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Rob Seals

About Me

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Rob Seals began writing songs at age 10 for his imaginary band Lightning. He played "lead trumpet," and his two best friends played "rhythm trumpet." Think Tower of Power meets Romper Room. Fortunately no recordings exist. Currently a full-time singer/songwriter and producer based in Los Angeles, California, Rob writes and performs songs that set intimate lyrical concerns against strong pop-rock grooves. Listeners have described his literate, catchy sound as Paul Simon meets Dave Matthews. Rob finds singing while playing guitar easier than singing while playing trumpet.
Born and raised in Chattanooga, TN with an architect father and a social worker mother, Rob grew up in a household that championed creativity and modeled service. A former high school English teacher and track coach with an M.F.A. in poetry writing, twice a year Seals visits schools and colleges coast to coast as Artist in Residence working to empower students with a profound sense of their unique creativity and teach them skills to access that creativity. He teaches songwriting each summer at the Seth Riggs Summer Vocal Program in Los Angeles and works privately as songwriting coach to a select number of recording artists and aspiring artists alike.
Rob brings this background as teacher and motivator, a lifetime of directed daydreaming, and a lifelong love of music to his work as producer. Rob helps refine artists' songwriting and arrangements while drawing upon a talented call list of friends to bring the songs to life in the studio: Sean Hurley (Vertical Horizon), Ryan Brown (Jesse McCartney), Jeff Coffin (Bela Fleck), Billy Hawn (Charlotte Martin), Sheldon Gomberg (Ryan Adams), Brandon Bush (Train), Billy Hawn (Charlotte Martin), Craig MacIntyre (Josh Groban), David Henry (Josh Rouse), Derek Jones (Nickel Creek), Beth Balmer (Tyler Hilton), Dale Baker (Sixpence), Kat Bode (eastmountainsouth), Ed Toth (Doobie Brothers), Justin Rosolino (Matt Wertz), legedary pedal steel whiz Greg Liesz (Dixie Chicks, kd lang...), and others.
Rob is honored to have written or produced tracks for and with talented indie artists as diverse and original as Allie Moss (Ingrid Michaelson), Claire Holley (Yep Roc Records), MC Lars (Nettwerk Management), Lucy Hale (American Idol Junior Winner), Steven Jackson, Dave Potts, and Jon Rajewski, to name a few. Projects Rob has co-written, produced, and mixed have appeared on television shows like ABC's Men in Trees, E!'s Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and MTV's The Real World; feature films like 2008's All Roads Lead Home, documentaries like Dave Matthews Band: Plugging the Gap, and on national radio programming like NPR. Projects, songs, or artists Rob has produced have been nominated for or won Los Angeles Music Awards every full year he has lived in the city.
When he's not making music for and with other artists, Rob manages to squeeze out a solo record roughly every summer Olympics. In 2004 Rob released wishlisting, a collection of power-pop and acoustic soundscapes that explore loves alternately celebratory and solitary moments. The single "A Good Day" earned Best College Rock Song Nomination in the 2006 Just Plain Folks Music Awards. Rob feels fortunate to have used some of his talented friends on the project, and the supporting cast of players reads like a college radio super-group. Seals produced, engineered, and mixed the record WQFS 90.9 FM Guilford College Radio hails as a beautifully polished gem.Rob's debut solo CD, A Revolution of One, was named Male Singer/Songwriter Album of the Year 2001 by Just Plain Folks and earned him the North Carolina Arts Council Songwriters and Composers Fellowship for 2002. The song "A Few Repairs" aired nationally on NPR's Car Talk
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My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 09/01/2006
Band Website: http://www.robseals.com
Band Members: The player at right features songs from several records Rob Seals produced in various genres, as well as tracks from his own self-produced 2004 record wishlisting..

The credits key: P=Producer, E=Engineer, M=Mixer, W=Writer, CW=Co-Writer.

Rob played various instruments on each of these tracks and was fortunate to enlist the talents brilliant players like Sean Hurley (bass), Ryan Brown (drums), Billy Hawn (drums/perc), Beth Balmer (strings). For a list of session musicians Rob uses, see the bio.
Influences: As a songwriter...
Paul Simon
Adam Duritz
Glen Phillips
Peter Gabriel
Bono/U2
Shawn Colvin
Josh Rouse
Bob Zimmerman
James Taylor
Stuart Adamson
David Wilcox
Snuzz
Ben Folds

As a guitar player...
Alex Lifeson
Michael Hedges
Mark Knopfler
John Leventhal
Duke Levine
William Ackerman
Sonny Landreth
Chris Whitley
Shawn Colvin
Neal Schon

As a producer...
Ben Wisch
Daniel Lanois
Malcom Burn
Jon Brion
Joe Henry
Roger Moutenot
Pierre Marchand

Sounds Like: Paul Simon meets Dave Matthews
Record Label: NMR
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

TVs Biggest Night

OK, so that's not entirely true, and no, I'm not referring to the next round in the smashmouth debates between Senators Obama and Clinton in the City of Brotherly Love. Gobama! And not because of th...
Posted by on Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:42:00 GMT

In the Studio (I am a studio-us boy...)

I have certainly let the cobwebs and rust form on the ole blog. Sorry about that. If it's any excuse (it isn't...), I have been busy in the studio writing and recording with a number of talented art...
Posted by on Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:06:00 GMT

New website(!), live dates, studio stuff...

We're in the process of overhauling the website, so if you get a chance please check out http://www.robseals.com. I have been so busy in the studio producing and writing with other artists that I hav...
Posted by on Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:10:00 GMT

Cheers to us all for VOTING on TUESDAY! (or before...)

If you haven't already voted, I hope you've culled out a window of your day Tuesday, November 7th to do just that. Treat yourself after you pull that lever, punch out those chads, or (heaven forbid) ...
Posted by on Sun, 05 Nov 2006 01:19:00 GMT

Convene to View an Inconvenient Truth

I have been thinking about the word "convenient" lately. Like many of you, I have found myself using metaphors to describe my perilous relationship to my daily calendar. I've caught myself spouting ...
Posted by on Wed, 28 Jun 2006 16:12:00 GMT

the seal on iTunes

I feel like the guy who arrives at the party when there are only chip remnants in the bowl, the drunk guy looking for his confiscated car keys and telling everyone that he loves them, and the 'This is...
Posted by on Sun, 18 Jun 2006 09:58:00 GMT

MC Lars, Eastmountainsouth, Barry Bonds

This was a week of making and breaking records. Went to see MC Lars rock the Key Club in Hollywood Saturday night, bringing his own brand of post-punk laptop rap to the Sunset Strip. I had the honor...
Posted by on Sun, 28 May 2006 19:43:00 GMT

What Santa Brought, My Birthday Buddy, and the Clean Lens of the New Year...

I realize the new car smell is beginning to wear off the '06, but here's wishing you fresh starts, strong beginnings, and a reprise of the parts of 2005 that you liked. So this is a maiden voyage blo...
Posted by on Wed, 11 Jan 2006 21:39:00 GMT