Biography
“…just the right amount of jazz, blues, and a modern edge, the duo brings out the best in each other.” - Playback: STL
Rachel Garcia and Thu Tran met in the winter of 2006, as students of San Francisco State University at an open mic night at the now defunct Canvas Gallery Café. Some years later, on a road trip up the coast of California to Oregon, on the Pacific Coast Highway, they were inspired to write their first song together, which led to the formation of the band. In the fall of 2009 they recorded their independently produced, 5-song debut EP at Amadeo Studios in the Bay Area.
Shortly after moving to Los Angeles in 2008, they began writing and performing music together (under the name Ampersand, later transitioning to The Singer and The Songwriter). The duo started out crafting simple folk songs, but as their songwriting developed, they began to incorporate influences from different eras of jazz and pop music, which led to the creation of their unique, vibrant, “sophisticated but playful” sound (BuzzBands LA). Their music is a stylistic hybrid, reflecting their diverse musical and cultural backgrounds. “His guitar shimmies and swings like Django Reinhardt while her voice wraps around each note, swaying in unison like a modern-day Ella Fitzgerald.” (Nooga).
Rachel Garcia grew up listening to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Elvis and Michael Jackson. At a young age, her love of music was nurtured by performing in choirs. Her rich and nuanced vocal style draws inspiration from female vocalists old (Ella Fitzgerald, June Christy, Mama Cass) and new (Fiona Apple, Laura Mvula, Melody Gardot, and Cecile McLorin Salvant).
Thu Tran’s songwriting merges traditional styles with modern pop sensibilities. He draws inspiration from the Bossa Nova sounds of Antonio Carlos Jobim, the swinging jazz guitar of Django Reinhardt, and the lyricism of modern songwriters like Sufjan Stevens and Rufus Wainwright.
In 2012, the duo won the West Coast Songwriters International Song Contest in the Miscellaneous category for their recording of The Art of Missing You – “…a delightfully poised and melancholic classic jazz ballad that Sarah Vaughan or Billie Holiday would have gladly wrapped their wounded souls around.” (Americana UK)
In 2014, The Singer and The Songwriter released their critically acclaimed, debut full-length LP, What a Difference a Melody Makes, produced by Charlie Stavish (Ryan Adams, Jenny Lewis) with mixing and mastering by Brooklyn collective, Mason Jar Music (Lucius, Feist and Andrew Bird). Debuting at #34 on the CMJ Jazz Top 40 Charts, the album has been critically praised as “diverse, confident, stylish and accomplished” (Americana-UK), “a revelation” (Pittsburgh In Tune) and “an opus worthy of national attention” (Playback: STL).
In March 2016, The Singer and The Songwriter released their sophomore EP, Ballads for Trying Times, produced by Griffin Rodriguez (Beirut). This latest release is being praised as “a delectable listen, an emotional journey down a sullen, yet hopeful trail. Garcia and Tran bring together songs that appear written just for the listener, and no one else.” (Playback: STL). The songs on the EP are described as “baroque lullabies that move along with an ease and fluidity that showcases their musical maturity and sensibility.” (The Deli LA) and provide “ smart commentary on social attitudes” (Pasadena Weekly) “Garcia's rich, warm voice wraps around you like the softest quilt and Tran's subdued guitar shines at all the right moments, creating somber tracks that are more than palatable and neccessary.” (Bitch Media)
The duo are currently on a national US tour. Of their live show, The Eastsider LA writes: “Tran’s colorful playing style paired wonderfully with the dramatic and soulful voice of his partner in crime. It was clear that underneath Garcia’s cafe-jazz voice lay a rich, billowing and powerful vocal onslaught. This duo’s set of original material did clearly mine the annals of Gypsy Jazz (as well as ‘60s folk) for inspiration. However, The Singer and The Songwriter are a Los Angeles original.”
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
