D. A. Wallach

D.A. Wallach (also known as D.A.) is an American musician and business executive. He is the former lead singer of the group Chester French and is currently a solo artist signed by Harvest Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Records.[2] He is the former artist-in-residence at Spotify, a company where he was an early investor. As a business executive, he has invested in and advised several companies that have included SpaceX, Emulate, Synthego, Beam Therapeutics, Glympse Bio, Ligandal and Ripple.

D. A. Wallach
D.A. Wallach in 2017.
Background information
Birth nameDavid-Andrew Wallach[1]
Also known asD.A.
Born (1985-03-02) March 2, 1985
Denver, Colorado, U.S.
GenresClassic pop[2]
Years active2003–present
LabelsHarvest Records
Associated actsChester French,[3] Supa Dups[4] Rick Ross
Websitewww.dawallach.com

Early life and education

He was born David-Andrew Wallach in Denver, Colorado,[1] and moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, before he was two years old.[1] He attended the University School of Milwaukee, where he was a two-time national finalist in the Federal Reserve's Fed Challenge monetary policy competition.[1]

Wallach went on to attend Harvard University.[5] During his time at Harvard, he studied African-American studies under Henry Louis Gates Jr. and graduated in 2007,[5] receiving both the Alain Locke Prize for the most outstanding scholar in African-American Studies and the Andrew Ramroop prize.[6] He received Harvard's first certificate in the Bantu language Gikuyu. While at Harvard, he auditioned against future Academy Award-winning director Damien Chazelle for the role of drummer in future Academy Award-winning composer Justin Hurwitz's band; Chazelle won and Wallach became the lead singer.[7]

Career

Early career and Chester French
D.A. performing with Chester French in Treasure Island, California in 2008.

He was initially discovered by Kanye West, Jermaine Dupri and Pharrell Williams while he was attending Harvard and leading the band Chester French.[2][8] Wallach's music style of classic pop has been compared to musicians such as The Beatles[2] and The Beach Boys.[9]

Wallach co-founded the group Chester French in 2003 with Harvard schoolmate Maxwell Drummey. Wallach worked as a recording engineer in Harvard's student recording studio, engineering and producing for Boston-area jazz musicians and working on Chester French's debut album at night.[10] In 2007, Wallach sent out hundreds of demo CDs which led to a bidding war between West, Dupri, and Williams. Just prior to Wallach's graduating from Harvard, Williams signed the group to his Star Trak Entertainment label, a partnership with Interscope Records.[1] The group was known for being one of the first bands to use Facebook as a promotional tool to interact with fans[11] being freshmen at Harvard the same year that the site was launched by Mark Zuckerberg.[12][13][14] He was also an early adopter of Twitter with over one million followers.[11] During his time with Chester French, Wallach toured with bands such as N*E*R*D, Blink 182, and Weezer.[15] The group's first album included the single She Loves Everybody which reached #1 on U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales and #2 on U.S. Billboard Hot Singles Sales.[16]

Chester French released two albums under the StarTrak record label, leaving in 2010 to release its third album independently. The third album featured collaborations with Williams, Pusha T, and Travis Barker.[17]

Solo career, collaborations, and film
D.A. Wallach performing with Chester French at The Rave in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Outside of Chester French, Wallach has worked with Supa Dups, forming the group D.A. & the Supa Dups. They collaborated in 2011 and released 2 singles, Who Do You Know and Too Cool (feat. Vybz Kartel). Wallach originally met Supa Dups while he was doing studio work in Los Angeles.[4] He also wrote and sang the hook for the song Play Your Part with Rick Ross, Wale, and Meek Mill in 2011.[11] The song was a single on the first Maybach Music Album, and Wallach also appeared in the 2011 music video for the song.[18]

He appeared in the 2012 film Artifact produced by Jared Leto.[19] The film was a documentary about Leto's band Thirty Seconds to Mars, its lawsuit against Virgin EMI Records, and the making of the album This Is War.[20] Wallach also worked with Pharrell Williams to co-write the song The Way It Is (Vector's Theme), a song on the soundtrack for the 2010 film Despicable Me.[21]

In 2013, Wallach began writing and recording music as a solo artist. He played his music for Odd Future and Frank Ocean manager Chris Clancy, who then partnered with Harvest Records to release Wallach's solo project. He released his first single, entitled Glowing, in October 2013, which debuted in a music video directed by Tyler, The Creator.[3] The video was originally released "anonymously" before Wallach came out as the singer of the song in an interview with MTV, who called it a "Beatles-esque love song."[3] When asked why he released the video anonymously, Wallach stated that he just wanted people to enjoy the song.[3] Wallach followed up with his second solo release, Farm, in November 2013.[2][3]

In 2016, Wallach had a small role in the musical film La La Land, working with former Harvard classmates and bandmates Damien Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz.[22]

Business career

In 2011, Wallach was selected by Sean Parker, Shakil Khan, and Daniel Ek to be the official artist-in-residence for Spotify. In that capacity, he created and led the Artist Services team, which oversaw the company's relationships with musicians and managers, discussing how the service works, its payment model, and promotions.[11] He has also driven different products for the company including its Artist Analytics dashboard and its merchandise and ticketing products.[13] He has advocated publicly for subscription music services to be embraced by both artists and the music industry.[13][23] Spotify's subscribers grew from one million to 20 million prior to him leaving the company in 2015.[24]

