David Hodges

David Hall Hodges (born December 5, 1978) is a songwriter, producer, composer, keyboardist and vocalist from Little Rock, Arkansas who has sold over 50 million records. He is well known for being a member of the band Evanescence, which he left in 2002. He has also been part of the bands Trading Yesterday, The Age of Information, AVOX, Arrows To Athens, and Passengers.

Career

1999-2002: Evanescence and Christian albums

Hodges was asked to join Evanescence in late 1999 and co-wrote many of the songs on their Origin demo CD and their debut album, Fallen. He decided to leave in December 2002 because he thought that he was leading the band into a more Christian rock scene than Ben Moody and Amy Lee were comfortable with and was no longer in the group when the controversy in April 2003 surrounding the band's Christian labeling emerged.^{[citation needed]} Lee and Moody announced that the band was not associated with the Christian rock scene. In 2004, Hodges took home two Grammy awards with the band for Best Hard Rock Performance and Best New Artist.^[1]

From 2000 - 2003, Hodges released a number of solo worship / Christian albums.

2003-2007: Trading Yesterday/The Age of Information

In 2003, Hodges and Mark Colbert decided to start a band called Trading Yesterday. The band, which at the time consisted of Hodges (vocals, acoustic guitar and keyboard/piano), Colbert (drums) and Steven McMorran (bass), released a demo CD called The Beauty and the Tragedy on May 15, 2004. Also in 2004, they signed a record deal with Epic Records and moved to Los Angeles, California to record their major label debut album. The album was finished during the first half of 2005 and the single "One Day" was released on the soundtrack to the movie Stealth. On November 15, 2005, Trading Yesterday parted ways with Epic Records and as of 2007 remains an independent band. Drummer and co-founder Colbert left the band in the summer of 2006 to pursue a career as an audio engineer. The band's intended debut album, More Than This, was never officially released due to the split from Epic and subsequently leaked to the Internet in December 2006. It was re-released on September 2011 on Amazon and iTunes.

In August 2007, Trading Yesterday changed their name to The Age of Information and added band mates Josh Dunahoo and Will Hunt. Along with the change in name came a change in sound, moving from more acoustic to more electronic. The EP Everything is Broken was released on September 11, 2007.

2004-2010: Initial songwriting success

While busy working on his own music, Hodges has also been writing and producing songs for various artists. Hodges has also worked with artist Kelly Clarkson along with former Evanescence bandmate Ben Moody, on songs from her album Breakaway ("Because of You" and "Addicted"). His work garnered him the 2007 BMI Song of the Year honor. "Because of You" went on to be re-cut by Reba McEntire & Clarkson for McEntire's duets album Reba: Duets, the duet version peaked at #2 on the Hot Country Songs. In 2007 he worked with Celine Dion (“This Time”) and the Backstreet Boys (“Something That I Already Know”). In July 2008, it was announced that Hodges had been signed by Warner Bros. Records to produce a solo album.^[2] The first set, titled The Rising EP was released digitally on August 11, 2009.^[3] In 2008, Hodges had a hit as writer and producer for American Idol season seven runner up David Archuleta for his song "Crush." The song reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the highest chart debut of any single since January 2007. Hodges also wrote a hit song with Daughtry entitled "What About Now." Hodges took home a BMI pop award for the song in 2010.^[4] Hodges also co-wrote "Open Up Your Eyes" and "Supernatural" with Daughtry for their hit album "Leave this Town." The record went on to sell over a million copies. Hodges made his first impact in the country world with artist Carrie Underwood where he co-wrote "What Can I Say" from her third record "Play On" which went to number one on the Billboard charts and sold over 1 million albums. Hodges also co-wrote gold certified pop smash "Wanted" for Jessie James. He also co-wrote "Circadian," "Hard To Believe," and "Rapid Eye Movement" for David Cook's sophomore record "This Loud Morning," as well as "This Is Not The Last Time" for the album's deluxe edition.

