The Random Hubiak profile picture

The Random Hubiak

About Me

I lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, until I was four, at which point my family moved to the wild west... of Pennsylvania. Sometimes referred to as "Northwest Virginia," it is a beautiful landscape populated by a unique folk, a patchwork quilt of close-knit kin. Yes, the men are men, and the sheep are scared. Or, the men are men, and their wives are their sisters. Something along those lines.

At age 12, my family moved to Orange County California, where my music tastes expanded widely -- while I began to embrace country and occasionally folk music as a nostalgic reference to my former home, I also became intimately acquainted with pretty much all things new wave.

And, at 16, we moved BACK to western PA!!! Talk about culture shock!

I consider myself a Jersey Boy at heart, because I spent every summer here from the time I was 18 months until I was in my early 20s, and I have been living here for two years now. I also consider Penn State my home, because I treasure my college years, and I really did consider spending my whole life in the hills of Centre County.

I have been writing music since the teen years, although I tend to go on fairly long hiatuses between creative projects and get bogged down in personal details that prevent me from pursuing my art/craft to its fullest. Hopefully launching a site that forces me to recognize my creative side will change that!

I have two complete CDs worth of demos in song cycle format, and then another handful (almost a full CD) of random songs in search of their respective mother projects. A link provided below will allow you to purchase some of my music (currently, from my unsigned CD -- in high quality, digital demo format -- Endless Street: A Spiritual Travelogue). The songs are all in MP3 format for ease of downloading and compatibility with standard technology. (If you are wondering what the playlist order is on my album, it is as follows: Endless Street, Postcards, Vapor Trails, No One Gets Out of Here Alive, Slipping Through My Hands, Days of Hollow Men, House of Cards, Waltz for the Dissolute, Ten O'Clock in Toronto, When All is Said and Done, The Consecrating Mother. The last three songs are cover tunes and, therefore, not available for purchase yet because of copyright laws for MP3 sites are still a little muddy when it comes to such; there is also an uncompleted tune, eventually to be inserted between the first two tracks.)

My solo shows basically consist of me and a piano, although I am hoping to align myself with some guitarists with whom I can co-headline shows, adding to the instrumentation and variety of both our repertoires. (Parker Weissman, that means you! And, Ken Levy, if you're out there, when the Hell are we going to collaborate again?)

I currently live in Ocean County, NJ. I'm interested in performing any local venues that already have a piano on the premises. Also will consider:

•western PA near Venango County (where I grew up and where my mother still lives)

•Denver, CO area (where my father lives)

•the Poconos in PA (I just love to visit)

•NYC (so I can hang in Manhattan and visit friends... and perhaps mingle with other artists and potential label executives)

•Penn State area (any opportunity to return home is a bonus!) •Princeton, because my "day job" is SAT instructor for Princeton Review, and I work for the Princeton office and love to visit my co-workers

•New Hope, PA area, again, because it's such a cool town, and I have friends there

•Irvine, CA or (southern California in general) because it would give me an excuse to visit my dearest friend Joy, who is a member of Riddle the Sphinx (also on myspace! check 'em out!)

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 23/02/2006
Band Members: So far, just cute, lil ol' me! But there's a lot of folks I'd like to collaborate. Until then...
Influences:

*****CLICK ON ALBUM FOR MORE INFO OR TO PURCHASE TRACKS*****

Good lord, so many... to name just a few, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, U2, ABBA, R.E.M., the Cure, Michael Penn, Aimee Mann, Annie Lennox, John Hiatt, The Arcade Fire, Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, Weezer, Neil Young, Foo Fighters, Goo Goo Dolls, Gin Blossoms, Counting Crows, Sarah McLachlan, Beth Orthon...

Of course, for a number of reasons, my live performances always seem to wear the influences of Billy, Elton & Ben on their sleeves (Joel, John & Folds, respectively), not the least of which is because of that my sets are peppered with covers of their songs. And, of course, can't have the Piano Men without the quintessential Piano Woman, Tori Amos, as well as the artist for whom she was often initially mistaken: Kate Bush.

I'd be lying if I didn't claim to love all the great contemporary male singer songwriters: Ben Lee, Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Damien Rice, Mark Sylvester, Jamie Cullum, Elliott Smith, Dave Matthews, Dashboard Confessional, James Blunt, Pete Yorn, Duncan Sheik and so forth.

