R.W. Bio

RANDY WILSON

Composer • Songwriter • Vocalist • Keyboardist
Animator

Born into a family of musicians, Randy's first formal music lessons were at the age of six at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, N.Y. From that early age, his education in music and audio has been extensive and ongoing.

At the age of 11 he joined the American Boychoir performing concerts across the U.S. and Canada as well as recording albums and music for films. His first album as a singer at 12 was the RCA Red Seal recording “Elijah” with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was inspired to become a composer after performing the world premier of Charles Davidson’s “I Never Saw Another Butterfly.”

Netherworld – Randy founded Netherworld, a progressive rock band filling the role of multi-keyboard player, songwriter, and backing vocalist. Netherworld recorded a high quality, independently released album that received critical acclaim. But high album sales eluded the band, since progressive rock had already declined in popularity. The Netherworld album was recently re-released on CD by Musea Records leading to many new, extremely positive reviews. www.netherworldmusic.com

GOGOPLEX – After Netherworld Randy played in a number of original and cover bands developing his lead vocal capabilities before forming GOGOPLEX with Layne Rico. Layne had written a top 40 U.S. single titled "Lawn Chairs" with his previous band, "Our Daughter's Wedding," for EMI. GOGOPLEX is a two man, one computer band making extensive use of MIDI sequencers running banks of synthesizers and samplers. One DJ described the band’s sound as “combining melody and optimism with driving beats, great orchestration and atmosphere.” The GOGOPLEX CD “Retro,” is now available here:
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/gogoplex?SourceCode=HEARNOW

Additional Recordings – As a session synthesist or collaborator, Randy’s keyboard and vocal contributions have covered a number of styles from avant-garde to gospel. Most recently he composed, sang, played synthesizers and Mellotron with Spirits Burning and Daevid Allen (Gong, Soft Machine) on a piece about Luana Borgia for Mellow Records. He also played synthesizer parts for a track on Spirits Burning’s “Found in Nature” album and joined this space rock collective to play the organ and Mellotron parts for their rendition of “The Story in Your Eyes” on the Moody Blues tribute album “Higher and Higher.”

He composed and recorded a ballad about Katrina and George W. Bush titled, “Empty Streets” that is posted on the National Public Radio website: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7393063&sc=emaf

Music for Picture – Randy and Layne composed and recorded the music for the award winning short film, “Don't Say Far Away.” Randy went on to compose, arrange, and record music for a series of six Equestrian videos, including a video of the Andalusian horses of Bo Derek. He composed and recorded the music for a film about the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland. He wrote the quasi-classical piece, “Wind Command” that was purchased and recorded orchestrally for the Narrator Tracks audio production music library.

Audio Engineering – Randy is a power user of Pro Tools|HD and other pro level music applications. He’s a synthesis and MIDI expert with in-depth skills in digital audio workstation setup, installation, troubleshooting and workflows. He has mixed some very complex music and is experienced in many aspects of film post production. He has performed audio restorations of old records and tapes and created finished audio CD masters of that music.

Background in Computer Music Product Development – Randy’s deep commitment to creating and recording music on the computer has landed him several different roles with some of the leaders in computer music products including Apple, Digidesign and the pioneering computer music company, Opcode Systems.

3D Animation of Music by Frequency

The US Patent Office has granted Randy’s patent for methods of displaying and animating music and other audio. The long title, "Enhancement and Display Methods for Intuitively Read Three-Dimensional Visual Representations of Digital Audio Files," US 9,704,276 B1.

Using this method musical notes, drum parts, and individual instruments are clearly visible, moving in tight sync to the music. While the shapes are based on an analysis of frequency, the visual presentation is an artistic expression of the spirit of the music and/or lyrics. These animations are of famous rock and classical music as well as original compositions.

He has completed a dozen short videos in a variety of styles. These animations of music have screened in 10 film festivals in the U.S. and Europe, winning awards in half of them.

More details about this on musicanimation.net or Music Animation & Art on Facebook.