- Born
- Birth nameDavid Francis Baerwald
- Musician, music producer and singer/songwriter David Baerwald was born on July 11, 1960 in Oxford, Ohio. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 70's and was the lead singer for a local club band called Sensible Shoes. It was during this time that Baerwald met fellow struggling musician David Ricketts. The two began working together in June, 1984 and formed the rock duo David & David. They released their only album "Boomtown" in 1986. The album garnered hugely favorable reviews from music critics and has since become a cult favorite amongst 80's music aficionados. This outstanding album further beget the fine and haunting hit single "Welcome to the Boomtown," which peaked at #37 on the Billboard charts. After splitting up in 1987, Ricketts and Baerwald went on to pursue solo careers. Baerwald released the solo albums "Bedtime Stories" in 1990 and "Triage" in 1993. While both albums were praised by critics, alas neither album proved to be a commercial success. In 1993 David collaborated with Cheryl Crow on her breakthrough smash debut album "Tuesday Night Music Club;" he co-wrote the songs "All I Wanna Do," "Leaving Las Vegas," "Strong Enough," and "Run, Baby, Run." Baerwald was the opening act for Jewel during her 1997 summer concert tour and co-wrote the song "Supermodel" with Jill Sobule. He composed the scores for the films "Cold Ones," "Undiscovered," and "Hurlyburly." Among the movies David's songs are featured on the soundtracks of are "Reality Bites," "Clueless," "The Crossing Guard" (Baerwald also has a sizable co-starring role in this picture), "Grace of My Heart," "The Pledge," "Moulin Rouge!" (his song "Come What May" was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won the World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film), "Runaway Jury," "Around the Bend," "The King," "Shanghai Kiss," and "Into the Wild." In 2002 he released the typically excellent and impressive album "Here Comes the New Folk Underground."- IMDb Mini Biography By: woodyanders
- David Baerwald (born July 11, 1960 in Oxford, Ohio) is an American composer, songwriter, singer, and musician. He has one son, Beker Baerwald. He is the son of Hans Baerwald, a political scientist, and Diane Moore, a psychologist. He has two sisters, Andrea, a Braille translator, and Jan, a paralegal.
His songs can be found on 29 million albums sold in the US and Europe.
Baerwald first came to prominence in 1987 as one half of the duo David & David, with David Ricketts. David and David's sole album "Boomtown" went platinum and stayed on the Billboard album chart for over a year, winning substantial critical acclaim, including Album of the Year from Rolling Stone Magazine. The duo split up following the success of that album for unexplained reasons.
Following the breakup of David and David, Baerwald focused himself on writing for others, often under pseudonyms, though he found time to record and release two albums: Bedtime Stories; a romantic album based around tales of suburban ennui and decay; and Triage; an ambitious narrative song-suite focused on the fringe-dwellers of America's paranoid and disaffected subcultures. Both albums were released to critical triumph and commercial disaster.
In fall of 1992, with friend and producer Bill Bottrell, he co founded the Tuesday Night Music Club, which then helped launch the career of Sheryl Crow.
A "songwriter's songwriter", His songs have been recorded by a wide range of artists ranging from the aforementioned Crow to artists as disparate as Japanese classical artists the Yoshida Brothers, opera legend Luciano Pavarotti, rebel-country front-runner Waylon Jennings, Bangles front woman Susanna Hoffs, country star LeeAnn Rimes, jazz artist Holly Cole, critic's darling Jesca Hoop, and actor/singers Kristen Stewart, Nicole Kidman, Ewan Magregor, Ethan Hawke, Hayden Pannettiere, Ashley Simpson, and Steven Strait, among many others.
As a lyricist, Baerwald is known for his cold eye, precise language and occasional bursts of romanticism. As a composer, his taste ranges from derivations of the simplest of folk-inspired melodies to instrumental music which is often experimental, cerebral and difficult to categorize, though usually containing a strong melodic line.
Outside of popular music, Baerwald has worked extensively as both a songwriter and instrumental score composer in film and television, including the Golden Globe-nominated song from the 2001 motion picture Moulin Rouge! called "Come What May", for which he also won the International Film Music Award, and which has been covered by a wide variety of international artists. He is also a skilled multi-instrumentalist, with a primary focus on stringed instruments.
In 2002 he moved with his family to Austin Texas to informally study composition and orchestration at the University of Texas. In 2004 he returned to Los Angeles and spent a year studying the technology of modern film scoring whilst working at Hans Zimmer's Media Ventures complex in Santa Monica. There he did numerous credited and uncredited works with Zimmer and other composers based at that facility.
Recent projects include the ABC show, "October Road", and the Showtime series' "Sexual Healing" and "Pleasure For Sale". In 2009 he completed work on the Matt Damon/Chris Moore film "The People Speak", for which he also co-produced an album of the same name with life-long friend and associate Tony Berg, featuring Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pink, Eddie Vedder, and others.
As of late 2009 he is residing peacefully in Los Angeles, writing songs, scoring for film and television and pursuing private studies.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Laurie Kaplan
- Was one of the two Davids in the rock group "David & David".
- Has been a music producer for many rock and roll artists such as Toni Childs and Sheryl Crow.
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