Keith Foti - HAIRGOD - HAIR GOD
so it goes like this... i did hair for about 5 years at John Dellaria in SOHO... I was damn good at doing hair and honestly... my work stood out and people noticed... I just had the ablity to see certain things... the way the hair moved... the way the curve of a certain curl formed etc... I learned almost everything I know from John Dellaria... the true HairGod ... I call him the master.. I could sit and watch that guy cut hair for days... anyway so I quit doin hair and moved to LA a few months after the passing of Jeff Buckley... Being the man with him the night he died was a tough cross to bare so I split NY for LA... I kicked around for about 6 1/2 years in La... Put out a solo album and after realizing ... I had acomplished my dream of making an album it was time to go back to work... so I landed at Giuseppe Franco Salon in Beverly Hills... it was a match made in heaven... Giuseppe is one of a kind... He taught me a lot of details about the business I didn't have a grasp of up till that point... In July of 2005, I re-started my hair career... slowly , but surely I started adding clients ...one at a time... then I got to do The BUckcherry Video "Crazy Bitch"... thats when things took a turn and started going turbo... anyway I got Mr. Duff McKagan as a client and before long I was on the road to becoming the biggest celebrity rockstar hair stylist in the world.... alright... I still got time to make that happen... I'm tired now and I got to sleep... here is the short of it all.... I fuckin rock!
Keith Foti - Singer/Songwriter
KEITH FOTI
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Keith Foti was driving along Santa Monica Boulevard when he noticed yet another consumer monument under construction, all in the name of progress.
I started to think about all the things that aren't here anymore, all the changes that have been made and all the people who've moved on, he says. It was in that moment Keith found not only the title, but the heart of the matter of his solo debut album, All That Still Remains (Powerline Records).
The eleven songs (Keith calls them his midnight ramblings, mood swings and roof top visions of hot tar barbecues) evoke the sounds and feelings of everyday life, with its mixed bag of emotions and its one constant: Change. The collection packs an emotional punch, its jagged-edged songs delivered with a passion that's undeniable.
Recorded with engineer Jon Rustad at the Famous Bakery studios in Hollywood in late 2003 and early 2004, All That Still Remains features Nick Snow (bass) and Cary Kane(drums) plus Scott Shriner (Weezer bassist) and Chuck Kentis (Rod Stewart organ/keyboardist), both sitting in for the sessions (Raymond Horwitz has since been added to the core line-up on keyboards).
The evocative lead-off track, "Return to Gray," sets the tone. Shot through with Keith's reflections on life's bittersweet realities, broken bonds and promises, the gray is what's in between, as we seek and find the hope and love that inspires us to get up and do it all over again.
It's an intangible thing and hard to articulate, but even as I write them, the songs change shape. But then I started to realize it's not really the songs that are changing, it's me, explains Keith.
"The Distance Between Us" is a downbeat meditation on the sometimes temporal nature of the most treasured relationships.
I first realized that relationships are at the heart of everything when my uncle died, explains Keith, citing his relative as a major source of inspiration. He had nothing, so-to-speak, but knowing how much he changed my life, I realized he had everything.
He's also been inspired at different times by beat poet, Allen Ginsberg. Keith's song, America is me after reading Howl, he says. I was doing a lot of writing when I read it this time. I sat down one day, and out came this long-winded poem, my own rant. I let it form itself.
Keith began writing his songs with their dark but redemptive vision as a teenager in Fairview, New Jersey. Encouraged by a singer-songwriter friend to start playing the clubs, he worked open mic nights around Manhattan's Lower East Side and by 1997, he'd formed a band with a bunch of Jersey kids he called The Dope Fiends. Beginning to color his heart-aching street songs with the lush shadings of strings, keyboards and thunderous drums, I wanted to create a wave of emotion that traveled in sound, he says.
Around that time, thinking that the pair would hit it off, a mutual friend arranged a meeting between Keith and singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley in Memphis Tennessee. For the most part, he's quiet on the subject of Buckley, but Keith makes an appearance in Amazing Grace, the critically acclaimed documentary on the singer-songwriter who died in 1997.
Keith's own "Out of This Town" from All That Still Remains also makes its screen debut this year in Alan Chan's independent short film, Ring Road. And Keith takes to the road himself for a season of touring with his band (as well as some solo dates) this spring.
All that will remain after this latest installment in the adventures of Keith Foti is a tale that's yet to unfold. But rest assured it will include a good dose of change and will remain anything but static.
Society tells us to live our life a certain way and I don't want to do that, he says. The whole record was a process of changing, growing and finding the ability and courage to challenge those ideas...plus all that other stuff that was in my head.
Keith and The Band
KEITH FOTI is an alternative-beatnik-folk-rock-kung-fu experience, with lyrical content and a vocal style reminiscent of Bob Dylan, Jeff Buckley, Bono, Peter Case and Neil Young. The New Jersey native counts Leadbelly, Jane's Addiction, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Rumi among his many artistic influences.
Foti has just released his full-length debut, All That Still Remains, on his own label, Powerline Records. He and his band are currently focusing their attention on live performances to increase their fan base while Powerline Records directs its efforts toward radio and Internet promotion to increase the distribution of the album. After a riveting live performance with the band at the All That Still Remains record-release party in Los Angeles, Foti traveled to New York and Chicago for solo shows to further promote the album. Currently, he is seeking a booking agent and manager to help plan a national tour this spring followed by a European tour in the fall.
Foti started performing solo on the streets and clubs of New York City in his late teens. A development deal with Polygram in the late 1990s spawned a five-song EP. In 1997, Foti met Jeff Buckley in Memphis while the late singer was recording My Sweetheart the Drunk. Foti and Buckley hit it off and soon were talking about playing music together, but their plans were cut short by Buckley?s passing.
As a solo performer, Foti combines evocative lyrics and soaring vocals with powerful stage presence to bring his epic songs to life. When performing with his band, the alluring alchemy of four diverse musicians fixates and transforms the audience.
?The backbone of the band is Cary Kane,? Foti says. Kane, an extremely versatile drummer who had success in his early teens with the glam-metal band Pretty Boy Floyd, has since gone on to more success as a session drummer for many Los Angeles-based recording artists. And despite having no major credits, keyboardist Raymond Horwitz and bassist Nick Snow are both extremely talented and play an integral part in forming the band?s aural texture.
With the goal of getting All That Still Remains heard on as many college and Internet radio shows as possible, Foti is diligently expanding his audience horizons through the many independent resources at his disposal. ?Music is supposed to be a service,? Foti says. ?When I perform, I invite the audience to step out of their lives, get lost in the songs and walk in and out of their memories and dreams. And through avenues like the Internet, I can bring some of that experience to people who otherwise might not have the opportunity to participate in such a happening. It?s always a two-way street, but I hope that the audience finds an outlet for ?getting lost? in hearing the songs just as much as I found an outlet in creating them.?
Foti's newly refurbished Web site at http://www.keithfoti.com has attracted music lovers from across the United States and from countries around the world including Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom. With mp3 clips of five album tracks, a photo gallery, current news and a guestbook for posting comments and questions, the site serves as a focal point of communication and commerce between Foti and his burgeoning worldwide audience.