Album Notes

Candy From A Stranger is the debut album from Jen Schwartz. In essence, a collection of journal entries recounting times of lost love and life's lessons learned hard. Schwartz's music is a mixture of the aggressive and the beautiful. Her heart-felt creations evoke multi-dimensional excursions through the psyche. Perhaps the strength in her music lies in her ability to slither through a diverse range of emotions, leading listeners on a journey wrought with fierce mood swings and fluctuations. She slices through the surface with raging power chords and percussive explosions, then lulls the listener with tender voice and ethereal waves of musical mastery. If you like Natalie Merchant, Sinead O'Connor and pre-electronica Everything But The Girl, check out Jen Schwartz.

BIO

Jen Schwartz is a multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter living in Los Angeles (originally from a small college town in Western Massachusetts). From the beginning of her musical endeavors, Schwartz has been driven by a spark of independence that inspired her to play almost every note her debut album, from drums to guitar to voice. She was also in charge of every facet of the album, including production, mixing, mastering and the design and creation of original cover artwork. With this in mind, it is not surprising that at the tender age of 11, Schwartz got her start by teaching herself how to play the drums during middle school recess while other children were outside on the playground. From there her musical talents exploded and she soon began playing with several different groups in many different styles, winning awards from such esteemed institutions as Berkelee College of Music and the International Association of Jazz Educators.

While pursuing her bachelor's degree at Mount Holyoke College, she studied drums with Greg Caputo (a disciple of Jazz great Joe Morello), and electro-acoustic music composition and recording techniques from Ronald Perera (Smith College) and Charles Bestor (UMASS). An autodidact, Schwartz taught herself how to play both bass and guitar and began writing songs for Candy From A Stranger towards the end of college. She then moved to New York City to concentrate on writing and playing music. She soon found that the long, cold winters did not suit her, so she followed the sun west and ended up in California where Candy From A Stranger was born.