RAS (musician)

RAS
Background information
Birth name	Nicholas Furlong
Also known as	RAS
Born	(1986-09-16) September 16, 1986
Origin	Douglas County, Nevada, United States
Genres	Pop, Pop rock, Electronic music
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, producer, vocal producer
Labels	AttaBoy Music
Associated acts	Big Time Rush, Ryan Tedder, My Name Is Kay, Steve Aoki, Diplo, Colbie Caillat
Website	rasofficial.com

Nicholas Furlong (born September 16, 1986), known primarily by his alias RAS, is an American singer, songwriter, and producer.^[1][2] He has worked with many major artists, including Big Time Rush, Colbie Caillat, The Janoskians, Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, Steve Aoki, Jay Sean, Diplo, Leona Lewis, Jordin Sparks, DJ Tiësto, and Cody Simpson.

Career

Early career

Nicholas Furlong began his career writing original music for video game soundtracks at the age of 15. He contributed to various soundtracks including NBA Ballers, Blitz: The League, and NBA Ballers: Phenom.

Producing and writing

Furlong caught his big break in 2010, when he co-wrote the Big Time Rush and Jordin Sparks duet "Count On You". The song aired on the show Big Time Rush on Nickelodeon on July 18, 2010.^[3] The song is also featured on their debut album, which released on 11 October 2010. In its first day, the album was the number 1 selling album on iTunes and "Count On You" broke top 200 songs without even being a single.^[4] The album debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200, selling 67,000 units in its first week of release, as well as becoming the highest charting debut album by a new act that year.

Furlong collaborated again with Nickelodeon group Big Time Rush, writing "Time of Our Life" with band member and friend, Logan Henderson, for their sophomore release Elevate. The album was released on November 21, 2011 by Columbia Records. Elevate sold 70,000 copies in its first week, the band's highest first-week album sales. To date, Big Time Rush has sold over 4,000,000 albums worldwide and more than 3,700,00 singles collectively worldwide as well. They are considered nickelodeon's most successful act of all time.

In 2011, Furlong began working closely with well-known producer, writer, and OneRepublic frontman, Ryan Tedder. Furlong went on to sign a publishing deal with Tedder's company, Patriot Games Publishing, administered by Kobalt Publishing. He worked with Tedder on several releases, including "Brighter Than The Sun", a song off of Colbie Caillat's sophomore release All Of Me, "The World I Knew", a song recorded by Jordin Sparks for the Disney Nature film African Cats, "Automatic", a single by the group, Burnham, which was featured in the major motion picture Crazy, Stupid, Love, and "Ordinary Man", a single from Australian X Factor winner Altiyan Childs. Tedder later signed Canadian recording artist My Name is Kay, who began working closely with Furlong. Together, Furlong and Kay co-wrote "No Problem" which is included on Diplo's "Express Yourself" EP, and Steve Aoki's single "Singularity", which is included on Ultra Music Festival's 2013 Compilation CD. Both songs feature Kay as a vocalist. He confirmed the launch of his record label and publishing company AttaBoy Music in 2013.

As an artist, RAS also made his debut in 2013 when he featured on NEZZO & Summer School's single, "Shadows", which was released on Steve Aoki's Dim Mak Records. The song was written with Matthew Koma, songwriter and vocalist of the Electro house hit "Spectrum", by Zedd. Following the release of "Shadows", RAS wrote and featured as a vocalist on the song "Bright Side" by Dubstep artist, Protohype. "Bright Side" was released by Datsik's Firepower Records on Protohype's "Hear No Evil" EP. On October 15, 2013, Steve Aoki released his single "Bring You To Life (Transcend)", written by and featuring RAS as a vocalist, on his label Dim Mak. The song debuted at #12 on the US iTunes Dance charts. Though not confirmed, RAS is rumored to have also been working on upcoming releases with producers such as Hook N Sling, Vicetone, Protohype, Bassnectar, and Steve Aoki. Furlong is also currently rumored to have been writing with the well-known band 5SOS, for their debut album, as well as with Krewella for their sophomore release.

Songwriting Discography

Artist Discography

External links

• The Official RAS Web-Site

References