BIO

Hi, I’m Eytan Mirsky, a New York-based singer/songwriter best known for four things:

1) My onscreen appearance in American Splendor, singing the song of the same name

2) My three songs in The Tao of Steve, including the title song and "(I Just Wanna Be) Your Steve McQueen”

3) The title song I wrote for the film Happiness, which was sung by Michael Stipe of R.E.M.

4) Being the coolest dude on the planet

I started writing and performing my own songs while a student at Brandeis University outside Boston, Massachusetts. But the tunes I sang at campus coffeehouses weren’t your typical sensitive singer/songwriter sob stories; they were comical tales of college life like “Pre-Med Girl” and “At the Library.”

After graduation from Brandeis, I temporarily put music aside to attend N.Y.U's Graduate Institute of Film & Television. With my worthless M.F.A. in hand, I then tried my hand at screenwriting, penning one script about a time-traveling cop who teams up with his younger self and another ("Eveready") that was a parody of the whole Die Hard common-man-defeats-a-hundred-terrorists genre. Unfortunately, the true nature of my genius went unrecognized.

So I reached into my closet, dusted off my guitar, and recorded my first CD, Songs About Girls (& Other Painful Subjects), in 1996. I gave a copy to my former film school classmate, director Todd Solondz, who asked me to write a song for his upcoming project, Happiness. The song I wrote was sung in the film by actress Jane Adams, who plays Joy, an aspiring songwriter. The melody is also used in the score as Joy's theme, and Stipe's upbeat guitar-driven version, which I produced, can be heard over the closing credits. (The song was called "great" by Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post so who am I to argue?)

The positive reaction to the song “Happiness” song led me to record a second album, Get Ready for Eytan! (1999), which got some great reviews that compared me to Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello and Jonathan Richman. At around that time a friend of mine told me about a film called The Tao of Steve that was looking for music. I got my cd to the director, Jenniphr Goodman, who immediately placed my song “Outta Sight” in the background of one of the scenes. Later, when she needed a song for the tail credits, I was called in to watch the film, which turned out to be about a guy whose philosophy of picking up women involves imitating Steve McQueen and other models of American coolness. This was an amazing coincidence because I had recently recorded a song called "(I Just Wanna Be) Your Steve McQueen” for a short film called The Transformation. This song was quickly added to Tao, as was the title song I composed: “The Tao of Steve? (Isn’t It Time?)” Both of these songs can also be found on the soundtrack album for the film.

In 2001, I released my third album, Was It Something I Said, with the help of Jon Gordon (former lead guitarist and arranger for Suzanne Vega) and Larry Saltzman (who was seen and heard playing guitar and other instruments in the 2003-2004 Simon and Garfunkel Reunion tour band). This album also featured guest appearances by the Lolas, Mark Bacino, and Joe Mannix, whom some of you might know if you follow the “underground” pop scene over the internet or in zines like Amplifier.

I've continued placing songs in films like American Splendor, Robert Altman's The Company, and Todd Solondz’ Palindromes (which should be released theatrically in 2005). And my fourth album, Everyone’s Having Fun Tonight, was released at the end of 2004. Check out more great playing by Jon Gordon and Larry Saltzman on a 16-track disc that includes versions of the “Happiness” and “American Splendor” songs.