Rob Cantor

Rob Cantor

Current member of Tally Hall
Date of Birth:	August 26, 1983
Hometown:	Bloomfield, MI
Current resident of:	Los Angeles, CA
Other Names:	Bobby, Bob Jacobs, Robert

Robert Howard Cantor, better known as Rob Cantor, is an American musical artist and member of the Michigan band Tally Hall.

Biography

Rob Cantor started learning guitar at age 12 from his dad. Rob had tried learning the piano at age 5 but gave up a year later. Sometime before or after this, Rob was inspired to sing after finding out one of his sisters was in a musical.^[1] He also played French horn and cornet in middle school and joined choir in high school.^[2]

The first band Rob was ever in was called Source. While attending Andover High School, he formed a band called listedBlack with current Tally Hall band mate Zubin Sedghi and friend Zach Krasman. He went on to study Cell and Molecular Biology the University of Michigan;^[3] where he met bandmate Joe Hawley.

In 2001 during his time at the University of Michigan, Rob would perform acoustic sets at The Ark to test some songs he had written in the same year. He claimed it was "a great way for me to get a new reaction to my music and to perform in front of a different crowd."^[4] Rob would also perform with fellow University of Michigan attendee Dan Patrevito.

In fall 2002, Rob joined Joe's comedy troupe AnonyMous and played a role in his senior thesis film: The Other Way.

On the 2006 website, Rob's bio read thusly:

rob is the one in the yellow tie. he hails from the rough-n-tumble streets of suburban detroit, where people constantly get into "beat it"-style knife-fights. he went to high school with zubin. after graduation, rob moved to ann arbor to begin studying for the mcats. meanwhile, an elusive, echoey voice constantly urged him to form a band. he did.
when not tally halling, rob studies molecular and cellular biology. his favorite dvd, at the moment, is "sports night: the complete series." a must see. rob's songs are specially designed for romantic comedies starring hugh grant.
here are some other things about rob:
a large baby, rob broke his mom's coccyx during labor.

rob is an eagle scout.

rob is english for "to steal"

rob wonders, "did biblical characters ever make small talk?"**

rob was reading zubin's bio. he noticed that zubin's favorite stage of mitosis is telophase. rob thinks zubin likes telophase because this is when the cleavage furrow develops, and zubin's one-track mind is amused by the word cleavage.

rob likes kurt vonnegut and barack obama.

npr is the greatest, says rob.

rob owns but has never read the following books:
the federalist papers

the tao of pooh

the social transformation of american medicine (a pulitzer prize winner!)

number nine. number nine. number nine. number nine? number nine.

rob loves you.

rob is puzzled by the word biweekly. it means both twice a week and once every two weeks.
** this insight is courtesy of ben rosenblatt.^[5]

During Tally Hall's hiatus, Rob opened his website robcantor.com, along with a SoundCloud with multiple new songs. Some of these included Cuckoo, Country Good, and Christian Bale Is At Your Party. One of these was Shia LaBeouf, which was uploaded to Soundcloud on the 3rd of March 2012,^[6].

This song soon became a viral hit and would gain recognition from actor Rob Lowe^[7] and eventually Shia LaBeouf himself^[8]. The track also went to the front page of the group blog Boing Boing^[9], which would help the track reach half a million streams on SoundCloud.^[10]

In 2013, Rob wrote some audio cues for television shows with composer David Benjamin Steinberg. These were for shows like Island Hunters, Friends To Lovers, and Life with La Toya.^[11]

2014 would see the announcement of Not A Trampoline, Rob's first solo album, which the members of Rob's Street Team would help to promote. The album was put up for preorder along with two tracks, Old Bike and Ghost. The music video for Old Bike was directed by Andrew Laurich and was uploaded to YouTube on March 4th 2014.^[12] The album would be fully released on April 14th, 2014.

2014 also saw the recording and release of an extended live version of Shia LaBeouf, which too, became a viral hit. The music video for this version features the titular star at the end, clapping for their performance. The video would go on to accumulate 78 million views and Rainn Wilson of The Office fame would tweet out the video on Twitter^[13]. The part with Shia clapping would become a popular GIF on the internet as well.

Another internet hit of Rob's would be Perfect, a video showing Rob and Andrew performing the song with Rob doing 20 celebrity impressions.^[14] This, however, was a farce, In truth, Rob hired multiple professional celebrity impersonators to do the impressions for him, lip-syncing to their recorded tracks with some clever editing after-the-fact.^[15]

On the 14th of June 2019, Rob announced that he had spent the last year writing music and lyrics for Disney Junior's show "T.O.T.S." (Tiny Ones Transport Service), a show aimed at kids 2-7 years old. Rob says: "“I want the music to be accessible for kids, but also something that parents will really enjoy listening to as much as their kids.”^[16]^[17]

In June 2019, Andrew Horowitz revealed on his Instagram page that "Every year-ish Rob sends out royalty payments with a letter attached. they are always...pertinent and...truthful." in the most recent letter it is addressed from Art Bronco Inc in the style of a bulletin. It reads:

