Waz

Growing up immersed in his parents’ vinyl collection of the Pretenders, Electric Light Orchestra, Neil Young, and similar artists, Cleveland-born, California-based singer/songwriter WAZ picked up the guitar at eight after hearing a 10cc track. Only once he had finished college did he convert that lifelong interest into a profession. Heading west to California after graduation, he soon heard from his former classmate Pete Yorn, who asked him to join his group; three years later the ensemble secured a deal with Columbia Records. During downtime on the road with Yorn, WAZ started composing original material and cutting tracks with R. Walt Vincent. Encouraging reactions to those recordings prompted him to launch a solo career, resulting in the 2002 release of the Mine to Remember EP. He kept writing and gigging, establishing a regular presence at Los Angeles’s Hotel Café, where he eventually crossed paths with Will Golden and Al Sgro. As the pair prepared to open a new studio, they proposed tracking WAZ’s first full-length album in the gaps between other projects. Working odd jobs to fund the sessions, he completed the recordings in scattered bursts, and The Sweet Bye and Bye appeared in January 2008.