hardingray.com

A. Hardin Gray was born in NJ in 1971. He was drawn to music early on, and by the age of 5 brazenly declared: “I’m going to be a musician!” By 7, he had composed his first song, a simple piece in the vein of “Rain, Rain, Go Away” titled “Sun, Have a Smile.” Shortly after, Hardin began developing his musical ear by playing along with his parent’s Neil Diamond and Billy Joel records. At age 10, he took up the saxophone, and by 14 he had convinced his parents to buy a piano and let him take lessons.

By early high school, Hardin had already progressed through several Casio keyboards and had entered the world of professional musical equipment with a drum machine. He performed, with high acclaim, at a talent show, as part of the group DaHa using keyboards, drum machines, and a laser light show. Shortly after, he began experimenting with MIDI and connected his keyboards to a Commodore 64. Striving to become the next Peter Gabriel, Hardin began composing songs for a ‘worldwide debut.’ As a part of this plan, he formed a band called Randômé Fex with three other members. As a senior project, he wrote, recorded, and promoted his first solo album “Finishes.” Selling approximately 60 copies at the concert, he had achieved a 20% saturation of the 300-person audience.

Hardin continued his musical track in college as a music major, performing with several music groups, continuing to compose and record his own music, playing live at every opportunity, and writing original scores for several films, dance recitals, and plays, including Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” During his junior year in college, he wrote, recorded, tracked vocals and live strings, and co-produced a three-song demo. Also during his junior year, he was awarded the ASCAP Raymond Hubbel Musical Scholarship Award.

Following college, Hardin entered the world of video production. In addition to composing music for commercials, corporate videos, and infomercials, he took on many roles, including editor, graphic artist, and audio grip. After nearly two years in video, Hardin changed careers and carved out a lifestyle as a programmer and interactive consultant to allow more time for composing his original music. In 2001, he was awarded honorable mention in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.

In August 2002, Hardin engineered and recorded a CD for singer / songwriter / comedienne Joanna Parson ( www.joannaparson.com ).

To date, his music has appeared on the CD-ROMs, brand identities, videos, and kiosk displays of companies including Motorola, Scholastic, SoftKey International, and New York Sports Clubs. Hardin currently plays piano, synthesizer, harmonica, drums, guitar, didgeridoo, accordion, and bagpipes, and continues to learn new instruments. For more information on Hardin, and to hear samples from his latest demo CD, please visit the (communicate) page.