Andy Sturmer
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Andy Sturmer is an American-born musical artist, writer and producer. He was a member of the band Jellyfish from 1990-1994. Prior to that, he was a member of Beatnik Beatch (1987-88).
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[edit] Jellyfish
Jellyfish released two albums, Bellybutton (1990) and Spilt Milk (1993). Sturmer held the rare distinction of being a drummer who regularly sang lead in a rock group, a specialty shared by the likes of Ringo Starr, Levon Helm, Karen Carpenter, Don Henley, Peter Criss, Phil Collins, and Micky Dolenz.[1] He was even more unusual in that when playing live he had a stand-up drumset at the front of the stage instead of sitting on a throne at the rear of the band. However, the band failed to catch fire commercially, and intragroup friction led to Jellyfish's dissolution in early 1994.
[edit] Producer
After Jellyfish's demise, Sturmer began a new career as a producer and writer, most notably for the Japanese pop band Puffy AmiYumi. He was consulting producer for their TV show Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi and composed the score music for the show. He has also composed the theme songs for Teen Titans, the third season of The Batman animated series and the popular sci-fi action animated series, Ben 10. [2]
Sturmer has also appeared on various albums for back up vocals for artist like Bleu's Redhead, Mandy Moore's Coverage and Switchfoot's Nothing is Sound.
[edit] Side projects
Sturmer performed on two songs on the first solo album by Katey Sagal, who is best known for her role as Peg Bundy on the sitcom Married... with Children. The album, entitled Well... was released by Virgin Records in April 1994. Andy also co-wrote and played drums for Swedish pop band The Merrymakers' second album, Bubblegun.
Andy has recently surfaced as a collaborator with L.E.O., a one-off supergroup also featuring, among others, pop auteur Bleu, Hanson, producer John Fields and Mike Viola of The Candy Butchers. The group and its album, Alpacas Orgling, are a pastiche tribute to the style of Electric Light Orchestra.[3]
Most Recently (January 2008), Mr. Sturmer has been cited on the newly reissued Transformers cartoon theme which many believe has recharged his solo efforts as a standout vocalist rather than drummer/vocalist. This transformer cartoon is featured as the introduction to this cartoon revival. His vocals on this introduction focuses less on percussion and more on vocal technique which greatly enhances opening credit effectiveness. Additionally, Sturmer is also able to break away from falling into the traditional drummer/singer stereotypes similar to the likes of Ringo Starr by maintaining a concentration on simply singing rather than focusing on rhythmic genre alone. Back in 1993, Sturmer also quoted by Modern Drummer that "Ringo is a great guy and really amazing drummer. He has that feel that's between a shuffle and straight eights -- Ringo territory that nobody else can do. He played some amazing stuff on that (Time Takes Time) album." Moving forward, Sturmer fans alike are excited with glee at Sturmer's latest musical Transformer theme release effort.
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://zenandjuice.com/music/jellyfish/text/modern_drummer_aug94.txt
- ^ Andy Sturmer. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-08-13.
- ^ http://www.myspace.com/bleuleo LEO Myspace page
