My portfolio includes scoring, arrangement and composition work for video games, feature film and television. As a musician and producer I have released over forty albums of jazz, folk, electronic, punk and modern classical music. I am currently accepting new commissions.
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Why Chris Schlarb?
The world is full of musicians, composers and producers. The hard part is matching the right person with the project they are best suited for.

Here is a quick example: if you want to approximate an orchestra of instruments with a single keyboard, I am probably not the right one for the job. My best work utilizes any number of unique, real world instruments including tabla, euphonium, mandolin, marimba and upright double bass. I thoroughly enjoy working with real instruments, in real spaces, with real musicians.

If your film, video game or album requires texture and atmospheric depth, unique or unusual live instrumentation, and thoughtful arrangement, I would love to hear from you. For the last decade I have explored the ambient, jazz, folk, electronic and modern classical genres as a member of both the American Composers Forum and ASCAP.

I specialize in taking small and medium sized budgets and turning them into expensive sounding recordings. I operate my own mobile recording studio and engineer most sessions, saving time and cost.

My work can be heard on this site and read about in the New York Times, All About Jazz, Time Out New York, Chicago Reader and Pitchfork.

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The Widow Babies- The Mike Watt E.P. (2008)

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The first song I ever heard The Widow Babies play was “Mike Watt Created The Universe With A Bass Solo”. I was recording the group at the request of concert promoter and musical provocateur, Sean Carnage for a music film called Friends In Other Dimensions. Sean knew my musical leanings and said I might be interested in the group as they seemed to cross a wide chasm of my own influences, Yes among them. We were on the second floor of a narrow old house on Sepulveda Blvd that sat atop a battered storefront. The group and I both set up quickly and they ripped through three takes in less than eight minutes. I was sold.

At the time, mid-February 2008, I was in the middle of at least four ongoing music projects and felt compelled to take on a fifth. I told the band that I was available to produce an album and we exchanged numbers. After a few phone calls we set up a recording session at Matt Wignall’s Tackyland studio in Long Beach just a month later. Drummer Tabor Allen and guitarist Danny Miller told me “Mike Watt Created The Universe With A Bass Solo” was the first part of a six song paean to the myth of the Minutemen bassist. We finished five of the six tracks on March 22nd and went out for pizza at Me-N-Ed’s pizza. It was a quick days work with the band recording their takes with youthful ferocity and vocalist Elise McCutchen recording all of her vocal overdubs as soon as the music was put to tape.

A month later we met at my apartment for mixing and the recording of acoustic epilogue to the album. I continued to work on the mix for the next few weeks until I felt confident that The Widow Babies sounded the way they should: raw, fun, excited, awesome and awestruck.

From the opening drum fill to the closing acoustic guitar The Mike Watt E.P. runs a cool twelve and a half minutes, it’s over before you know what you’ve just heard: a parallel universe where Genesis and Melt Banana combine to make The Lamb Lies Down in San Pedro. In a time and place where attention spans are further on the wain and the listeners of the world are becoming more judicious The Widow Babies cram in Brazilian rhythms and timbales into “Vanity Thy Name Is Lincoln” and meaty double tracked guitars ring out on “Evil Triumphs Over The Awesome Powers Of Kayak” where bassist Neil Marquez continues to reveal his remarkable facility on the instrument. I had a hunch from the beginning that Watt would be proud.

Personnel
Tabor Allen- drums
Danny Miller- guitar
Neal Marquez- bass
Elise McCutchen- vocals

Produced and engineered by Chris Schlarb

Sep 24, 2008 | discography, recordings, thoughts