Chad Fischer

Chad Fischer is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer from Santa Monica, California, also known as a frontman of the band Lazlo Bane.

Early years

Chad Fischer's early work was being a drummer for the band School of Fish founded by his college friend Josh Clayton-Felt. Fischer replaced the original drummer M.P. in 1991, however he did not play on the band's second album due to fallout with a producer and was replaced by Josh Freese.^[1] Nevertheless, Fischer still stayed with the band to perform live. The only official commercial School of Fish release that included his drumming was the single "Take Me Anywhere", which included two live tracks as b-sides.

After School of Fish disbanded in 1994 Chad Fischer went on to build his own recording studio and started to write new material.^[1] He signed to Almo Sounds and formed the band Lazlo Bane, whose debut album, 11 Transistor was released in January 1997.^[2]

During the early years Chad Fischer met Colin Hay with whom he became a close friend. Fisher played drums on Hay's 1994 album Topanga, while Hay contributed guitar and vocals to Lazlo Bane's cover of "Overkill" from their debut album. Since then Chad Fischer took part in recording of every Hay's subsequent studio album with his role varying from session musician and songwriter to mixing engineer and producer.

Work with Lazlo Bane

After Almo Sounds was bought by Universal Music Group^[2] Lazlo Bane continued their career as an independent band.^[1] Chad Fischer continued to produce Lazlo Bane albums which them being released through self-established label Lookout Sound.

The band's second album All the Time in the World was released in 2002. It included the song "Superman", which became the Lazlo Bane's most recognizable song as it became a theme song for the popular American TV series Scrubs.^[1] Chad Fischer along with Lazlo Bane members Tim Bright and Chris Link as songwriters of "Superman" and Scrubs' composer Jan Stevens won BMI TV Music Award of 2003^[3] and 2004.^[4]

Over the next decade Lazlo Bane released two more studio albums and one EP, all of them independently. Another album by the band, Big Spill, was released in 2013 and was credited to The Rage, Lazlo Bane's alter ego project.

Films and TV series scoring

Films

In the beginning of 2000s Chad Fischer started providing music and songs for various films and TV shows.

His first full-length film for which he provided the scores was Garden State, released in 2004. Both film and its soundtrack proved to be critically and commercially acclaimed. Garden State also featured Fischer's original song called "Motorcycle Ride with Sam". It hasn't been officially released, but it is available to listen in the DVD menu of the film and on Chad Fischer's Myspace page.^[5]

2005 film Little Manhattan featured new songs, both by Chad Fischer and Lazlo Bane, that were written especially for the film. It also featured a cover of The Beatles' song "In My Life" produced by Fischer and performed by Matt Scannell. The soundtrack for the album remains unreleased with only one Fischer's song, "Map of My Heart", available to listen on his Myspace page.^[5]

For the 2008 film The Rocker Chad Fischer wrote a number of original songs which were performed by fictional bands A.D.D. and Vesuvius. The actual music was mostly performed by Chad Fischer himself with the vocals provided by Teddy Geiger (for A.D.D.) and Keith England (for Vesuvius). A soundtrack album that featured all the original material was also released in 2008.

Other films for which Fischer wrote the score are 10 Years, Loosies, The Babysitters, Black Cloud and Chasing Mavericks.

Aside from film scores Chad Fischer wrote and performed a number of songs for the films he worked on, however none of them were released on any soundtrack albums or elsewhere.^[6]

TV series

In 2007 Chad Fischer and Lazlo Bane guitarist Tim Bright started scoring American medical drama series Private Practice.^[7] During its run Fischer and Bright won BMI TV Music Award twice, in 2008 and 2009.^[8][9][10] The show concluded after six seasons in 2013.

After Private Practice Chad Fischer started providing music for another ABC's show, Scandal.^[11] For his work he won the BMI TV Music Award of 2014.^[12][13]

In 2016 Fischer started scoring yet another ABC's TV series The Catch.

Record producer

Chad Fischer started production work from the first Lazlo Bane album 11 Transistor and produced every subsequent album of the band.

After the death of Fischer's longtime friend and School of Fish band mate Josh Clayton-Felt, he co-executive produced the release of Center of Six, the second Clayton-Felt's posthumous album. It included several tribute songs produced by Chad Fischer and recorded by Josh's friends.

Fischer's production career progressed as he produced the first recordings and helped develop the sound of Cary Brothers, Alexi Murdoch and Joshua Radin.^[14] All of them later became successful musical acts.

The highly acclaimed Garden State soundtrack, which was released in 2004 and won a Grammy Award in 2005, featured two songs produced by Chad Fischer: "Blue Eyes" performed by Cary Brothers and "Winding Road" performed by actress Bonnie Somerville.

Other musicians and bands Fischer did production for feature Everlast, Lisa Loeb, Colin Hay and The Good Luck Joes among others.

Discography

As featured artist

Music videos

With Lazlo Bane

Studio albums

EPs

As producer, composer, or session musician

References