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All Music Guide:
Experimental indie rocker and artist Fredo Viola was born in London and spent the first five years of his life living in England and Rome. His family then relocated to the United States, spending time in New York City before finally settling in Los Angeles. While there, Viola sang professionally as a boy soprano; when his voice changed, he shifted his focus to art. He returned to New York to attend the Tisch School of the Arts and studied to be a film director. During this time, Viola discovered the composers Bartók, Shostakovich, and Stravinsky, which led to an interest in Benjamin Britten, Mozart, and Alfred Schnittke. He was also influenced by electronic acts such as Boards of Canada and Amon Tobin, which would combine with his classical interests to inform his own compositions. After graduation, Viola pursued a career in editing and animation design, allowing him the money to build his own home recording studio. In 2004, one of his songs was licensed for use in the Jonathan Demme film The Manchurian Candidate. Soon after, Viola made his first music video for one of his compositions, "The Sad Song." The video debuted on the Internet and caught the attention of Roger Ebert, Massive Attack, and Neil Gaiman, among others. Viola signed with French independent label Because Music in 2006 and made plans to release his debut album in 2008.
Wikipedia:
Fredo Viola is an American singer/songwriter and multi-media artist. He was born in London, England, but has resided in the United States for most of his life. He currently lives in Woodstock, N.Y. He graduated from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, but has always been most passionate about music. Viola lists some influential artists, such as Shostakovich, Britten, Bartok, Stravinsky and Belle & Sebastian.
Career [edit]
He had an internet hit on YouTube with "The Sad Song" in 2004. In 2007, he signed with French label Because Music. He released his debut album on December 2008.
In late 2007, Fredo devoted his attention to a long series of live to Digital Performances he called "cluster videos", by releasing one video each month on his website.
In late 2008, working in collaboration with the Spanish agency Aer studio, he released an interactive web site called The Turn, a web site that also serves the function of displaying his new interactive videos. The videos come in unusual shapes (circular, hexagonal) as well as widescreen rectangles, and can be turned during playback.
Other notes [edit]
In 2004, "Let the Sad Out" was licensed for use in Jonathan Demme’s film The Manchurian Candidate.
In 2005, Viola had four songs licensed for use in Mike Binder's film Man About Town, for which he produced a second version of his "Sad Song" video.
"The Sad Song" was used on season four of The O.C: "The Shake Up", "The Night Moves" and in season 5 of CSI: Miami in the episode "Broken Home". Additionally, the song is played at the beginning and at the end of the movie The Education of Charlie Banks. Most recently, "The Sad Song" was used in the 2008 film Birds of America.