Wallach has invested in and advised technology companies that have included Fancy,[25] digital currency network Ripple, and telemedicine innovator Doctor On Demand.[26] Wallach partnered with billionaire Ron Burkle in 2016 to form Inevitable Venture, a venture fund based in Los Angeles. He initially met Burkle through at a Grammy party and helped him invest in Spotify.[24]

Other investments by Wallach have included SpaceX and Emulate.[27][24]

Discography

Studio albums
List of studio albums, with year released
Title Album details Peak chart positions
US CAN AUS UK
Time Machine — — — —

Singles
Year Title Chart positions Album
Billboard Hot 100 Hot Singles Sales Hot Dance Singles Sales UK
2013 "Glowing" — — — — Time Machine
"Farm" — — — —
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Collaborations

For discography of Wallach as lead vocalist of Chester French, see main article on Chester French.

List of collaborations
Year Title Notes
2012

Show Love

Single by Chamillionaire featuring D.A.

2011

Play Your Part

Single by Rick Ross featuring D.A., Wale, & Meek Mill

2011

Who Do You Know

Single with Supa Dups as part of D.A. & the Supa Dups

2011

"Big Hype"

Single by Patrick Stump featuring D.A.

2011

Too Cool

Single with Supa Dups as part of D.A. & the Supa Dups, featuring Vybz Kartel

2010

The Way It Is (Vector's Theme)

With Pharrell Williams for the Despicable Me movie soundtrack

Filmography
List of collaborations
Year Title Role
2012

Artifact

Self

2016

La La Land

New wave singer

Awards and recognition

Wallach made Forbes' list of 30 Under 30 in music in 2011.[27] He was also named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company in 2013.[28]

References
  1. Daglas, Cristina (16 March 2011). "Gentleman of Rock". Milwaukee Magazine. Archived from the original on 15 January 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  2. Geslani, Michelle (27 November 2013). "Listen to D.A. Wallach's uplifting new song, "Farm"". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  3. Ehrlich, Brenna (11 December 2013). "D.A. Wallach Comes Out As Voice Behind Tyler, The Creator's 'Glowing' Video". MTV News. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  4. Brown, Emma. "D.A. & The Supa Dups Create Their Own Rhythm Nation". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  5. "Chester French are Harvard grads who rock". The Today Show Music. 8 May 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  6. "Faculty of Arts and Sciences 2006-2007 Student Prize Recipients" (PDF). Harvard University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 July 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  7. Damien Chazelle & Justin Hurwitz on La La Land, movie musicals, and friendship (Video). December 7, 2016. Event occurs at 53 seconds. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
  8. Bray, Elisa (20 August 2008). "First Night: Chester French, Carling Academy, Birmingham 2 starts". The Independent. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  9. "Chester French Refuses to Follow the Rules". Vibe Magazine. October 2008.
  10. Nikodemos, Lauren (November 2008). "Record Hype". Boston Magazine. Archived from the original on 2014-01-15. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  11. Gruger, William (10 May 2012). "Spotify's Artist In Residence DA Wallach on Apps, Artist Services, and What His Job Title Means". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  12. Tabak, Alan J. (13 August 2004). "Zuckerberg Programs New Website". The Crimson. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  13. O’Malley Greenburg, Zack (1 February 2012). "Spotify's Secret Weapon". Forbes. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  14. "Chester French: Ivy League Boys, Gone Appropriately Wild". Black Book Magazine. 20 April 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  15. Roberts, Michael (8 September 2009). "Over the Weekend: Blink-182 at Fiddler's Green". Denver Westword. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  16. "Billboard Chart History – She Loves Everybody". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  17. Clevver Music & Chester French. In-Studio Interview: Chester French New Album “Music 4 Tngrs” (Television). YouTube.
  18. "On The Sets: Rick Ross xx Wale xx Meek Mill xx D.A. Wallach – Play Your Part". Hip Hop n More. 22 January 2011. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  19. "Jared Leto's Thirty Seconds to Mars Documentary 'Artifact' To Get Worldwide Vod Release On December 3, 2013". Contact Music. 3 December 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  20. Van Syckle, Katie (5 December 2013). "Why Jared Leto Made a Music Industry Documentary". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  21. "New York Times Movie Biography – David Andrew Wallach". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  22. Roberts, Randall (23 February 2017). "Art or commerce? Behind the music with 'La La Land' session musicians Peter Erskine and Randy Kerber". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  23. Dahud, Hisham (June 2012). "Hypebot Interviews Spotifys Secret Weapon Artist In Residence D.A. Wallach". Hypebot. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  24. Kahn, Howie (23 February 2016). "Investor D.A. Wallach Aims to Make an Impact". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  25. Parr, Shawn (22 August 2012). "What The Fancy Is Doing Right With Online Shopping". Fast Company. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  26. "Angle Investor Profile – D.A. Wallach". Angel List. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  27. O’Malley Greenburg, Zack (19 December 2011). "30 Under 30: The Youngest Stars In The Music Business". Forbes Magazine. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  28. Carr, Austin (2013). "100 Most Creative People in Business 2013". Fast Company. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
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