Anything that my high school best friend, Travis, got me into is also crucial to my development, as he pushes me beyond my "safety" zone -- stuff like Rainer Maria (check out "Contents of Lincoln's Pockets" -- brilliant!), Cat Power, Guided By Voices, Mountain Goats, Moldy Peaches, Super Furry Animals, Shudder to Think, and of course Pink Floyd, which I never would have discovered without him.

Likewise, anything that my college roommate, Jason, pushes my way is right on cue, too, whether it's something as obscure as John Wesley Harding or Iron and Wine, something recently emergent like the Shins, irreverent like DaVinci's Notebook, or good for a nostalgic and occasionally guilty thrill like Pat Benatar.

And, while it may not be evident in the current batch of songs on this site (and on the MP3 purchase link), I'm a fan of just about everything 80s and anything that reminds me of the 80s (think Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Postal Service, Keane, Jet, Coldplay, Modest Mouse, the Strokes), as well as a lot of early glam (David Bowie, New York Dolls), and the classics (Beatles, Stones, Zep, The Who, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, etc.).

I am not above listening to pop music, so long as it has some personality and isn't assembly line crap... as you see above, I do love ABBA... when I was younger, I was crazy about Electric Light Orchestra, and right now I have a hard-on for Shakira. (And, if you read the interviews with Aimee Mann, you'll see that she considers her music to be within the parameters of "pop," albeit an intellectually elevated pop realm.) So anything that appeals to my innate "ear candy" sensibility also influences me.

Hopefully, some of their influences shine through, but the sound in my songs is "mine."


Sounds Like: A lot of the aforementioned artists poke their heads through the veneer of my music at one point or another, although the first set of music I've made available for sale has a mostly piano-folk-rock sound reminiscent of early Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne. I have another set of music that I consider to be sort of "caustic pop," with influences like Elvis Costello and Lindsey Buckingham weighing in rather heavily, but I haven't made that available yet for online purchase. I'm trying not to blow all my wad at once... build up a following first... make 'em wait for the product!
Record Label: none yet. hope to change that!

My Blog

Walking in Memphis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoM7RjL2oGk
Posted by on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:20:00 GMT

Rand Hubiak sings "Both Sides Now" at Moonstruck, October 18 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqyDJjwGx90 Bob and I did this number on Thursday night at McCloone's supper club in Asbury Park, NJ. We killed that night! This version is Sunday night'...
Posted by on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:18:00 GMT

Hey, I'm in that GLEE contest

Check out my recording and let me know what you think! Okay folks... please take a minute to view me. None of the songs in the contest were really great fits for my style, but ...
Posted by on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:07:00 GMT

Living and Dying

Well, a good many people have been asking me about my grandmother, and truthfully, I've been so exhausted from the events of the past month that I haven't bothered to write anything. I also haven't b...
Posted by on Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:30:00 GMT

My new digs

Anybody who's checked my profile already has noticed some new pics up -- I have new digs. Let's go back to the beginning for the full story...Most of you know that I've been providing eldercare for m...
Posted by on Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:03:00 GMT

Before I offend anybody: The original definition of "Mythos"

Just for clarification, the song is about mankind, not God -- I'm not looking to start any religious wars; the germ of the idea in this song is that man, being mortal and flawed, can (and must -- both...
Posted by on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 07:55:00 GMT

New Lyrics: EMPIRE SUITE: ALYTHIA/EMPIRE/IF I

Here is a piece central to the lyrics I posted quite some time ago (Tattoo, Goodbyes, Children Gone to Seed, The Last Time I Was Here, That's What You Get), the song cycle dealing with displacement in...
Posted by on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 07:31:00 GMT

How well do you know me (10 questions)

Okay. Just for fun. Take My Quiz onQuizYourFriends.com Can you Ace my quiz? Yes! No ...
Posted by on Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:35:00 GMT

My Celebrity Look-alikes

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family tree outline
Posted by on Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:39:00 GMT

Just for fun. My superhero personality.

Your results:You are HulkHulk 85%The Flash 80%Green Lantern 75%Spider-Man 70%Robin 70%Catwoman 60%Wonder Woman 55%Supergirl 55%Iron Man 55%Superman 35%Batman 30%You are a wanderer withamazing strength...
Posted by on Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:44:00 GMT