed by A Winter Moon, an album of holiday music, in December 2009. Casey's next project, Myth & Stars, largely based on Greek Mythology
, was released on September 21, 2010. A live DVD, Live at the Wealthy Theatre
, was released in 2010 as well.
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
/Rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
singer/songwriter/musician.
Background
Casey Stratton was born in Lansing, MichiganLansing, Michigan
Lansing is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located mostly in Ingham County, although small portions of the city extend into Eaton County. The 2010 Census places the city's population at 114,297, making it the fifth largest city in Michigan...
in 1976. He has lived in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, Chicago, Illinois and New York City, New York. Stratton currently resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
.
Beginning violin lessons at the age of 8, Stratton followed quickly with cello lessons at 10, the piano at 11, and guitar at 16. It was through the piano that Stratton discovered a passion for writing and performing songs. After graduating from Michigan's Interlochen Arts Academy
Interlochen Center for the Arts
Interlochen Center for the Arts is a privately owned, 1,200 acre arts education institution in Interlochen, Michigan, roughly 15 miles southwest of Traverse City...
, Stratton moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career. His first album release on a major label, "Standing at the Edge" for Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
received positive reviews in magazines like People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
and Billboard.
Casey Stratton's biggest influence is Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
. Other influences include Sarah McLachlan
Sarah McLachlan
Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter. Known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range, as of 2006, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards and four...
, Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
, Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
, Björk
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
, Paula Cole
Paula Cole
Paula Cole is an American singer/songwriter. Her single "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone" reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997, and the following year she won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.-Early life:...
and Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
. His musical inspirations are found in classical composers such as Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
, Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
and Barber
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
. Moreover, his lyrics are inspired by the works of T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
and Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell
Joseph John Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience...
.
Stratton interacts with fans on a regular basis at venues and through his online blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
.
Career
Casey began writing songs at the age of 11. He first performed his own songs live while attending Interlochen Arts Academy at the age of 16. The response lead Casey to begin contemplating becoming a professional singer/songwriter. It was also during this time period that he began performing in Coffeehouses in Michigan.After moving to Los Angeles in 1995, Casey quickly signed an independent recording contract with Magic Records. Work then began on the recordings that would eventually become his first full length release, The Giver and the Grave Digger, which was released in 1996. In late 1995 Magic Records released Driving to the Moon EP which garnered considerable critical acclaim and exposure in the Los Angeles music scene. This led to a string of live performances at the now defunct Luna Park venue.
In 1997, after deciding not to renew his contract with Magic Records, Casey began his first self-produced album, Lily Sleeps. This project marked an experimental phase for Casey. Over 90 tracks were written and recorded during this time. While the album was never released in CD format, it is now available in the DIGITAL MUSIC STORE at www.caseystratton.com.
The songs from Lily Sleeps gained some industry attention and Casey signed a publishing contract with Rondor Music Publishing in 1997. It was during this time that Casey began recording Whirlwind Medusa. This is also when the first recordings of future favorites Hollow and House of Jupiter were completed. In 1999 Casey was informed that his contract with Rondor Music Publishing would not be renewed. This led to a dark period in the performer's life. In the summer of 2000 Stratton moved to Chicago where he began a nearly two year hiatus from the record industry. He immersed himself in writing and recorded an independent album called The Winter Children. Many of these tracks would be re-recorded later and included on his Sony release Standing at the Edge.
Casey returned to the recording industry in 2002. Shortly after moving to New York City, Stratton inked a deal with Sony Music. in January 2003 he flew to Los Angeles to begin recording Standing at the Edge with legendary producer Patrick Leonard
Patrick Leonard
Patrick Raymond Leonard is an American songwriter, keyboardist and music producer, known for his longtime collaboration with Madonna on many different recordings....
. Originally intended for an August 2003 release, Standing at the Edge was initially delayed until October 2003. Eventually the album would be delayed yet again and ultimately released in on January 20, 2004.
After Standing at the Edge, Stratton gained further success when the Junior Vasquez
Junior Vasquez
Junior Vasquez, , is an American club DJ and remixer/producer.-Career:...
remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
of "House Of Jupiter" went to #1 on the Billboard Dance chart and remained there for 20 weeks in 2005. This was followed by Vazquez's remix of "Blood". Casey left Sony Music in December 2004. Stratton's 6th studio album, "DIVIDE", was released in October 2005 on Stratton's independent label, Sleeping Pill Music (ASCAP). Casey also launched a comprehensive digital music store on his website that would include all of his early albums, various holiday recordings, EPs and live shows as well as his current release DIVIDE. In March 2006 Casey recorded and released an album of traditional folk songs, The Sun is Burning, including 3 new songs where Casey set 3 W.B Yeats poems to music.
The DIVIDE tour started on March 18, 2006 in Chicago, IL and completed all the East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
dates with a performance in Atlanta. The West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
portion of the tour began on April 27, 2006 in Los Angeles, California, ending in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
on May 6, 2006. A summer tour began on July 18, 2006 in Cleveland, OH and ended in Savannah, GA on July 28, 2006.
Stratton's album, The Crossing, was released in April 2007. A tour was being planned but was eventually scrapped due to financial concerns. Casey frequently discusses the strains of being an independent musician in these times and is in strong opposition to music piracy.
Casey's album, Orbit, was digitally released on February 5, 2008. This was followed by Signs of Life which was digitally released in August 2008 and physically released on CD in November. Messages Sending digitally released in April 2009. No plans are in place for a CD release at this time.
Casey started a Podcast in May 2008 in which he discusses his career and life in addition to live performances.
Memories and Photographs was released in September 2009, followed by A Winter Moon, an album of holiday music, in December 2009. Casey's next project, Myth & Stars, largely based on Greek Mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, was released on September 21, 2010. A live DVD, Live at the Wealthy Theatre
Wealthy Theatre
Wealthy Theatre is a historic movie theatre and performance center in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is currently operated by the Grand Rapids Community Media Center, a non-profit corporation...
, was released in 2010 as well.
See also
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
External links
- Casey Stratton - official website
- Casey Stratton's Blog
- Casey Stratton - Yahoo! Group