User:Fschiazza

Frank Schiazza (born December 15, 1978) is a Brooklyn-born singer, songwriter and musician who has performed with such bands as The Possessions, Zoy and the Mad Scramblers while also performing solo. Schiazza has been noted mostly for his songwriting, which combines deep, confessional lyrics with his blend of soul, folk, country, blues and pop music, heavily indebted to the music of the 1960's and 1970's.

Schiazza's first musical exposure was playing in the alt-rock/grunge outfit Zoy in the mid 1990's. The band was comprised of Schiazza, singer/songwriter John Deola, drummer Vinn Campese and bassist Rob Carpenter. The band was one of the mid-90's most heralded young grunge bands, and had a loyal following in their native New York. They released one EP in 1995, and were courted by A&M Records shortly thereafter, but broke up during the recording of their first full-length album. The record was never released, but Schiazza and Carpenter maintained their musical relationship and formed a series of side bands throughout the 1990's, including Earth, a hard rock power trio that recorded a three-song demo in 1998.

SOLO CAREER
Schiazza spent the bulk of the early 2000's writing songs and playing local bar and cafe dates, but didn't record anything until 2006 when he released his debut album, Two Months in a Cloud, a set of folk and country rock songs he penned in June and July of '06. He followed the album up by releasing four solo albums over the next two years (2007's Month of Sundays, 2007's Midnight Movie, 2008's Prayin' for Rain and 2008's Exhaust). He also wrote, produced and recorded Kristina Fetkovich's Morning Gives Great Light in 2008, and produced two albums by Danny McQuade and John Henry Olthoff each in 2008 and 2009. Schiazza performed live extensively during this period, solo and with his backing band, The Mad Scramblers.

In 2009, he released The Grand Design, which was his most successful solo record to date, as the lead single "Lovely Bride" received local airplay. He followed that up with 2009's The Last of the Great Dive Bars, his homage to the honky tonks and dive bars he played over the previous three years. Schiazza then set country music aside for a while to focus on his love of soul and classic r&b.

In 2011, he released Following Through, his first fully realized soul album, and it was his biggest and best to date. The album receive glowing reviews and put Schiazza on the map as one of the country's best young songwriters and performers. He is currently working on his follow up, Synthesized Midnight, which will be released at the end of 2012.

THE POSSESSIONS
In 2007, Schiazza met local singer Tracy Eisenberg and, together, they formed the Possessions, a pop-rock-r&b band that released one EP (Where Cars Live in 2007) and two full length albums (Carousel in 2008; Ocean Blue in 2009). In 2009, the band added veteran bassist and producer and Schiazza's good friend Rob Carpenter to the band. The band played a series of live dates around New York City, and enjoyed some regional success as a result. Despite that, the band disbanded in 2010 over personal and creative differences. In mid 2011, the band reconvened in Carpenter's Brooklyn Studio to record an A-side/B-side, but were only able to capture one song on tape before again disbanding. The track, "If I Had It My Way," featured Adam Shenk on keyboards and was later attributed to Tracy Eisenberg as her debut single as a solo artist.

In late 2011, Schiazza was offered the chance to write a song for veteran rocker Genya Ravan, and recorded a demo version of "I Don't Wanna Be Around" as his submission. In search of singer to sing on the demo version, he turned to his friend coworker Cat Cosmai. Cosmai's performance on the demo was so impressive that Schiazza decided to bypass submitting the song to Ravan and, instead, used it as the springboard to revive the Possessions with Cosmai as the lead vocalist. The two quickly collaborated on new music and began recording at Horse Head Studio in New York. Cat Cosmai and the Possessions, as the band is now called, are set to release their debut album, Love Me Right, in the Summer of 2012.