User:Santinofranzino/sandbox

Michael Robert Franzino (born June 4th, 1989) is an American composer, songwriter, and musician from Sacramento, California. He is best known as the lead guitarist for the post-hardcore band A Lot Like Birds, bassist for Sianvar, and his solo project alone. He is currently a producer for pop artist Amber DeLaRosa, and has announced a new project with Engineer / Producer Dryw Owens projected to be released in 2020.

Franzino began his musical career in 2009 when he founded A Lot Like Birds.

A Lot Like Birds
The band formed in Sacramento when Michael Franzino invited local musicians to guest feature on an album he had written. The result was A Lot Like Birds's debut album Plan B. Following the album's release, Franzino formed a core around five of the musicians involved: Ben Wiacek (Discovery of a Lifelong Error) on guitar, Michael Littlefield on bass, Joseph Arrington on drums, and Cory Lockwood (Discovery of a Lifelong Error) on vocals. The other musicians that appeared on the album would appear at live shows as guest performers, and the band took to describing themselves as a "5-8 piece" outfit. .

In January 2011, A Lot Like Birds confirmed that singer Kurt Travis would be joining the band, after the information had already leaked online. Travis, who had previously fronted Dance Gavin Dance, had originally been invited by Franzino to collaborate with A Lot Like Birds for a track, but decided to join after seeing how well he and the band fit together.

Franzino soon formed a connection at Doghouse Records, and in April A Lot Like Birds announced that they had signed to the label, despite not having any music to showcase beyond Plan B. The first demo recorded with Kurt Travis was for the song "Tantrum (Far From The Tree, The Apple Grew Rotten)", an eight-minute, uncommonly structured song that leaked onto the internet in March, before the signing was announced.

Having generated a steady buzz, A Lot Like Birds released their second album, Conversation Piece to much anticipation on October 11. With more focus on vocals than on their first album, Conversation Piece was also less experimental and more focused on post-hardcore elements. The release was generally well received by fans of the genre.

A Lot Like Birds signed with Equal Vision Records and announced their third studio album. The band released No Place, their second and final studio album with Kurt Travis in the band, on October 29, 2013. No Place debuted at number 199 on the Billboard 200 and number 6 on the Heatseekers Album Chart. The album was a concept record about what constitutes a home, each song representing a different room and the emotional attachments or lack thereof to them. Each song segues seamlessly into the next as if you are taking a tour through the haunted home.

On February 20, 2016 the band announced Kurt Travis' departure from the band. Travis cited a change in the band's creative direction as his reason for leaving. In Travis's absence, Cory Lockwood took vocal lessons to expand his vocal abilities for the new album, with additional vocals performed by Matt Coate. On March 8, 2017, the band released a teaser video for the album titled, "DIVISI". The album was released on May 5, 2017. Thematically this album was written around the idea of coping with death after the unexpected early passing of Lockwood's mother, an experience he had in common with Franzino. Each member moving on to start fresh.

alone.
In leui of No Place's success, Franzino announced a crowd funding campaign to raise funds for his new solo project called alone. on May 12th, 2014. In an attempt to fully immerse himself into the creative process, the project entailed him intentionally isolating himself in a cabin somewhere in the Sierra Mountain Range for two months to compose the album. He then recorded what was written with engineer/producer Dryw Owens upon his return from the woods, and the result was the debut alone. LP aptly titled Somewhere in the Sierras, which was set to be released DIY a year after his Indiegogo campaign on June 30th. The album features dense compositions including strings, horns, electronic elements, eclectic percussion, and heavy vocal layering. The most popular track was a 5 minute minor key interpration of the classic song "You Are My Sunshine".

Sianvar
On March 2nd, 2015 the American Post-Hardcore outfit Sianvar announced Franzino as their new bassist following Michael Littlefield's departure from the band.

Franzino began tracking for their debut full-length studio album in July 2015. On June 26, 2016, the band announced their debut studio album, Stay Lost, its track listing, and release date. Two days later, the group premiered the lead single "Omniphobia", accompanied with its music video, which premiered on Alternative Press. The band released the single "Psychosis Succumbing" on July 14. . Franzino toured with the band for 3 years before announcing his departure on September 11th, 2018 on Sianvar's facebook. His reason for leaving was cited as needing to prioritize his time on the inception of his new full time project that is unnamed as of yet.

Tilian Pearson
In 2018 Tilian Pearson hired Franzino to play bass in his solo project backing band for a tour headlining across the United States. Tilian once again hired him in 2019 for his album release tour for The Skeptic.

Producing Career
On June 28th, 2019 Sacramento pop artist Amber DeLaRosa released her debut single titled "Get to Me" on which Franzino co-wrote and co-produced. DeLaRosa's follow up single "Not Yours" was released on October 25th, 2019 and was also co-written and co-produced by Franzino. The duo will be putting out several more tracks in 2020.

New project with Dryw Owens
Since the disbanding of A Lot Like Birds in 2018, Franzino has been writing for what he is referring to as his next full time project. On November 7th, 2019 Franzino announced that his new album would be co-written and co-produced by A Lot Like Birds engineer Dryw Owens and is due for release in 2020.

Discography

 * With A Lot Like Birds


 * Conversation Piece (2009)
 * Conversation Piece (2011)
 * No Place (2013)
 * DIVISI (2017)
 * DIVISI Remixes (2018)
 * Conversation Piece (Instrumental) (2019)
 * No Place (Instrumental) (2019)
 * DIVISI (Instrumental) (2019)


 * As alone.
 * Somewhere in the Sierras (2015)


 * With Sianvar
 * Stay Lost (2016)


 * Producer Credits
 * Amber DeLaRosa - "Get to Me" (2019)
 * Amber DeLaRosa - "Not Yours" (2019)