Dear employee:
CONGRATULATIONS!
We are proud to announce that the SEC approved our merger. As of June 12, 2019, Art Bronco Inc has officially been acquired by Sheng-Tsu Holdings. After a long and challenging negotiation, we feel this is the absolute best decision for the company.
Everyone will receive immediate raises. In light of recent sales trends, we can increase salaries across the board by 20%. Sheng-Tsu has offered to construct a new state-of-the-art gym facility on campus. Vacation time has doubled, and pets are now welcome at the office.
We fought hard for our team because we love you guys, in fact, we only have make a single layoff!
Unfortunately, if you are receiving this letter, the layoff is you.
Good luck out there,
Rob cantor and everyone here are Sheng-Tsu Holdings^[18]

On September 28th, 2021, Rob announced that he had been working on music for Disney Channel animated series "The Ghost and Molly McGee," which has an original song by him in every episode.^[19] Rob also announced on July 8th 2022 he wrote and sang a theme song for an upcoming Disney show, Chibiverse.^[20]

As of now, Rob has been writing and recording songs with Disney, sometimes in collaboration with his fellow Tally Hall bandmate Andrew Horowitz.

Personal Life

Rob currently lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Allison Cantor née Kurtzer and their two children, Milo and Leni.

Trivia

Rob's father is a gynecologist.
Rob won a Webby award for Shia LaBeouf Live.
In 2006, Rob recommended Weezer's self-titled debut album, XO by Elliott Smith, The Milk-Eyed Mender by Joanna Newsom, OK Go's self-titled album, and Odessey and Oracle by the Zombies for Amazon.com. His reason for choosing these albums was "They're five wonderful albums."
In the earliest days of Tally Hall's touring, Rob would pose as Bob Jacobs, the band's booking agent.
Rob is Josh Epstein of JR JR's cousin.
Rob is Jewish.
A 2005 sold-out show at The Blind Pig was "one of the most enjoyable nights of [his] life".^[21]
Rob used to act in high school, specifically in plays.^[21]
Rob plays the Narrator in the Henry Hume sketch.
Rob's favorite song from Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum is The Whole World And You.^[22]

Songs

The following is an alphabetical compilation of the Tally Hall songs (and non-Tally Hall songs) Rob Cantor has written or helped to write:

Solo Discography

Not A Trampoline

LPs

Not A Trampoline (2014)
Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes Vol. 1 (2017)
Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes Vol. 2 (2018)
Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes Vol. 3 (2018)
Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes Vol. 4 (2018)
Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes Vol. 5 (2019)
Disney Junior Music: Lullabies Vol. 1 (2019)
Disney Junior Music: Lullabies Vol. 2 (2019)

EPs

Disney Junior Music Holiday Classics (2018)
Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 1) (2017)
Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 2) (2019)
Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 3) (2020)
Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 4) (2020)
Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 5) (2021)
Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 6) (2021)
Disney Junior Music Ready for Preschool (Vol. 7) (2021)
Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 8) (2021)
Music from The Ghost and Molly McGee (2022)

Singles

Links

References

[1] The Carpeted Wall chatlog with Tally Hall. 2005.

[LMIRA05-2] Living Music interview with Rob and Andrew, circa 2005.

[facebook-3] Rob Cantor's Personal Facebook Page.

[4] ttps://digital.bentley.umich.edu/midaily/mdp.39015071755065/923

[5] Rob's Bio from the 2006 Tally Hall webpage. Content archived at http://stl.dreamerstoday.com/DoubleOOP/rob.html

[6] Shia LaBeouf. 2012. Rob Cantor. Soundcloud.com

[7] Rob Lowe tweet

[8] Shia Labeouf tweet

[9] A song about Shia LaBeouf: mass murdering, cannibalistic superstar by Dean Putney. BoingBoing

[10] HITSdotcom Tumblr post about Shia LaBeouf

[11] ASCAP songwriters database page for Rob Cantor. Accessed February 22nd, 2022.

[12] OLD BIKE - Rob Cantor. YouTube.

[13] Rainn Wilson tweet

[14] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6PxMRUgmbA 29 Celebrity Impressions, 1 Original Song - Rob Cantor. YouTube.

[15] The Making of "29 Celebrity Impressions, 1 Original Song". YouTube.

[16] T.O.T.S. announcement. Rob Cantor's Instagram page. 14th June 2019.

[17] 'Hip Tunes for Toons: Top Composers on Creating Eclectic Soundtracks'. Mallory, Michael. 2019. animationmagazine.net.

[18] Andrew Horowitz. Royalty Payments letter. Instagram.

[19] The Ghost and Molly McGee Announcement. Rob Cantor's Twitter page. 28th September 2021

[20] Rob Cantor tweet about Chibiverse.

[RC2015ADI-21] 21.0 ^21.1 ArtDependance interview with Rob Cantor, 2015

[COLTH2008-22] Collegian Interview. April 2008.

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