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
Pre-Tally Hall
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 bandmate Zubin Sedghi and friend Zach Krasman. He went on to study Cell and Molecular Biology at 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 Joe's senior thesis film: The Other Way.
Tally Hall
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]
Post Hiatus
During Tally Hall's hiatus, in 2012 Rob opened his website robcantor.com[6] (Now defunct). About this time he also made a SoundCloud account and uploaded 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,[7].
This song soon became a viral hit and would gain recognition from actor Rob Lowe[8] and eventually Shia LaBeouf himself[9]. The track also went to the front page of the group blog Boing Boing[10], which would help the track reach half a million streams on SoundCloud.[11]
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.[12]
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.[13] 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 82 million views, and Rainn Wilson of The Office fame would tweet out the video on Twitter[14]. 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.[15] 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.[16]
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 喀什地區 Holdings[17]
Work With Disney
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.”[18][19]
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.[20][21] Rob also announced on July 8th 2022 he wrote and sang a theme song for an upcoming Disney show, Chibiverse.[22]
Rob has been writing and recording songs with Disney, sometimes in collaboration with his fellow Tally Hall bandmate Andrew Horowitz[citation needed] as well as musician Genevieve Goings.
On 14 June 2023 the soundtrack for Pupstruction was released, which had songs written and produced by Cantor.[23]
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." [24]
- 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 second cousin once removed. [25]
- Rob is Jewish.
- A 2005 sold-out show at The Blind Pig was "one of the most enjoyable nights of [his] life".[26]
- Rob used to act in high school, specifically in plays.[26]
- 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.[27]
Songs
The following is an alphabetical compilation of songs Rob Cantor has written, or helped to write:
Solo Discography
LPs
- Not A Trampoline (2014)
- Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes Vol. 1 (2017)[28]
- Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes Vol. 2 (2018)[29]
- Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes Vol. 3 (2018)[30]
- Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes Vol. 4 (2018) [31]
- Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes Vol. 5 (2019) [32]
- Disney Junior Music: Lullabies Vol. 1 (2019)[33]
- Disney Junior Music: Lullabies Vol. 2 (2019)[34]
EPs
- Disney Junior Music Holiday Classics (2018)[35]
- Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 1) (2017)[36]
- Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 2) (2019)[37]
- Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 3) (2020)[38]
- Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 4) (2020)[39]
- Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 5) (2021)[40]
- Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 6) (2021)[41]
- Disney Junior Music: Ready for Preschool (Vol. 7) (2021)[42]
- Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool (Vol. 8) (2021)[43]
- Music from The Ghost and Molly McGee (2022)
Singles
- Shia Labeouf (2012)
- Christian Bale Is At Your Party (2012)
- Old Bike
- Shia LaBeouf Live (2014)
- Welcome to the Chibiverse (2023)[44]
Links
References
- ↑ The Carpeted Wall chatlog with Tally Hall. Coz Baldwin et al. 2005. Archived Via Google Docs.
- ↑ Living Music interview with Rob and Andrew, circa 2005. Circa 2005. Archived Via The Wayback Machine. Archive.org.
- ↑ Rob Cantor's Personal Facebook Page. Facebook.
- ↑ https://digital.bentley.umich.edu/midaily/mdp.39015071755065/923
- ↑ Rob's Bio from the 2006 Tally Hall webpage. Content archived at http://stl.dreamerstoday.com/DoubleOOP/rob.html
- ↑ robcantor.com Circa 2012 April 23rd, 2012. Archived Via The Wayback Machine. Archive.org.
- ↑ Shia LaBeouf on Soundcloud Shia LaBeouf. 3rd March 2012. Rob Cantor. Soundcloud.com
- ↑ Rob Lowe tweet twitter.
- ↑ Shia Labeouf tweet twitter.
- ↑ A song about Shia LaBeouf: mass murdering, cannibalistic superstar by Dean Putney. BoingBoing boingboing.
- ↑ HITSdotcom Tumblr post about Shia LaBeouf Tumblr.
- ↑ ASCAP songwriters database page for Rob Cantor. Accessed February 22nd, 2022. ASCAP.
- ↑ OLD BIKE - Rob Cantor. YouTube.
- ↑ Rainn Wilson tweet Twitter.
- ↑ 29 Celebrity Impressions, 1 Original Song - Rob Cantor. YouTube.
- ↑ The Making of "29 Celebrity Impressions, 1 Original Song". YouTube.
- ↑ Royalty Payments letter [Instagram Post. Andrew Horowitz. 19th June, 2019. Instagram.
- ↑ T.O.T.S. announcement. [Instagram Post. Rob Cantor. Instagram. 14th June 2019.
- ↑ 'Hip Tunes for Toons: Top Composers on Creating Eclectic Soundtracks'. Mallory, Michael. 2019. animationmagazine.net.
- ↑ The Ghost and Molly McGee Announcement. Rob Cantor's Twitter page. 28th September 2021. Twitter.
- ↑ Music from The Ghost and Molly McGee October 1, 2021. Album. Disney.
- ↑ Rob Cantor tweet about Chibiverse. Twitter.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Pupstruction June 14, 2023. Disney Junior. Disney. Walt Disney Records. Album. Spotify.
- ↑ Tally Hall's Picks @ Amazon.com (Archived) Via The Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Ross of Tally Hall & Josh of JR JR on Tree Town Sound YouTube.
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 ArtDependance interview with Rob Cantor, 2015
- ↑ Collegian Interview April 2008. Archived by Hitsdotcom on Tumblr.com. Retrieved 30th April 2024.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music Nursery Rhymes, Vol. 1 22nd September 2017. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes Vol. 2 - EP 13th July 2018. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes, Vol. 3 - EP 10th August 2018. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes, Vol. 4 - EP. 21th September 2018. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes, Vol. 5 - EP 25th January 2019. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Lullabies, Vol. 1 26th July 2019. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music Lullabies, Vol. 2 2019. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Holiday Classics - EP 2018. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Ready for Preschool, Vol. 1 - EP. 18th October 2019. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Ready for Preschool, Vol.2 6th December 2019. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool, Vol. 3 17th January 2020. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Ready for Preschool Vol.4 - EP. 28th February, 2020. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool Vol. 5 on Apple Music 5th February 2021. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Ready for Preschool, Vol.6 - EP. on Apple Music. 16th April 2021. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Ready for Preschool, Vol. 7 on Apple Music. 28th May 2021. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Disney Junior Music: Ready For Preschool, Vol. 8 on Apple Music. 30th July 2021. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.
- ↑ Welcome to the Chibiverse on Apple Music 22nd September 2023. Walt Disney Records. Apple Music.