In fall of 2010, Hodges released a new project with longtime friend John Campbell, entitled AVOX. The 16 song album features dark electronic film score for TV and Film. In October 2011, Hodges released a new album entitled Kings & Thieves, which has 12 songs written collaboratively by Hodges, Steven Miller, and other artists. Additionally in late 2010, Hodges went to Nashville yet again to co-write with Carrie Underwood, this time for the title song on the latest Chronicles of Narnia film. The song was called "There's a Place for Us."^[5] The song was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best original song in a motion picture.^[6]

2011-present: Personal publishing company

Hodges was published by Wind-up's publishing arm, and then later, EMI music publishing for 8 years. In 2011, Hodges also started his own joint-venture publishing imprint with his management called Sleepwalker Music / Collective Sounds. The first writer they signed was Los Angeles based prolific writer producer Steven Miller. In summer of 2011, Hodges' song "Stitch by Stitch" was placed with first place winner Javier Colon as his first single along with As Long As We Got Love featuring Natasha Bedingfield as his second single. Stitch by Stitch immediately went to the number 1 position on the iTunes pop charts. Hodges also penned runner up Xenia's single "Snapshot." In early fall of 2012, after years of visiting Nashville and writing songs that got placed on country albums, Hodges decided to open a studio in Nashville. September 2012 marked the end of an era for Hodges as EMI folded into Sony ATV. Hodges signed with Kobalt Music.

In spring of 2011, Hodges had success with Christina Perri's album Lovestrong in which he worked on co-writing and production of many songs on the record. Hodges also appears in the video for "Arms." By late 2011, he was back in with Christina to write the end title for hit film Twilight second to final installment, Breaking Dawn. The song, entitled A Thousand Years, went on to sell nearly 2 million copies on a soundtrack that was certified gold. He also wrote "The Woman I Love" with Jason Mraz which was released on his 2012 album Love is a Four Letter Word. From March of 2012 through September of the same year, Hodges co-produced Avril Lavigne's new album with friend and Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger. They made the record at Henson studios in Hollywood, CA. Hodges and songwriting partner Steven Miller spent a lot of time on Tristan Prettyman's Cedar and Gold for which they have multiple songs on the album. Additionally, he begins writing and production on Tonic frontman Emerson Hart's solo record later in 2012. David's song "Here's to Never Growing Up" has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and was just certified platinum in the US. Her second single that David also wrote, Rock and Roll is currently at pop radio. In July of 2013, David's single with Carrie Underwood entitled "See You Again" went top 10 at country radio and on August 22nd, 2013 the song went #1. The song has already sold nearly half a million copies on the multi-platinum record "Blown Away." David wrote Colbie Caillat's "When The Darkness Comes" for Sony Screen gems film The Mortal Instruments and also produced Demi Lovato's "Heart By Heart" for the film.

2013 underway, David is currently working on songs with Avril Lavigne, Jason Mraz, Colbie Caillat, Demi Lovato, Christina Perri, Carrie Underwood, Cassadee Pope, Sara Evans, Natasha Bedingfield, Victoria Justice, Gavin DeGraw, Switchfoot, Martin Johnson from Boys Like Girls, and more.

Artist Discography

Solo

• Musical Demonstrations Part 1 (2000)
• Summit Worship(2000)
• The Genesis Project (2003)
• The Rising EP (2009)
• The December Sessions Vol 1 (2011)
• Passengers:Weapons EP (2013)
• The December Sessions Vol 2 (2013)

Evanescence

• Origin (2000)
• Fallen (2003)

Trading Yesterday/The Age of Information

• The Beauty and the Tragedy (2004)
• Everything is Broken (2007)
• More Than This (2006)

AVOX

• The Fragile World (2010)

Arrows To Athens

• Kings & Thieves (2011)

Awards

Billboard 2003 - Evanescence - New Group Artist of the Year
Billboard 2003 - Evanescence - Soundtrack Single of the Year
Grammy 2004 - Evanescence - Best New Artist
Grammy 2004 - Evanescence - Best Hard Rock Performance
Grammy 2005 (nomination) - Evanescence - Best Pop Performance
Grammy 2006 - Kelly Clarkson - Best Pop Vocal Album
BMI Pop Award 2005 - Evanescence - "Bring Me To Life"
BMI Pop Award 2006 - Evanescence - "My Immortal"
BMI Pop Award 2007 - Kelly Clarkson - "Because of You" - Song of the Year
BMI Country Award 2008 - Reba McEntire - "Because of You"
BMI Pop Award 2010 - David Archuleta - "Crush"
BMI Pop Award 2010 - Daughtry - "What About Now"
BMI Pop Award 2013 - Christina Perri - "A Thousand Years"
Golden Globe Award nomination - Carrie Underwood - "There's a Place For Us"

References

External links

• Official website
• David Hodges on Myspace