- Craig Abaya
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Craig Abaya 
Background information Birth name Craig Abaya Born San Francisco, California Genres Alternative rock, rock and roll, pop, grunge, heavy metal, Americana Occupations Musician, singer, songwriter, music producer, recording engineer, filmmaker, photographer, designer, educator Labels ARTifice Music Associated acts The Basics
Apparition
JoAnne LorenzanaWebsite abaya.com Craig Abaya is an independent artist from San Francisco, California. In music, he is a singer, musician, songwriter, producer and engineer. In film, he has directed music performance and interview videos for countless musical celebrities as well as his own music videos. As a concert photographer, his portfolio includes a veritable Who's Who of popular music. He is also a designer and educator, serving as the Director of Digital Media & Entertainment Programs for San Francisco State University San Francisco State University Extended Learning.
Contents
Early life
Growing up in San Francisco's Bernal Heights and Mission Districts, Craig was exposed to a variety of cultures and perspectives. His nanny, Margie Williams, a Creole, is the reason for his slight southern accent at the age of 4. Primarily Filipino in heritage, Craig's bloodline also includes Spanish, German, Chinese and East Indian.
Craig recounts his musical background as "Guitar at 12, Drums at 11, Piano and 6, Voice at birth." He played with neighborhood bands starting at the age of nine and went on to form the hard rock trio, "Apparition" singing, playing lead guitar and writing the songs. At the same time, he wrote and played, primarily piano-based, songs for the local youth choir.
When Craig was nine years old, his brother, then a yearbook photographer at University of San Francisco, bought him his first point-and-shoot camera. Notable pictures from this camera were a local police chase and drug bust and a live concert by local band The Tubes.
At twelve he set out peddling some vintage comics he purchased cheap from the local Mom & Pop's in order to raise funds for his first movie camera. As he did with music, he invited his friends to join him in some creative fun. This time, creating short humorous films and animations.
Multimedia
In 1999, Craig was serving as multimedia instructor at Silicon Valley College, SFSU Multimedia Studies Program and SFSU Corporate Training when he was asked to launch and run SFSU's Web Design Intensive program. For two years, his professional life was immersed in running the program, teaching and coordinating local non-profit agencies as clients for his student web design teams. In 2000, Apple Computers(Apple, Inc.) (now Apple, Inc.) contracted Craig to help develop a Web Design curriculum for Florida's Miami-Dade County Public Schools (Miami-Dade County Public Schools).
Digital Video
In 2001, the college accepted his proposal to develop a Digital Video Intensive program where students could learn all the ins and outs of filmmaking in 16 weeks. Here he brought on colleagues from the film, television and multimedia industries; most notably Philip J. Gallegos (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) and Mark Devito (TechTV). He launched the DVI in the spring of 2002. This was both the final semester of the Web Design Intensive and the year he began to take over the Multimedia Studies Program.
In 2002, Craig was approached by Apple Computer (for whom he acted as a consultant) with an opportunity that started his practice of merging his music industry and education involvement. With a team of DVI students ("DVants") and 13 sponsors (including Apple), he directed "Bruce Hornsby Live at Villa Montalvo" for DIRECTV.
Since then, he has involved his students in countless music-related film projects, working with the likes of Neil Young, Sarah McLachlan, No Doubt, Ozomatli, Hugh Masekela, Joan Baez, Lyrics Born, Elton John and many more. This includes producing and directing concert and interview videos for Stern Grove Festival.
Independent Musical Artist
Craig Abaya
Born into a household that featured a piano, analog tape recorders and a record player, it was not long before Craig began creating and learning on his own. He wired cassette decks together and took advantage of his parents' 2-track recording deck to produce multitrack recordings. He began composing songs on the piano at 9 and on his first guitar at 12. This led to jamming with friends from Bernal Heights and nearby Inner and Outer Mission districts.
He formed his first professional band, the grunge/metal trio, "Apparition" in his teens, playing searing guitar and singing for young fans throughout the Bay Area. At this time he also served as the singer/songwriter/musician for the local church youth group, performing mostly on piano.
After disbanding "Apparition," Craig acquired his own recording equipment and founded the 4-piece group "The Basics" and later, "Abaya," in an attempt to merge the extremes of his two divergent musical endeavors. Both bands received considerable attention from the Filipino press including "Philippine News" and developed an entirely new following. At this time, his unreleased recordings received their first review from Recording Magazine where they wrote, "Everything about the songs and the recording are big!"
In 2009, Craig released his first solo album, The Fine Art of Politics, recording and mixing on his Mac laptop, playing several instruments and featuring many Bay Area notables including Myron Dove (Santana), Eric McCann (Clarence Clemmons and the Redbank Rockers) and Kenney Dale Johnson (Chris Isaak). Also featured on backing vocals for the song "When Change Comes" is Craig's first cousin, JoAnne Lorenzana, the Philippine pop/jazz singing star, who immigrated to the U.S. in 2005. The recordings were mastered by Bay Area mastering engineer, Michael Romanowski, who served, briefly, as bass player for "Abaya." Craig also directed and edited his first music video of the song "Silly Sentimental Fool" for release in 2010.
From these sessions, the song and recording of "This Jail I Made" was not included on the album. However, it received rave reviews from Recording Magazine editor and TAXI founder, Michael Laskow, who wrote, "This guy has ALL his ducks in a row!" The songs themselves received much praise, garnering awards in songwriting including several from Billboard Magazine. Bay Area radio personality (and last person to interview John Lennon), Dave Sholin, upon hearing a rough version of "Touch Me" responded by saying, "That singer has a lot on the ball." and "You're writing a great story, now make it a great novel!" Songs from the album have received airplay on alternative rock stations the Philippines and college radio in the U.S.
- Abaya is a member of the National Association of Recording Arts and Science (NARAS) and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
References
- Driver, Dustin. "Craig Abaya: Shooting Stars". http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/abaya/.
- Philippine Star - JAN 2010 issue(entertainment) "Craig Abaya: Fil-Am is 10-time Billboard honoree". http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Fjkc9fK-j5MJ:www.philstar.com/Article.aspx%3Farticleid%3D537680+craig+abaya+article+-+philippine+star&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us.
- Craig bio at SFSU Experts Page.
External links
Categories:- American singers
- American photographers
- Living people
- 1975 births
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
