I do hate writing my own bio but when I ask others to write it they always want to dress it up and that makes me uncomfortable so here are the minutes from my life. Maybe this will mean something to you. It will not be entertaining. Fair Warning.
I was born in Mount Kisco New York 1964. I was adopted at 6 months by my parents who lived near Albany NY and worked at IBM. My parents settled in Bloomington Indiana where my dad was a professor of Physics and IU. My dad had 18 PhD students during his career, and planted our last name on the world with something called the "Swihart Wave".
I studied Piano at age 4.
I picked up alto Saxophone at age 10, then switched to Baritone Sax to play in the Jazz Band at High School North.
I started playing guitar at age 15 so I could write songs. I played guitar in the jazz band in my junior year.
Went to Berklee College of Music in 82. I quit in the middle of my senior year like most successful Berklee students did. I still wish I finished it out.
I played in various bands for 15 years and did some remixes with a DJ friend.
After playing in a band with a friend who was writing music for TV commercials I realized I could probably do that as well so I started on the path. A couple of years later I moved into a post-production facility on Newbury Street in Boston and did a lot of corporate communications work while I was there I scored some short films for the Emerson Students who were interns at the Post house. As soon as I did that I realized that this was something I was good at and that made things very clear for me.
After a few conversations with Producers I knew in Boston, I decided to move to Los Angeles and give it a go. I did not know how I would get there however because I did not possess the means to do so at that point. Coincidentally I had just been hired in Blue Man Group so I was able to get staffed in Los Vegas in 2000 when the show there opened at the Pyramid. I proposed to my wife and she agreed to move from Beacon Hill in Boston to Los Vegas. If that doesn't say love I don't know what does... She is everything to me.
So the plan was always "Let's move to Vegas and then get a job in LA then move to LA". I never would have had the opportunity to do what I have done without the partnership of my wife Susan Swihart. I was still doing some commercials and corporate communications work for clients back in Boston and I commuted to Vegas on the weekend for 3 months right after we moved to LA. I did a few "Intel" live dates for Blue Man Group around then as well.
I searched online for composing gigs every morning, and by noon I was in line at the post office with 3 or 4 CDs (it was 2002) in a bubble envelope. Those things cost about 5$ each to put together and mail out so I knew my time was limited. After scoring about 4 feature-length films and 14 short films a producer that I was going to make a documentary with came over with his director and other producer from this movie he had just shot. That movie was Napoleon Dynamite. So after that movie came out I was that guy that did that thing and the phone started ringing.
I have the the good fortune to work with a lot of wonderfully talented and interesting high-operating human beings. It has been an inedible journey for me so far and I am excited for what is to come.
Here are some of the instruments I play.
Piano
Mandolin
Cello
Guitar
Scruggs style Banjo
Dobro
If you made it this far and still have questions please feel free to reach out.